7/23/2019 Chapter 1 - Unit 5

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/chapter-1-unit-5 1/4

 

1CHAPTER ONE | UNIT FIVE 

UNIT 5 The Strong Digital Brand Speaks to the Reward System

No matter where we are from, we all act according to two, interconnected systems: the punishment system and the rewardsystem. The punishment system determines what we avoid to escape danger.

 The reward system determines what we seek to heighten pleasure.

Avoiding danger and seeking pleasure is the brain’s modus operandi (primary function)  

Check out the video about the reward system in our additional material!

The reward system is designed to guide behavior so that it gives pleasure when the behavior is good for the person or has apositive effect. The reward system is a part of the limbic system. The limbic system is a network of pathways and core

regions deep in the brain. The amygdala and interbrain cell groups connected to the cerebral cortex also live here. Thecommunication between the individual parts of the reward system runs on the semiochemical dopamine, a so calledneurotransmitter, that communicates signals among nerve cells. The release of dopamine is pleasing and may cause action.

Check out the video about the reward pathway in the brain in our additional material!

DOPAMINE MAKES US HAPPY

Our consumers experience a sense of pleasant anticipation when think of our brand because of the reward system, e.g.driving a Jeep. Positive emotions also evoke the memories our consumer has collected about the brand.The reward system is especially active when a brand exceeds our expectations; when we feel even better than we expectedto. Conversely, we are disappointed when the anticipated reward or the expected feeling is missing.

Bottom line: since the reward system determines what our consumers look for, our brand should be associated with a

one-of-a-kind reward promise

Consumers learn brand stories better and are more likely to act in a favorable manner when brand stories exceedexpectations. Note: the reward system and the motor system (motion) are very close together in the brain.

ON THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF EXPECTATION AND EXPERIENCES

Experiences and expectations play a substantial role in decisions about brands: experiences store whether our actionsbenefitted us. We use expectations to gauge whether a planned action will benefit us – based on available experiences.Experiences are so important because we store the significant ones with a value of whether they affected us positively ornegatively: was the interaction with a brand and its story pleasant or unpleasant? Was the story enjoyable? The limbicsystem does the evaluating. When it is time to make a decision, we call up our experiences – their assistance is immediateand reliable.Further: along with our experiences and emotional evaluation, we get a bodily sense or good feeling – our physical

emotional memory of experiences. It stores our feelings and bodily sensations. Every consumer keeps an account/diary ofemotional income and expenses: on the credit side of things all positive experiences with the brand add up, on the debitside all negative experiences.

HOW DO CONSUMERS PLAN?

How does the brain plan actions based on its emotional memory of past experiences? When faced with a decision, the mindof the consumer imagines scenarios in a kind of internal movie. These movies in the mind run simultaneously andunconsciously. The brain compares these imagined action movies with similar situations from the treasure of experiencescollected in the emotional memory of experience. If a comparable situation is found, the brain automatically assigns thecorresponding evaluation at lightning speed. The goal again? Repeat good experiences and avoid bad ones.Where do experiences come from? Humans inherit some experiences from the collective memory of their ancestors withoutpersonally having to experience them. Throughout life, we add to this collective memory of experiences with our own, e.g.those we have with brands. We remember first impressions especially well because they effect the emotional memory of

experiences so strongly – and with it the feelings around the experience.

7/23/2019 Chapter 1 - Unit 5

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/chapter-1-unit-5 2/4

 

2CHAPTER ONE | UNIT FIVE 

Children who have a positive experience with a brand remember the interaction especially well. Experiences collected beforethe age of 7 are stored most effectively since this is when the brain is working hardest to create structure. There arewindows in life when experiences leave the heaviest mark. One possible conclusion: car makers might want to ensure theirproduct is my favorite childhood toy instead of dangling expensive imagery in front of me as an adult, hoping I will bite.What stories should I conjure up? Which performances should I find a role in?

It is imperative that international digital brand management pay close attention to experiences which are shaped by culture.

The culture code reflects the meaning unconsciously attributed to a thing in the culture a person was raised in – a car, aparticular food, a relationship, a brand. Significant impressions in the emotional memory of experience can thusly beindividual or collective.To uncover which collective experiences shape a culture, researchers examine early childhood impressions. They reveal allthe meanings and emotions that determine a culture’s consumer behavior. The famous cultural researcher Clotaire Rapaille  states: “If you want to sell cars to Americans of food to Germans, you must understand the reference system these peoples  

use. I am convinced that the US car industry is in such a tough spot because it does not understand what the Americanconsumer truly wants. Toyota, on the other hand, is on the right track. An important requirement for marketplace success isunderstanding the cultural code. I am naturally not claiming that all Germans or all Americans are the same; but they doeach share a common cultural reference system. If one understands this system, i.e. if one is ‘on code’, success is practical lyautomatic.” That is why it is so important to the effect of s torytelling that the stories take culture codes into account.

EXPECTATIONS FORECAST POSSIBLE GAINS

Expectations are so closely tied to experiences because experiences help forecast the expectations we use to make decisions.In this way, the brain removes the possible effects of action and asks itself how it would feel to act in such a manner: howwith this brand make me feel? Because we are social animals, our brains also ask how others will react when they see ususing this brand. Storytelling can produce this effect wonderfully for the brand: people or characters in the story appear whoshow the emotions, e.g. admiration, envy, curiosity.

