BIOMARKETING: THE NEW MARKETING STRATEGY

BIOMARKETING: HUMAN BODY AS MARKETING ENGINE

Vivek Agrawal

ABSTRACT

Marketers have long tried to understand the consumer behaviour through various physical and emotional attributes. It moved from a basic gender & age to Neuromarketing. This paper studies the impact of biological diversification for a marketer. A human body can be treated as unique marketing powerhouse with each part (Internal, External & Sensory) acting in cohort with each other. This research uniquely looks at the impact of other body organs & chemicals on consumer behaviour. One of the major contributor to customer emotions & reaction is Endocrine response system which has been discussed in detail in this article through impact on decision making for following hormones: Adrenaline, Cortisol, Dopamine, Melatonin, Oxytocin & Serotonin.The cognitive decision making is also affected by respiratory & breathing pattern as well as food habits which has been discussed in this article.

Through the theory deduction based on multi disciplinary research, the author suggest that Biomarketing is the future, wherein every part of the body act as a marketing engine, impacting or manipulating consumer behaviour. The study proposes a triangular system of thinking with Emotion as the third pillar with interdependent relationships with Cognitive & reflex actions.

Keywords:. Consumer Behaviour, Decision making, Biomarketing, Emotions, Reflex, Cognitive

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION

By eliciting insights from recent biological developments and Neuromarketing concepts, this research expands the scope of purchase behaviour response from being limited to the brain (SNS & PSNS) to getting impacted by hormones & nervous system present in other parts of the body. This paper uniquely focuses on consumer behaviour and emotional response due to external stimuli on body systems, hormones, & organs outside of the brain; thus theorizing human body as a Biomarketing engine.

Introduction

Since long, marketers are looking for the holy grail of customer behaviour understanding. Why customers behave so differently even when exposed to similar environment and provided with same choices. Billions of dollars are spent every day to gauge the correct customer behaviour. The consumer behaviour understanding in done basis segmentation, first proposed by Smith (1956) & Yankelovich in 1964, and more recently with predictive analytics & Neuromarketing. While Neuromarketing is the first step towards understanding the intrinsic response of human body for decision making, there is little research done to gauge the impact of other internal & external body organs & chemicals. This research works to fill the gap by development of a full body impact analysis on consumer behaviour using secondary research done across multiple disciplines and creating analogies and inference for a marketer.

Research Methodology

This research uses theory synthesis (Jaakkola, 2020) to review, summarize & integrate understandings from exiting Neuromarketing and Hormone’s impact on emotions, stress & decision making. The research also uses theory adaption (Jaakkola, 2020) to present several biological & psychological theories from a marketing perspective.

Segmentation

Following are the current understanding of consumer segmentation methods: (Mihova & Pavlov, 2018)

• Demographic: Age, Gender, Income
• Geographic: Location, City, State, Country
• Behavioral: Benefits sought, usage, loyalty
• Psychographic: Activities, Interest, Opinions
• Generational: Generation X,Y,Z, Alpha
• Firmographic: Company, segment, no of employees, size of firm
• Perception/ Relationship: Brand perception, relationship and service rendered by the brand
• Persona: Creating segmentation based on attitude & behavioral traits
• Need / Value Segmentation: Perceived value of product, Need of the customers
• Technographic: People specializing in technology, internet behaviour etc
• Hybrid segmentation: Mixed segmentation of two or more segmentation technique
• Predictive segmentation

While other segmentation techniques have been there for some time, the predictive analytics and Big data has opened up a new era of customer behaviour understanding. Marketers are today analyzing behaviours and patterns of millions of customers and predicting similar performing segmentation which have been able to help solve the issue to some extent. The challenge remains to accommodate the unpredictability of customer who are otherwise expected to behave in a specific way. Data Scientists and marketers are toiling hard and burning midnight oil to get deeper into this. One of the recent development is advent of Neuromarketing as a consumer behaviour identification tool.

Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing, as the name suggest is combination of Neuro (or Nervous system; mostly associated with Cerebral) & its impact on Marketing. This is the first true step towards recognition of intrinsic human body for understanding behaviour. Neuromarketing encompasses several interdisciplinary fields like Neurology, Psychology, Economics, Marketing & Sociology to understand the brain activity and use natural or implanted Neural signals to influence consumer behaviour. Neuromarketing make use of stimuli like Color, Audio-visuals, Anchoring, Velocity, odour, smell, taste among others. In Neuromarketing, the customers are either exposed to the environment with specific stimuli or put to test with sophisticated devices like fMRI to read the customer’s response.Neuromarketing has been a landmark field development not only because of its’ interdisciplinary nature but also because for the first time, marketers are looking inside the body to understand the response. Our body is made of trillions of neurons (Only human brain has 86 Billion+ neurons) and any action received by any part of the body is sent to brain for a reaction to it. A reaction to a question being asked, or something being seen, or any immediate response requirement; everything is being take care by the electromagnetic pulse being transferred to brain. These electro magnetic pulse is transferred from one Neuron to another with the help of Neurotransmitters (a specific chemical). There are two different type of responses possible as per the current studies: System 1 & System 2 responses (2) as conceptualized by Kahneman’s (2011). System 1 response works on Sympathetic Nervous system which is akin to Fight or Flight response. Herein, in general, in case of dangerous and stressful situations, the body involuntary nervous system gets active leading to higher oxygen in brain & legs, additional flow of glucose to body cells for quick energy booster. As the name suggest, these are reactive responses without a conscious decision. All regular response are generally Parasympathetic Nervous system wherein a much deliberated and cognitive response is provided. An impulse purchase or running after seeing a lion are examples of SNS.Almost 95% of all bodily responses are automated or reactive. From a marketer’s point of view, both SNS & PSNS are important as many would want you to take impulsive immediate decision while others would want you to weigh in the pros and cons and come to a cognitive decision.

As per recent HBR article, there are multiple Neuromarketing tools in play (some of which are borderline ethical) (Harrell, 2021)

• Marketers are broadly using various tools like fMRI, EEG, MEG, ET, Biomatrics, Facial coding for Neuroforecasting I.e. predicting the non verbal and latent requirements/ expectations for a consumer
• Better segmentation: Neuromarketing helps in much better understanding of customer’s expected response to an advertisement / product. Different brain types have been found to exhibit different reactions
• Sleep Nudging: Using Audio / Smell during different stages of sleep have been found to provide a behaviour modulating effect among target audience
• Anchoring: Placing an anchor in the beginning of the product purchase cycle to guide the customer accordingly
• Color: Color is extensively used in marketing for various neuro signals and corresponding modulation in buying behaviour
• Neuromodulators & Neurotransmitters: Brain hormones and chemicals plays a key role in Neural messaging for a consumer. We shall be examining these in details during our discussion on endocrine response.

While lot of stress has been given on the Neural responses, the marketing fraternity has missed to justify the importance of other intrinsic body responses which this paper is trying to correct.

• Endocrine Responses
• Respiratory & Breathing
• Digestive Responses
• Senses and Multi Sensory Response
• Circulatory System
• Physical Body Response

Endocrine stimuli & response to consumer behaviour

Hormones have been the most mysterious of all chemicals which has been little researched for it’s impact on consumer behaviour from a marketers perspective. Hormones plays the key role in defining your mood, emotions, stress, love and what not!! Hormones are chemicals secreted by endocrine glands which acts as chemical messenger between specific organs under specific conditions which impact the intrinsic and extrinsic behaviour of the body. In fact, Neurotransmitters are also a specific type of hormones which helps in movement of impulses from one neuron to another. While Nervous system is path driven and any stimuli can move from specific places to brain and vice versa, the hormones are free to move to & fro from every cell of the body. This gives hormonal responses much more versatility and larger playground to impact reactions. Hormones & Neurotransmitters are responsible for all responses to stimuli and the feelings associated with them.

Hormones are responsible for physical development, mood, behavioural changes, sexuality, attraction, metabolism, psychological state, growth, regulating body temperature among others. One can consider hormones like a smart contract wherein a specific message is carried to receptors (cells in specific organs) who will receive the stimuli or activity and execute specific functions on reception. Hormones were first identified in 1902 by Startling & Baylish who discovered Secretin. Startling recommended in 1904 to terms such chemicals as hormones. The growth in endocrinal research happened after Banting discovered the Insulin in 1921. BUTNARIU et al (2019).

