Facial Coding as a Neuromarketing Technique: An Overview

Abstract

The author’s interest for the subject of facial coding and micro expression analysis within the neuromarketing field lies into the advantages this tool has in applied neuromarketing research for identifying and understanding customer behaviour. Facial Coding remains the only inexpensive tool that provides real-time and accurate data due to micro expressions’ characteristics – which are spontaneous and, therefore, uncontrollable. The aim of the current article is to provide an overview regarding the facial coding tool which is, along with biometrics, a less explored technique with application within the neuromarketing field. The process and some of the challenges imposed by the automatic micro-expression analysis were approached, together with an overview of facial coding applied within neuromarketing research. The findings of the current paper suggest that, particularizing on facial coding, there is an imperious requirement for researchers to develop a more reliable and standardized research frame for micro expression collection, evaluation and analysis.

Keywords

• neuromarketing
• facial coding
• facial expression
• micro expression
• consumer behavior