Firstly, thanks for all your comments, I find them encouraging, constructive and inspiring. Secondly, Yann has raised another question. Questions are wonderful things and, yet again, Yann has raised something that causes me to think about the subject of consumer behaviour (which I love to do) and given me a direction for this edition of my blog. Yann asked whether our unconscious associations of brands are more influenced by broader environmental factors than advertising; things like what we hear (reputation). Of course, there isn’t a single, clear-cut answer to this. It is certainly the case that, were someone to hear an involving account (story) from a friend (social proof / trusted source / someone like me) this would trump an advertising message. In this case, the powerful associations primed by the friend’s account work very similarly to negative personal experience: as soon as the brand name appears (be it at the […]
The Psychology of Investment Decisions: Follow Up
I’d like to pick up on a long reply to yesterday’s post because I hope I can be more constructive than I was able to be yesterday. Here’s is Pam’s reply to yesterday’s post: It’s interesting to read how the rational and unconscious minds often pull us in opposite directions. Your point is well taken that people often think they want A but actually choose B because it fulfills an unconscious need, want or desire. It is good to bear this in mind. If you are looking to invest your money though, at some point – unless you choose to navigate the investment world yourself – you will likely be forced to make a choice between various options and advisers available to you. In essence, you are trusting your future to advice of someone and their investing philosophy and strategy. The question then becomes in whom do you trust and […]
The Edge of Reason: The Psychology of Investment Decisions
Perhaps some of the most interesting blog debate I’ve read recently has been on Rod’s Personal Investment Strategies blog. It’s been a while since I did any consumer behaviour research with financial institutions, but in many ways my journey into consumer behaviour and away from traditional consumer research began during a consumer focus group about pension choice, back in the 1990s. It was the fourth long and tedious group discussion with people who were considering investing in a pension scheme, during which they told me how they wanted independent advice, a range of funds and a provider with good financial security. At the end, after everyone was getting up to go, one of the group asked another, who had been a little more vociferous than the rest, where he was planning to get his pension. The reply led to several of the group soliciting the details of someone who I […]
When a Consumer Behaviour Expert Says “No”
I enjoy watching myself as a consumer, in that slightly schizophrenic way that I encourage everyone interested in understanding customers better to do. If you have the right framework you can learn a lot about the way in which other people make decisions by watching how you make a decision – after all, you’re a person aren’t you? The challenge is always to split out that part of you that consciously post-rationalises what you do in a totally bogus way. If you can learn to tell yourself that, deep down, you’re smart, sexy, clever and incredibly good at parking a car, you can put your ego to one side for a few minutes and observe what you’re doing as a consumer. You’ll have a reasonable idea that you’re on the right track when you spot yourself doing things that are impulsive, irrational, poorly judged and altogether a bit dumb. Recently, […]
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