Ideas

It’s often said that if you’re thinking of buying something it’s a good idea to ask people you know what they would recommend. And I agree. But it’s also a very bad idea too. It’s a good idea because getting a recommendation is easy to do and it gives some degree of experience to factor in to a purchase that will otherwise be based on whatever the company or shop selling it wants you to focus on. On the other hand, people tend to eulogise about products they’ve bought recently in a way that has always made me a little suspicious that they’re simply justifying a decision they’ve taken. Psychologically speaking that’s a healthy thing for them to do; who wants to be riddled with doubt each time you buy something (even though you’ll never know whether the other options would have served you better!). Recent research looking at brain […]

I deliberated long and hard before deciding to write this article. For the most part the areas of consumer behaviour that interest me are those relating to how the consumer mind works. I judge that telling you about these insights from neuroscience and social psychology are no different from giving you a map or photographs of points you’ll need to pass on a journey: I hope I make your job easier and help you to do it better, by giving you more understanding of the consumer mind. So, for example, in my EBook, The Secret of Selling: How to Sell to Your Customer’s Unconscious Mind, I reveal the studies that have triggered different mental associations in consumers’ minds, and caused them to spend more. In one case, people spent up to three times as much on a product, just because of the type of music that was playing. Is this manipulating […]

In my article To Sell More Think Sheep I discussed the contradiction that exists between the observable fact that we all do pretty much the same things (particularly as our friends) but like to entertain the notion that we’re much more autonomous and independent-minded than that. A recent study used brain imaging to explore the mechanisms that cause us to behave in this way. Why is it we end up liking what our friends like (for the most part)? To find out more neurologists conducted fMRI scans of teenagers’ brains whilst they were having unfamiliar music spanning several genres played to them. In the experiment each participant was played a number of songs and asked to rate how much they liked them. Then they were shown how popular the song was among a large reference group. To make sure people weren’t contrary for the sake of it, participants knew they would receive […]

The other day I watched a movie I’ve enjoyed several times before, Say Anything, starring a very young John Cuszak. At its heart it’s a romantic comedy about an unlikely coupling, but it also dabbles with the issue of choice. One lead character knows what she wants out of life; the other (played by Cuszak) is quite clear what he doesn’t want by way of a career: “I’ve thought about this quite a bit sir and I would have to say considering what’s waiting out there for me, I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed or buy anything sold or processed or repair anything sold, bought or processed as a career. I don’t want to do that. My father’s in the army. He wants me to join, but I can’t work for that corporation.” There’s […]