WHILE neuroscience may be the new business buzz word, the fleet industry is falling short of truly understanding motivation, personalities and emotions and their impact on retaining and attracting new clients. Concepts and techniques derived from brain research and psychology can play a crucial role in improving individual and business performance in the car industry.
Motivation
Motivation is vital in the car industry. Our motivation and reward systems in the brain galvanise us into action with energy and enthusiasm. It is not always about money and special offers. Taking the time to find out what motivates people is a deal breaker.
Dopamine is one of the brain’s pleasure chemicals. When behavioural neuroscientist John Salamone offered rats the choice of one pile of food or another pile of food twice the size but behind a small fence. Rats with lowered levels of dopamine almost always took the easy way out, choosing the small pile instead of jumping the fence for greater reward. In business if you create a happy dopamine environment full of rewarding experiences, then we become more motivated to push ourselves.
Brand
Brand association and brand loyalty are increasingly being explained by consumer neuroscience. To understand emotional response to brands is a key to effective marketing. The experience – including emotional and cognitive processing such as memory, decision making and attention – determines customer satisfaction and loyalty to the brand. This means that the prefrontal cortex and limbic system are busy evaluating and determining consumer choice.
Emotion
Using consumer research and neuroscience we can record brain activity with electrodes and advances in neural imaging technology making it possible to determine specific regions of the brain that are responsible for consumer behaviours. For example studies of emotion are crucial to the advertising industry because we know that emotion plays a significant role in our ability to remember an advertisement and in all our decisions.
Importance of the group
Consumers can be more influenced by the choices and decisions of their peers than their own internal standards. Many environmental factors influence the things we choose and the way we think. In particular a group or community we want to belong to can have a huge impact. Group membership not only supports us but also moulds our beliefs and preferences. This may be both at a conscious and unconscious level.
Know your audience
Having a better understanding of the difference between male and female thinking can affect the sales outcome. Whilst there is no direct evidence to suggest that one gender experiences compassion more than the other, women naturally show more emotional connection than men. The success of marketing exercise goals for instance is, to a certain extent, influenced by stereotypical gender differences. Assumption is foolish but understanding the brain and marketing differently for men and women is key.
