If you ask someone why they bought something the chances are they will tell you a story. They will give you a rationalisation about their decision and motivation. The reason for this is most people have very little awareness of how their brain actually works. When you understand how our brains work you can become very, very good at customer strategy, customer experience and customer support. Our brain can be thought of as actually being three sub-brains continually working together to come up with what we do, feel and think next.
The three different sub-brains correspond to sections of our overall brain anatomy. Jeff Gaines calls the sub-brains the Robot, the Emoter, and the Thinker. The Robot is the oldest part in evolutionary terms. It sits on top of our spinal column underneath the other layers and includes brain areas like the Medulla and Pons. The Robot handles automation. It is your Robot reading this. When you drive to work on autopilot it is your Robot who takes control. It causes you to drop the too-hot item you pick up from your stove before it burns you. Your Robot is so fast it acts in a blink, seemingly faster than you can think. As your robot learns what is good for you and what is not, it pushes you towards the good to enjoy more. And it pulls you away from the bad so you suffer less. The robot’s primary mission to ensure your survival.
The Emoter is the second oldest part of the brain in evolutionary terms. It includes brain areas like the Amydala and the Limbic System. As you may expect the Emoter handles emotion. It is your Emoter producing how you feel about this idea of different brain parts. It may be bored, curious or happy right now. It may even have gotten upset about the reference to evolution, particularly if this conflicts with your religious beliefs. Emotions are important because they have the capacity to override the selfish nature of the Robot brain’s automatic reactions. Like other mammals our emotions confer a survival advantage. Emotions make it possible for us to operate in groups and care for children. Similar behaviours can be seen in grazing mammals forming herds and hunting mammals in packs. The problem with the Emoter brain is just like the Robot brain, it operates in the present and without a real sense of self awareness. The third layer of brain is what makes us human.
We are human because we have an advanced Neocortex. This is the top layer you see when looking a picture of a human brain. It is the youngest part of the brain in evolutionary terms and holds the Thinker. The Thinker can handle planning, mathematics, language and problem solving. The Thinker is quite rational. Importantly this is the only part of our brain with self-awareness. Surprisingly it has the least ability to actually motivate us to do anything. It is this part responsible for making up the story we tell ourselves about why we buy things.
Rarely is the story we tell ourselves about why we purchase something entirely true. The real reason we buy things is because the three sub-brains combine to come up with a decision. Buying a product or service involves doing (Robot), feeling (Emoter) and thinking (Thinker). In the video Gaines explains how our Robot, Emoter and Thinker motivate what we do, feel and think in our lives.
The most important takeaway from this concerns customer research. If you want to find out why someone bought something, don’t ask them directly. Instead, ask them to explain what they remember doing , feeling and thinking when they made their purchase. Triangulating their doing | feeling | thinking will give you a much better understanding of the three key components of their buying motivation.
Robert Dew is a Founding Partner at CapFeather Global with more than 2o years of corporate consulting and university lecturing in Innovation, Customer Strategy and Customer Experience. His PhD related to improving creativity in strong corporate governance environments. He has also done 60+ start-ups.