Let’s look at the hormones and it’s impact on the behaviour response for a consumer:

Adrenalin

Adrenalin is the hormones which gets secreted in times of extra energy demand from the body, Increased stress level, perceived fear or enhanced enthusiasm. It is an automatic reaction to protect the body from something harmful. This helps in creating a fight or flight response, increasing your state of emotions, enhanced mental concentration, distraction from concurrent pain, and increasing state of anxiety or exuberance (Brennan, 2021).

During Fight & flight response, large amount of Adrenalin is secreted for a short period of time which acts as neurotransmitters in association with Dopamine to send messages to Adrenal cortex thus pushing the Automatic nervous system to take over. For a marketer, this is very important as most purchase decisions are taken in split of seconds and any purchase decision sent to prefrontal cortex for cognitive decision is most likely to delay it. All purchases for a customer helps in giving additional adrenaline rush akin to that of a high even for customers not facing the compulsive purchase disorder (Dizik, 2016). There is another study by McKinney (n.d.) which suggest that there is a positive correlation between Adrenaline and attraction.

Marketers can use the natural / induced adrenalin rush to understand or impact consumer behaviour:

• For an increased impulse purchase, marketers can create environment for adrenaline secretion like architectural walkways, adrenalin inducing posters, attractive modeling etc. An example of current activity includes putting chest pumping men & women posters in Gym or the gorgeous lady taking a bath with a lux soap or a travel site displaying paragliding, scuba diving for creating an adrenaline rush.
• An increased physical activity higher adrenaline secretion leading to higher impulse purchase. A corroboration of the fact is from the impulse picking of random items while waiting for the billing after lot of walk in the retail stores
• Another example is using temporary adrenalin rush to aid / incite purchases: PC / XBOX/PS are multi billion dollar industry and while the games itself cost a lot, a lot of revenue is being generated through in game purchases. One of the factors contributing to this is high adrenaline or Oxytocin secretion during the play leading to an increased propensity to purchase.
• Use of Advertising in moderately higher adrenaline inducing cases like a Football / NBA match or a surrogate advert in an intense movie scene. Most advertisers want to place their Ads in sports which is a great strategy. This can be further beneficial if the advertisement is placed during a high intensity event of the game. A moderately high adrenaline rush leads to enhanced retention and mind share; higher adrenaline rush brings in the ANS in the play leading to average to low detail capturing
• Adrenaline rush is the reason Industries like Betting are so successful as they heavily bank on the high provided during the journey for customers to come back. A similar story can be attributed for Gambling, sports, Share markets and many other such industries. While there are multiple other factors in play, adrenaline rush gives that temporary high for which the consumer returns back even after that unmissable sense of guilt.

More details on this is required to be researched to further establish this derived theory. One of the ways to do so would be test the purchase propensity of fitness enthusiast who might have just come out of gym after workout.

Cortisol

Cortisol is another hormone which is releases under stress and anxiety. A higher cortisol level generally signifies stress or energy release with increase mental alertness. The cortisol is highest during the Morning and least during early afternoon & Night. So Marketers can use this info to target consumers with products which require more deliberation and cognitive decisions during Morning / Evening and products which needs to be pushed through impulse purchases or less deliberation should be pitched during afternoon or at night (if permitted). One of the use cases is that of low value Credit Card telesales which is highest when pitched during the afternoon time. High value purchases and strategic purchases should be discussed during morning or evening slots to make it more effective for the marketers (Roorda, 2013).

Dopamine

The feel good hormone is one of the most important one for the marketers. This is the hormones which helps a person feel positive and happy. There is an intense feel of pleasure experienced when dopamine is secreted by the body leading to many marketers calling it a dopamine effect. The Dopamine is triggered when you experienced an increased sense of satisfaction such as eating your most liked food, meeting your close friends or having a good time (Plexure, 2021).

A similar reaction is triggered with the shopping experience and an increased dopamine will lead to consumer having a more confident purchase propensity. While most marketers related Dopamine as a pure neurotransmitter, it is synthesized across multiple organs outside of brain too (Drojak & Bryla, 2005).

