Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations
Individual behavior can influence your economy
Dubner, Stephen J. Calculating The Irrational In Economics. (New York Times, Arts & Ideas/Cultural Desk, 28 June 2003)
Behavioral economics -- which blends psychology, economics and, increasingly, neuroscience to argue that emotion plays a huge role in how people make economic decisions. [News in Brain and Behavioural Sciences, Issue 101]
Other resources on this topic include: The Society for the Advancement of Behaviorial Economics (includes a list of relevant journals), Russell Sage Foundation Summer Institute on Behavioral Economics (includes agenda of last program and participant list), and should I miss anything MIT presents a Behavioral Economics Bibliography.
Relationships strengthen emotions and establish expectations for individuals. I've pulled heavily from some of the surface discussions in this community. It is key to remember that people are not cogs in a bigger business machine, they are people and will always be people.
When the individuals working for you, or with you, or even served by your product feel you have grouped, categorized, or labeled them, and they will discount your value to them. While these customer segmentation strategies help you select more profitable customers, they should be conducted in a manner that increases the feeling of individualindividualism.
Behavioral sciences can help you understand people in such a way to help you reach them more effectively. The way they respond to what you have to offer will significantly influence your companies economy (flow of goods and services.) Take emotional states into consideration in your marketing communications, customer interactions, and how you treat your employees-- these strategies powerfully build your bottomline.
Fascinating stuff - need to spend time reading this. Really interesting and very valid point above about treating people as individuals.
Posted by Paul Goodison at July 28, 2003 09:27 AM | TrackBack