As marketers, we must stop appealing to base human needs and start appealing to human expectations.
A 2017 Harvard Business Review article titled, The Neuroscience of Trust explains why employees would work longer hours and even reject up to a 20% salary increase, in exchange to be given the opportunity to have more personal influence in the company purpose. Consumers show a similar behavior in their purchasing patterns in relation to purpose-driven companies.
Researchers in the lab of Vernon Smith, a Nobel laureate in economics focused on brain chemical named “oxytocin” and its impact on building movements by building trust. The HBR study concluded, “Trust and purpose then mutually reinforce each other, providing a mechanism for extended oxytocin release, which produces joy.” Oxytocin also increases empathy, which can unify a movement. In fact, it’s the very chemical that is released during childbirth that mysteriously bonds a mother to a child.
Perhaps this is what makes Coke taste better with the label on the can. The associated sense of trust associated with the brand of Coke can actually change the perceived flavor of the beverage in your brain.
This represents a change in how brands will engage people at every level.
– Excerpt from: Surfing The Black Wave: Brand Leadership in a Digital Age]]>