Dopamine can be the marketers best friend and there are many ways a marketer can make use of it:

Dopamine secretion can be slightly modulated with the help of multiple external stimuli, food and exercises. While most of these factors are difficult to implement at the store / digital media, there are few which can be done

• Playing Music: Playing good music helps in secretion of Dopamine and this s a tool which should be used extensively in retail stores as part of retail therapy for enhancing the Dopamine levels leading to higher buying propensity. This can also be implemented in digital media & Metaverse
• Caffeine & Chocolates are known to increase the secretion of Dopamine and it’s a good idea to keep some chocolates for clients to have a positive state of mind
• Sunlight: A well naturally lit place will result in higher Dopamine secretion resulting in possibility of closures
• Velvet Beans: During long meeting, keeping velvet beans for the clients might result in positive decision making as they are known to work very fast for secretion of Dopamine without much side effects
• Create Gamification : Gamification with good opportunity for point scoring & discounting is another tools for creating the pleasure for Dopamine to come in play (Odekerken, 2020b)
• Create Prizes for your consumer to involve and reward them. Winning a prize is a sure shot way for releasing dopamine(Odekerken, 2020b)
• FOMO(Fear of missing out): Everyone wants to know the important this before the world does and Instagram or Linkedin pings are a great examples when you are glued to your mobile for hours. Dopamine makes people curious about news (Odekerken, 2020b)

Dopamine is very important for the marketers because of the timing it is secreted. Dopamine secretion starts right before the purchase decision in anticipation of the reward (product) he is going to buy. For Digital purchases, as the reward is not received immediately, the Dopamine is release in more as anticipation for the reward is higher. Dopamine secretion is higher if the unpredictability is more especially in case of a 50% possibility of getting the reward. Online trading, games, wheel of fortunes are just few of the examples of rewards with unpredictability (Weinschenk Ph.D., 2015).

Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone which is secreted as a response to the darkness and it helps control the body clock of a person. A decreased level of Melatonin results in apathy, anxiety, despair, depression among others. People exposed to Neon lights, working in night shifts, staying near polar regions, Age and having certain diseases have reported a drop in Melatonin level. (Hardeland, 2012)

Flyers with Jetlag, BPO employees, and all with lack of sleep are expected to have lower Melatonin levels and more likely to respond less to a direct purchase decision and SNS taking over. These consumers are more likely to go for an impulse purchase with perceived lower value and hence appropriate marketing tools & products should be deployed.(Kishi & Sunagawa, 2011)

Oxytocin

Oxytocin or the ‘Love hormone’ has been the favourite with marketers. Right from availability of millions of sprays on online portals to extensive research on the pros & cons of Oxytocin, this is one of the most famous hormone. Oxytocin is released both inside and outside the brain as Endogenous as well as Central OT (Daruna, 2012).

Oxytocin is primarily associated with calming effect and is mainly responsible for Social recognition, bonding, maternal response, orgasm, reproduction, lactation.Oxytocin are also found to have craving inhibiting ability and helps in injury healing (Magon & Kalra, 2011).

From a marketers perspective, Oxytocin are known to impact impulse purchases and unplanned buying especially by women. A lactating mother is more likely to have large impulsive purchase. (Liu et al., 2013)

With high Oxytocin level, there is a positive brand competence and consumers are more likely to have a good brand relationship. They are also proved to writing good about their favourite brand (Barraza et al., 2021). Oxytocin are also well used in large B2B deals or creating a social bonding over a game of golf, dinners, gifts among others. Customers with high level of Oxytocin are also expected to be less risk averse and more likely to adapt to change. The Oxytocin effect is for larger duration compared to Dopamine and thus Brands/ Salespersons hope to invoke large amount of Oxytocin in prospective buyers.(Brontén, 2019).

While the impact of Oxytocin is well established for benevolent buying behaviour, Marketers are yet to make best use of tools available to enable their clients have a higher Oxytocin level and purchase propensity (Fallis, 2021).

