“Money flows where attention goes.”
Elena V. Amber
Founder, doctoral researcher (sustainability transformations), award-winning author / The Gift of Sensitivity / Emotional Capital for the Triple Win
Every second, there is a battle for your attention in our world of information and limitless marketing tricks.
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“Money flows where attention goes.”
The outcome?
Customers protect themselves by training in self-control so that at any moment during this invisible war, they are “in control.”
Driving force of consumer behavior
However, attention is not the only factor to consider. We stay focused for a long time if we are emotionally connected.
Professor Paul Zak, a renowned neuroscientist, eloquently summarized his point by stating in one of his interviews:
You might catch my attention momentarily, but if I don’t give a heck, I’ll revert to what truly matters to me.
In the article "The New Science of Customer Emotions" by Scott Magids, Alan Zorfas, and Daniel Leemon, Harward Business Review described a business paradise:
When companies connect with customers’ emotions, the payoff can be huge. Consider these examples: After a major bank introduced a credit card for Millennials that was designed to inspire emotional connection, use among the segment increased by 70% and new account growth rose by 40%. Within a year of launching products and messaging to maximize emotional connection, a leading household cleaner turned market share losses into double-digit growth. And when a nationwide apparel retailer reoriented its merchandising and customer experience to its most emotionally connected customer segments, same-store sales growth accelerated more than threefold.
Researchers intensively discuss that emotions play a vital role in shaping decision-making processes where managing, regulating, and even perceiving emotions are crucial aspects influencing purchasing choices.
Emotions serve as antecedents of impulsive buying behavior along with other psychological factors such as values and norms, attitudes, or perceptions.
Wei Jie, Petra and Syed Arslan point out that from a marketing perspective, emotions act as a pivotal tool in stimulating customers to fulfill their immediate desires.
He et al. ensure that the purchasing triggers positive emotions linked to impulse buying, enhancing consumers' recovery by facilitating psychological relaxation.
Jiang and Lau pointed out that not only hedonic but also social motives are crucial in motivating the intention to dine out. This is driven by consumers' strong need to emotionally and socially relieve pressure and loneliness, transforming their mood post-COVID-19.
Cho, Oh & Chiu agree that individuals usually engage in compensatory behavior to restore their positive emotional state and remove negative emotions, meaning threats (i.e. a situation that has the potential to threaten meaningfulness in an individual's life), which can promote impulsive behaviors.
Intriguing role of negative emotions
There is evidence that negative emotions, which we shut down as much as possible in the pursuit of positivity, can lead to positive outcomes for humans, serving as safeguards.
As such, Cao et al. confirm that anxiety has prompted people to reflect on their consumption behavior and promoted the development of healthy eating habits and lifestyles that pay more attention to the coordination between humans and nature, which could result in increases in organic purchases.
Ling Xie et al. advocate that excessive consumption of meat can lead to high blood cholesterol levels, causing negative feelings that disrupt consumer attitudes, resulting in disappointment and disconnection with consumption.
The fabric of the retail success
As Spiteri Cornish observes, be it positive or negative, hedonic or utilitarian, individual or social, any of our impulsive choices are intricately woven into the fabric of retail success.
Encouraging spur-of-the-moment purchases becomes a symphony of urgency, social influence, and retail design.
The research pointed out that impulsive buying represents between 40% and 80% of overall purchases. Khan, Humayun, and Sajjad highlighted that about 90 percent of consumers are impulse buyers.
Research by Coca-Cola has confirmed that impulse buying accounts for more than 50% of all grocery purchases.
Impulse buying behavior is explained as episodes in which “a consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately.”
We would not pay much attention if it were only an individual matter.
The consequences of individual choices
However, academics including Lynas, Hylton, and Perry have underscored a sobering reality: the scientific community is unanimous that exponential economic growth and overproduction, caused by human-related factors.
Moreover, current economic growth is incompatible with the planet’s available resources.
Consumerism fueled by impulsive buying behavior brings us to the critical point where the pursuit of economic growth intersects with planetary environmental health advocated by ecological luminaries such as Meadows, Martínez-Alier, Victor, or van den Bergh.
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Their profound insights prompt us to scrutinize the sustainability of our present economic endeavors.
But what perpetuates our consumption patterns if people want to be more sustainable?
Even those who are most dedicated to an eco-conscious lifestyle struggle to align their actions with their values.
Attitude-behavioral gap
It has been noted that most consumers express a desire to purchase greener, healthier, and more sustainable products.
However, a significant issue arises: consumer purchases consistently diverge from their stated sustainability preferences, a phenomenon known as the attitude-behavior gap.
The reasons behind this gap are not fully understood, leading to a puzzling situation where customers who identify as environmentalists and conscious consumers still make unsustainable choices.
Research suggests that the attitude-behavior gap has been a focal point of academic research since 2006, when numerous researchers significantly advanced our understanding of the critical factors influencing sustainable consumption behavior.
Reflection on the individual choice
In quiet moments of reflection, we find the truth that often escapes us in the cacophony of daily life.
We point our fingers at external forces—the government, marketers, capitalists—believing them to be the architects of the crises we face.
Yet, within the silence of introspection, we uncover a potent realization: the true power resides within our own choices.
The journey toward overcoming these crises does not begin with grandiose declarations on the grand stages of the US or Europe.
It starts in the intimate spaces of our homes and in the everyday decisions we make.
Here, in the simplicity of our lives, we sculpt the economy, our future, and the world's fate.
If change is what we seek, a transformation of a habit is required.
We must gently release our grasp on the mechanisms that wound our world and choose a path that honors our collective well-being.
Let us envision a world where our decisions are not just for ourselves but for the planet and where prosperity is measured not by wealth but by the health and happiness of all.
The call for each founder, entrepreneur, and new-generation leader
This is a call to turn inward to the power of individual choice to shape a future that reflects our deepest values and aspirations.
Each business leader is a customer, too; we should not stand on two sides of the wall.
Businesses must be honest in their attempt to regain consumers’ trust from a defense state.
Founders, entrepreneurs, and business leaders must answer a straightforward question: Do emotionally attached customers feel any better when brainwashed customers?
That’s all for today.
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