{"id":11354,"date":"2013-10-28T07:35:20","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T07:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beyondphilosophy.com\/?p=11354"},"modified":"2019-12-04T08:09:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T13:09:34","slug":"subconscious-emotional-relationship-drive-purchase-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/subconscious-emotional-relationship-drive-purchase-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Subconscious and Emotional Relationship Drives Our Purchase Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>Recently I re-read\u00a0Customer Experience Future Trends and Insights<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Colin Shaw, Qaalfa Dibeehi, and Steven Walden. The book refreshed the importance of asking more questions about why customers and consumers make a specific purchase decision and got me thinking more about the subconscious.<\/p>\n

Just this week, I had lunch with two dear friends.\u00a0 Jo, Mary Jane and I have been meeting for lunch regularly for nearly 20 years.\u00a0 At our lunches, we cover the gamut of topics ranging from politics to family.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen each other through the trials and triumphs of life during our lunches.<\/p>\n

Mary Jane is the consummate technical writer. Her communication style is clear and concise. \u00a0Jo\u2019s graphic artist background shows through with her communication style which is best described as storytelling.<\/p>\n

This week Jo was telling us the story of suddenly having a feeling she needed to go out and eat ice cream.\u00a0 She hadn\u2019t had ice cream in ages and just \u2018felt the need\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0for the treat.<\/p>\n

Did she go to a local and well-known spot near her home? No.\u00a0 She went to a Baskin-Robbins nowhere near her home. \u00a0(Baskin-Robbins<\/a> is the global largest chain of ice cream specialty shops. Marketed as creating innovative, premium ice cream and value to consumers at nearly 7,000 retail shops in nearly 50 countries.) \u00a0Was Jo drawn to Baskin-Robbins for a specific flavor?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Was it the price-point (value) that took her to this particular place?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Did it have to do with quality or memorable service she received there in the past?\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

She talked us through her drive to the ice cream shop, the fact that she just ordered a waffle cone with a single scoop of ice cream.\u00a0 Did she mention the flavor?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 No particular flavor \u2013 not a favorite, innovative or seasonal flavor was mentioned.\u00a0 In the details of her drive, and ordering and consuming the ice cream, I found it hard to understand why she felt compelled to go for the treat, go to a Baskin-Robbins store, and to that particular location.<\/p>\n

I asked her why she went to that particular store.\u00a0 She paused to consider my query \u2013 obviously not having considered it previously. The Baskin-Robbins she went to was near the salon where her daughter had worked. \u00a0Jo had gone for years to have her hair cut by her daughter, Jill, who tragically died of advanced breast cancer many years ago.<\/p>\n

Baskin-Robbins was somewhere Jo associated with her daughter.\u00a0 So it was an emotional<\/a> relationship and the need to repeat something connected with the memory of Jill.\u00a0 Jo just \u201cfelt<\/strong>\u201d that she needed to go for ice cream. But where she went had nothing to do with price, location, product, or service.\u00a0 Was the ice cream, store ambience or service special enough for her to remember it or to return again?\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

I quote from the book\u00a0Customer Experience<\/a> Future Trends and Insights:\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0\u201cSometimes we don\u2019t know about the things that influence us, we just <\/i>subconsciously<\/i><\/a> perceive them. We are often manipulated by things we can hardly recall, like the smell of the bakery in a supermarket, the color of the walls in a hospital…\u201d\u00a0<\/i>or an association with a particular place.\u00a0 In other words, there is so much more than the rational<\/a> aspects that drive consumer value (i.e., product, quality, innovation, customer service, location).<\/p>\n

Humans are complex beings \u2013 \u201cmost of our decisions as clients and consumers are driven by \u2018gut reaction\u2019; even seemingly rational decisions are impacted on by the intuitive<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0Emotional twinges affect our \u2018in the moment\u2019 decision making and hence behavior.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Pondering Jo\u2019s story and what compelled her to go to that Baskin-Robbins location; I think through my own purchasing decisions of late, which Colin Shaw highlights in his post, \u201cHow You Really Make Decisions\u201d<\/a> .\u00a0 I go to places that make me feel good about spending my money and the actual purchases I make. \u00a0Although I may feel I am making informed and rational purchase decisions, I know my subconscious and emotional connection have a lot to do with what drives my decisions.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lastyearsgirl<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSue Morgan<\/a> provides strategic consulting, research design and in-depth, leading-edge analysis that helps clients deliver outstanding business results through deeper customer experience, communication, relationship, employee and brand equity insights. Beyond Philosophy<\/a> provide consulting, specialised<\/span> research & training from our Global Headquarters in Tampa, Florida, USA.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I re-read\u00a0Customer Experience Future Trends and Insights\u00a0by Colin Shaw, Qaalfa Dibeehi, and Steven Walden. The book refreshed the importance of asking more questions about why customers and consumers make a specific purchase decision and got me thinking more about the subconscious. Just this week, I had lunch with two dear friends.\u00a0 Jo, Mary Jane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-emotions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}