• Visual stimulation: The store selling kids merchandise run a cute baby video with mother taking care of kid will push the release of Oxytocin in females in store. Another example is
• Touch: A physical touch is the fastest way to increase Oxytocin secretion. A salesperson should always try to shake hands to close the deal
• Dark Chocolates: Magnesium in dark chocolates lead to increase receptor performance in Oxytocin secretion. Caffeine & Vitamin C are also good food supplements for Oxytocin release. Keeping some Vitamin C candies at the entrance may do the trick for the retailer
• Facial stimulation: A smile, welcoming gesture helps reduce anxiety and fear thus stimulating Oxytocin release
• Music: Listening & singing music immediately release Oxytocin and this can be deployed across both digital as well as physical stores
• Sunlight: Well ventilated spaces with lot of sunlight (Vitamin D) leads to secretion of Oxytocin

Serotonin:

Serotonin is one of the most important hormone and similar to Dopamine, it helps one in feeling more relaxed & satisfied. This hormone regulate the decision making process by a person and is responsible for cognitive learning & development . Serotonin is high during the morning hours and decrease over the day. A low level of Serotonin leads to a low feeling among the individuals. Serotonin is responsible for one more very important factor, Sense of Trust apart from the fact that levels of this hormones are high in leaders compared to others.Serotonin is released whenever we feel respected, valued and admired. The person admiring will also get a Serotonin boost because of the trust and confidence bestowed. This factor is very important for a marketer as they need to gain the trust of the customer along with the perceived benefit for the sale to get closed.

Few of the ways marketers can help increase Serotonin secretion in customers and thus building trust and lowering perceived risk as per Odekerken (2020a) are:

• Feedback and Testimonials
• Certifications, Reference checks and Badges
• Usage of universal tools like Payment gateways, physical address, personal connect to build trust

A recent study has shown that Serotonin is used for both Emotional decision making and cognitive decision making extending from PFC to Amygdala. Serotonin is also affected by the genes. (Puig Pérez, 2019)

Few of the ways to enhance Serotonin as per Raypole (2019):

• Provide ample sunlight in the store: A naturally well lit store will create more trust for the customer due to social trust on mutual release of Serotonin
• Music: As with other hormones discussed, music will have a profound impact on the personal confidence of the consumer leading to higher propensity to purchase
• Mood Enhancers: Providing good images about the customer, treating him respectfully and warm reception will lead to release of Serotonin. This is especially very useful for hospitality business

While we discussed in detail about the impact of Central and Endogenous hormones on consumer behaviour and also on the impact of Neuromarketing, there are lot of other body parts, systems and activities which leads to different consumer reaction to similar stimuli, product & environment.

Respiratory system impact on consumer behaviour

Impact of breathing & respiratory system of consumer behaviour is one of the less researched field but recent study by Pighin et al. (2019) suggest a definite impact of oxygen flow and respiratory habits on decision making. While the study was more from a biological perspective of stress, Marketers can infer the results that customers with mildly depleted oxygen levels will be more open to risk taking. Another research by West (2016) increased oxygen conditioning improves cognitive decision making. Another research showed that Risk seeking for choices involving losses increased during depleted oxygen level. (3). Another study by Kim et al(2013)suggest increased oxygen concentration leads to improved cognitive decision in elderly. Even Cough, cold and nasal congestion make oxygen concentration lower for a person.

How can a marketer make use of this ?

• With depleted oxygen level, as cognitive decision making reduces, impulse buying is high.Retailers can expect more impulse purchase in crowded stores vis-a-vis empty stores
• For B2B & high value sales, it will make more sense to have meeting at a well ventilated space with adequate oxygen supply
• Taking the team to a beach place vis-a-vis a mountain location for a strategy planning meet will result in more fruitful decision outcomes.
• For Elderly sales, it will make more sense to have well ventilated space for cognitive decision making
• For customers in high altitude, increasing oxygen concentration is a good idea to positively impact high value purchases

Digestive System response to Decision making

Scientist have long batted for Brain — Gut connection and while there was a general consensus earlier than food shopping in empty stomach should be avoided, a study by University of Dundee (2019) identified that any important decision making on an empty stomach should be avoided.As per the study, hunger makes the person impatient and propensity to settle for a lower reward which will come earlier is much higher. The research further noted that people are willing to wait up to 35 days for a double reward normally and when hungry, this comes down to 3 days.

