THE EFFECT OF NEURO-MARKETING STRATEGY ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: A STUDY OF MTN NIGERIA LTD.

Abstract

This study examines how neuro-marketing strategies affect consumer behavior, focusing on MTN  Nigeria Ltd. As traditional marketing methods are becoming less effective in gaining consumer attention, many companies now use neuro-marketing an approach that combines science, psychology, and marketing to influence people’s choices through emotions, sound, and visuals.
Although neuro-marketing is widely used in many parts of the world, there is little research on how effective it is in Nigeria, where people often care more about service quality than emotional advertising. The study used a structured questionnaire with 20 questions divided into four key areas: emotional engagement and buying decisions, sound and brand recall, visual branding and trust, and
overall consumer evaluation. Data were collected from 100 MTN subscribers and analyzed using statistics, reliability checks, and regression analysis. The findings revealed that emotional Engagement: Shows a negative but statistically non-significant effect (β = -0.159, p = 0.147), Audio Stimuli: has a small positive effect, but also not significant (p = 0.449) and Visual Branding also negative and non-significant (p = 0.327). Hence, the results showed that while many respondents recognized MTN's use of emotional and sensory marketing techniques, these strategies did not have a significant effect on their behavior. The analysis revealed that neuro-marketing only explained about 4.1% of changes in consumer behavior, suggesting that other factors may be more important. Emotional, audio, and visual marketing all showed weak influence on consumer decisions. The study concluded that although neuro-marketing may help people remember a brand, it has limited power to influence actual consumer behavior in Nigeria. The studies recommends that MTN Nigeria  combine Neuro-marketing with practical benefits, like good service and competitive pricing, and use more personal and trust-building messages. It also suggests that further research should look into other factors that shape consumer behavior in developing countries.