Appealing to emotions key to thriving business post-COVID—expert

In a world filled with fear and uncertainty because of COVID-19, businesses should pay close attention to how customers think and feel, especially in today’s retail landscape, a neuroscience expert said during a webinar for Araneta City lessees for the first quarter of 2022.

In a Zoom exclusive webinar held last January 28 titled Understand Shopper Behavior this 2022, US-certified neuroscience coach and Amplius NeuroManagement Consultancy Managing Director Ben Ampil discussed how neuroscience can help businesses better attune themselves to the needs of their customers.

Neuroscience is the study of the interplay of the brain and the human nervous system. Having a consumer-based mindset grounded squarely on neuroscience, Ampil said, will help businesses understand the ever-changing needs and demands of their target market.

“Shopping involves emotions, and that is something that you as players in the retail industry must capitalize on and do excellently, and the problem is that the world is changing because of COVID. All of us, most importantly your shoppers, are worried,” Ampil said. “These psychological changes can be difficult to reverse because what we experienced caused our brain structures to change.”

With the collective trauma caused by living with the constant threat of the pandemic looming large over all of us, Ampil explained that the amygdala, the part of the brain that constantly scans for threats and dictates our fight or flight response, is often caused to go into overdrive. To address this, he expressed the need to remember SCARF—Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.

“If you want to be able to delight your customers, always remember SCARF, take care of it, do not diminish their SCARF,” Ampil said. “Accord your customer high status. Accord your customer certainty to the best you can. Accord your customer autonomy. Accord your customer with relatedness and a sense of belonging. Accord your customer with fairness. Do these and you will be able to weather COVID well.”

By making sure that retailers take care of these five behaviors, they can help customers have a better experience which can then translate to sales and continued patronage.

He also discussed a novel approach that can help guide retailers as they navigate the path forward from this pandemic—E=MC2. Emotion (E), which guides all purchase decisions, creates positive or negative memories (M), which then drive consumer choices (C2).

“Emotions, which they are looking for in a shopping experience, create memories. If you have a satisfied customer, they’ll tell one person, but if you have a dissatisfied customer they’ll tell a hundred and this is amplified by social media. You want to give them emotions—good emotions,” Ampil said.

The webinar is part of Araneta City’s exclusive offerings to its lessees to help give them new ideas and insights on how to face the challenges of the times. Aside from the discussion on shopper behavior, also highlighted in this webinar are the exciting activities, promos, and events that Araneta City lessees can join this year to further drum up interest in their brand.

“As we all know, the current health situation in our country continues to pose challenges since two years ago. But I strongly believe that we can all get through this crisis together,” Ma. Lorna Fabian, Vice President for Leasing of Araneta City said.

“We will continue to come up with interesting, enriching, and engaging programs for our lessees in the coming months. We believe that with our support and the passion, drive, and innovation of our lessees, we will continue to chart a path towards a better future here in the City of Firsts,” Fabian added.