Another major contributor to emotions & reactions is due to ENS (Enteric Nervous System) (John Hopkins Medicine, n.d.), which consist of two thin layers of 100 million nerves lining from esophagus to rectum. ENS is often referred to as Second Brain and at times of extreme nervousness, someone getting a signal from the gut may be attributed to this. While ENS doesn’t control or create thoughts, it has certain sway of emotions which is very interesting from a marketer’s point of view. It continuously interact with CNS for signals. A consumer decision making & behaviour swings rapidly if they are suffering from IBS (Irritable Bowl Syndrome), Colitis, Acid Reflux, among others. Earlier scientist used to think it is only the other way around. 50% of the Dopamine and 90% of the Serotonin lies in gut and as discussed earlier these hormones are responsible for lot of decision making functions like social behaviour, sleep cycle, emotional response, appetite and much more.(McGrath, 2018)

As a marketer, thus it make more sense to also focus on the consumer’s food habit and Gut health for better conversion ratio. A customer with IBS may go through the mood variation with anxiety and depressive cycles. Such customers are more prone to take irrational decisions and cognitive load will get diminished.

Following are the few suggestions for the marketers to implement:

• Keep the retail stores well ventilated, with good music and stress busting colors to bring down the stress levels
• Have something to munch inside the stores. Many large retailers and almost all Malls have food courts which helps in satiating the needs of the consumers. Placing low value, impulse buy products near the entry of food court and products which are high value, & require cognitive decision should be kept near the exit of food court
• Keep water handy for customers. Drinking water will bring down all negative digestive issues and helps improve emotions which should lead to higher conversion

Senses & Multi Sensory Response to stimuli

All five senses; namely, Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch, & Taste plays a key role in all decision making and enough research has been done on them to understand their benefits. While these senses seems to operate independently of each other, in reality, they have a highly complex inter-dependency to perceive the world. The emotions of others are felt through this mutual feedback mechanism. An accurate example of this is McGurk effect wherein two people listening to the same sound will have different emotions based on the videos they are watching (Groeger, 2012). According to IE Insights (2020), Sensory marketing is the newer evolving field which leverages all five senses to influence perceptions, memories, and learning processes, with the aim of manipulating consumer’s motivation, desire and behaviour.

There are three types of Sensory marketing:

• 360* Sensory Marketing: Use of multiple senses in each stage of the marketing
• Sensory Experience
• Sensory Signature & Branding

Circulatory System’s Impact on Behaviour: Thinking from the Heart

Since our childhood, we have been listening this phrase: “Thinking from the Heart”. While till recently, scientist had ignored this aspect, there are many studies which confirms a very strong role of heart in decision making, emotions and thus on behaviour. As per McCraty & his team, who developed the Heart Rhythm Coherent Hypothesis which suggest, “the pattern and stability of beat-to-beat changes in heart rate encodes information over macroscopic time scales that can influence cognitive performance and emotional experience”. As per Surel (2016) who reviewed the theory of Heart Intelligence, the customer receives a stimuli even before the brain does and has it’s own nervous system. There is two way communication between the heart & the brain both for parasympathetic & sympathetic messaging.

Another research by Max Plank Institute (2020) helps identify the reason and correlation between cognitive abilities and heart function.

This has a strong bearing for the marketers. They can create products and experiences to make use of this communication and influence consumer decision making. A differential product marketing as well as innovation which invokes Heart’s intrinsic nervous system to message ANS to act positively will result in higher purchase propensity or brand affinity.

Physical body:

Physical body plays a significant role in consumer behaviour right from Body gesture, Skin, hair, nails, palm, sweat everything plays a crucial role in impacting our emotions, decision making, behaviour & purchase propensity.

