Have you ever thought about…why you choose this course? Why do we put behavioural science into business? And why, consumer psychology?

Let’s begin with business, remember the best equation of business ? ? ?

Revenue = Profit - Cost

Generally, the main objective of a business is to generate profit by convincing customers to purchase from “You” and not your competitors, which subsequently gives you money, reputation, word of mouth (WOM) etc. But in order to achieve this, you will first have to provide them with something. Years & years ago, firms competed on products, then, services. And now, most successful firms emphasize the “Art of Customer Experience” (McKinsey & Co, 2017). The way you use the product, the way you enjoy the services, and the way you feel about the entire process – during and after your purchase. And if we move onto public (social) sectors, it would be even more obvious that organisations are trying to convince, to motivate their targets to “behave” the way they wish them to.

From Bertrand Duperrin.

So . . . Behaviour?

When we talk about behaviour, we talk about psychology. Henriques (2004) gave a brief definition of the second domain of psychology, the human psychology. “The science of human behaviour proposed as a hybrid that exists between psychological formalism and social science.” As a “layman” of this profession, I would say it is more likely to talk about the reason or logic that explains why human beings behave the way they do, regardless of whether it is cognitive or affective. Academically, the Journal of Consumer Psychology published quite a lot of researches that investigated drivers, factors or predictors regarding to specific behaviour in different topics in order to better predict consumer behaviour, such as…

 

How psychology benefits on business?

Today, you decided to spend one more year and pay £10,000 + to pursue another degree for your profile. But think about one day when your interviewer asks you “How can your knowledge (Consumer psychology) benefit our company?” What would you say? By diving into the areas of consumer psychology in a postgraduate level allows us to analyse consumer behaviour even more scientifically and see the bigger picture of this field. Some of you may know that there is no right or wrong in the area of business, especially in developing marketing strategies, it’s relatively subjective. Behavioural science, however, is strongly evidence based. They investigate and observe human behaviour by conducting well-organized research using specific, scientific, and objective frameworks, experiments and measurements (Gravetter & Forzano, 2009). Not just descriptive data, not just sales bar charts, but we get to explore the intricacies of interrelationships between factors that affect human behaviour. Sometimes, even if we run marketing research we can’t fully understand what customers need because somehow, they don’t know either, and they can’t express themselves. Because there is “something else” controlling them, the human brain. That’s why in 1991, Richard highlighted the importance of Psychophysiology when it comes to consumer research (Robertson, 1991), which is a deeper level that observes human behaviour (psychological processes) without asking how they feel, but “watching” through their physiological processes such as heart rate and brain activities (Stern, 1964). If we have a more accurate customer analysis, we could develop marketing strategies more effectively.

 

In this blog, I know it is quite stupid to talk about something you may already understand. But all I want is to consolidate the “Mindset” that we should be very clear of before we go further in discussing more complex issues. Psychology is a big subject, and so as business. The key is to “select” suitable and valuable psychological methods to help business “develop” strategies but not just focus on one subject. To get it… balance.

 

References (not linked intext)

Gravetter, F., & Forzano, L. (2009). Research methods for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.

Robertson, Kassarjian, Robertson, Thomas S, & Kassarjian, Harold H. (1991). Handbook of consumer behavior. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.