When Thomas Rotthowe, MBA ’93, DBA, walks into his local
Starbucks in Munich, Germany, he sees more than a coffee shop—he
sees a retail environment tailored to underlying processes in
the customer’s brain. An expert in neuromarketing, a new field
that focuses on consumers’ brain patterns during purchase
decisions, Rotthowe’s work represents an innovative approach to
marketing and heralds a shift in the way manufacturers,
retailers, and marketers do business. The science behind
neuromarketing, only a decade old, contradicts previous
assumptions. “The old thinking in consumer brain research
asserted that we make our decisions rationally,” Rotthowe
explained. “Emotion was thought to be the opposite of
rationality, and something that interfered with rational
decision making.” But when researchers at Gruppe Nymphenburg,
the brand and retail consulting firm Rotthowe co-owns and serves
as a managing partner, used MRIs to create brain scans of
consumers during the decision-making process, the results told a
different