Body Gestures:

The implicit emotional response can be understood by marketers in a retail setup through body gesture and response. Specific movements by Torso, Arms, Feet, legs, eyes, hand, fingers, facial expressions are general body gestures widely used to understand the underlying emotions and probable behaviour by a consumer. Prof. Mehrabian 7–38–55 rule explains the importance of Non-verbal gestures in understanding. This is critical in B2B sales with high stake negotiations wherein there could be marked difference in spoken words and intended actions. (Masterclass, 2020)

Hair:

The impact of hair on emotions and decision making can be gauged by this survey done in London on 2000 women. The result indicated that women have emotional swings for half the week due to hair issues. (etheme.com, n.d.).Additionally,hairs can be a great gateway to know the personality and behavioural pattern of a person. For example a black hair indicate a person to be thoughtful while a red hair communicate fun quotient.(Holt, 2020)

Skin & Nails:

Skin is a great indicator of your emotional state and level of stress. A higher stress may lead to increased recovery time from minimal skin injuries, may result in acne and other skin related issues. Similarly,people have this habit of biting their nails in stressed environment, or rubbing their fingers over the thumb nail; this creates a ridge on the nail plate. Brittle, peeling nails are another sign of stress which impacts emotions.(American Academy of Dermatology, 2007)

Additionally there is somatosensory decision making every part of body integral to behavioural dynamics. A sense of touch, pain, warmth or other tactile experiences are the first step towards development of conceptual learning about anything new (Pleger & Villringer, 2013). This becomes extremely important for marketers while bringing in new products and experiences

Blood Group & Genetics:

The Blood Groups (A,B,AB,O) have been found under different studies to impact the emotional stability and cognitive behaviour of human beings (Shaikh, 2020). Another study indicate a higher mental toughness for female students in blood group ’O’ compared to other groups (Dehghani, 2017)

These and many other studies indicate a strong correlation between blood groups and anxiety & emotions.

Additionally, a study by Haworth et al. (2009) indicates that there is a positive correlation between the genetics and cognitive ability of a growing adult and in fact the propensity increases with increase in age. These correlative study indicate a strong relationship in blood group & genetics to emotions which in turn impact consumer behaviour. More study needs to be done to identify specific insights in this field.

Conceptual Theory building:

Cognitive vs Emotion vs Reflex Action

The current theories are heavily inclined to Kahnman (2011) system 1 & System 2 thinking for any decision making. This study proposes a triangular model of thinking which are interrelated to each other and while the decision making is heavily influenced from a specific part of body, the other two vectors also impact the intensity on it.

This study reflects that the System 1 & System 2 thinking gets impacted through emotions which also provide for relatively independent decisions. The study through theory adaption create a theoretical framework for this. While the role of emotions has been promulgated many time before by Jones (2016), DÖNER (2020), this study create a theoretical model in tandem with proposed Biomarketing.

Biomarketing

Through a detailed understanding of various research and their inferences for a marketer, this research has established a firm ground for development of theory of Biomarketing, a proposed branch of marketing which create implementable inferences about consumer behaviour and propensity to purchase through reaction to stimuli on Physiological, Emotional, Neurological, Endocrinological, Digestive, Respiratory, Circulatory and other systems.

The study also proposes a triangular thinking model & corresponding decision making vis-a-vis current System 1 & System 2 approach which take cognizance of impact of hormones & corresponding emotions as well as physiological & genetic factors.t Each part of body reacts to consumer stimuli in a different way which is a combination of current reflex (system 1), Cognitive (System 2) and Emotions (Proposed 3rd leg of triangle). The emotion is impacted by physiological factors, hormones secreted across the body (and not only brain) and the ENS, in addition to interdependent relationship with reflex & cognitive thinking.

Conclusions

As can be seen by the above research, almost all body parts impact the consumer behaviour in one way or another. It is far more pertinent to consider human body a big Biological marketing engine driving and manipulating behaviour through extrinsic and intrinsic activities. While we have started exploring the first layer of our body as a marketing engine, lot of research is required in each of the discussed area to convert many of the proposed theories to empirical actions. Still, it is not excess to say that age of Biomarketing has come.

Future Research

This research suggest for a framework on impact of emotions on ENS & Hormonal impact on behaviour. The deeper impact of many other hormones on behaviour changes are yet to be known as is a subject of future research. There is also an opportunity to research the impact of heart’s internal nervous system on emotions, stress and behaviour. The study has limited information on impact of genetics & blood group on consumer behaviour which should be explored further.

Study Limitations

This study has been done to create a conceptual theory synthesis & adaption using existing research, information, knowledge available across multiple journals, domains, reports, and websites. While the information has been captured from reliable sources only, the veracity of the information & corroborated inferences are limited to the correctness of the source.

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