Consumers do – mostly unconsciously – physically feel whether an interaction with the brand was pleasant or unpleasant,because they record a physical sensation along with each memory that is recalled along with the memory, e.g. a positive gutfeeling, tingling or tension. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio believes that every object and situation of experience isconnected to emotion and the accompanying physical sensation. The simple formula reads: good = repeat! Bad = avoid inthe future! This mechanism, this automatic signal, makes it possible to select a brand from many choices which best satisfiesa consumer’s needs. “The automatic signal readily protects you from future losses and helps reduce the number of choices.You still have the opportunity to conduct a cost / benefit analysis and draw clean conclusions, but only after this automaticstep has drastically reduced the number of alternatives.” 

In this way, users can call upon knowledge about the brand but also emotions in order to decide what to expect from ourbrand. They are able to quickly turn to memory without too much thinking if a corresponding, positive experience isavailable. Users process our brand mostly unconsciously, storing it as internal imagery along with strong physical sensations.They call this information up when they are faced with a brand decision. They are unaware most of this is happening since

most of it happens unconsciously.

Conclusion: our brand should generate clear expectations of a one-of-a-kind reward with consideration to the experiences ofconsumers. Digital brand management is thereby also the management of expectations: what can consumers expect fromthe brand? Also, what should they not expect? The question is therefore, what rewarding feelings does the brand need togenerate in order to steer consumer action?

MOTIVES – WHAT WE AVOID AND WHAT WE SEEK OUT

Norbert Bischof created the Model of Social Motivation. The psychologist names three basic motives that guide all humansthrough life: security, arousal, autonomy:

  Security: People have an innate need for consistency, stability, security and equilibrium. They have a strong desire forattachment and care, home and tradition.

  Arousal: People seek new stimulation, wish to be unique, break out of the ordinary and be active.

 

Autonomy: People wish to work their way up, perform, enjoy success and superiority, to prevail against others, expandtheir territory.

7/23/2019 Chapter 1 - Unit 5

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/chapter-1-unit-5 3/4

 

3CHAPTER ONE | UNIT FIVE 

The foundations for these three basic motives are already present in childhood. Soon after birth, we already seek securityand attachment to trusted persons. In the first few months of a baby's life, closeness to the parents, comfort and protectionfrom danger are of the utmost importance. Trust and attachment develop (security motive). As soon as the child can crawland walk, it wishes to explore its environment with its own legs – it seeks out that which is new and different, includingnew and different people. It is curious, it wants to experience things for itself and experiment. At the same time, it putsmore and more distance between itself and the parents, especially in comparison to its earlier attachment to the mother.Independence and autonomy increase (arousal motive). As adults, we still attach ourselves to other people. Yet we want to

maintain the feeling of being independent when we do so. We want to make our own decisions, prevail and have thingsunder control (autonomy motive). These motives determine our entire lives and influence our choice of profession. Artists,for example, are more strongly driven by the arousal motive, controllers by autonomy and control, nurses and caregivers bythe security motive. These motives also determine how people think. If they tend to be anxious, they seek security and paycloser attention to details. If they seek autonomy and superiority, they apply rules and wish to rule. The arousal motivewidens a person's scope of activity through unusual and creative thinking. The motivational system demonstrates that every

person is driven by his or her own unique system and therefore, that we all evaluate differently. But we have to understandwhat each system means.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SIDES OF EMOTIONS

Each motivational system has a positive and a negative side; we seek the good and avoid the bad. Thus, the limbic systemguides us through life. We avoid fear and insecurity and seek instead security and comfort. We avoid defeats, trouble, rageand dissatisfaction and seek instead superiority, triumph, praise. Instead of boredom, we seek enjoyment, thrill, fun,excitement and variety.

The most important task for digital brand management is to associate the brand with a positive feeling, such as the feelingof security and comfort, the promise of enjoyment, the thrill of the new and exciting, a feeling of status and superiority orthe feeling of having everything under control.

 The strong digital brand offers one-of-a-kind and especially attractive feelings as the reward for purchasing

FAREWELL TO MASLOW’S NEEDS PYRAMID

A word at this time about the most popular model used to explain our needs: Maslow’s Needs Pyramid.  According the model, needs are ordered hierarchically according to need states: at the lowest level, we seek to satisfy ourhunger, thirst and need for sleep. Once we have satisfied one level of needs, our motivation turns to affect the next-highestlevel. When all our needs are satisfied, we strive toward self-realization at the top of the pyramid (“self-transcendence“). With respect, Maslow’s Needs Pyramid is outdated:  

  Needs are not hierarchical, but rather complex and interconnected. This is why we are able to deal with our hunger if, for

example, paintings in a museum are of more interest. People buy luxury cars even if it means reducing their budget forfood.

  Self-realization is also not the highest goal for everyone, but rather needs from the lowest level like security (especially inold age).

  The model is not empirically proven.

7/23/2019 Chapter 1 - Unit 5

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/chapter-1-unit-5 4/4

 

4CHAPTER ONE | UNIT FIVE 

Practical tip: forget about Maslow’s Needs Pyramid. Apply the Motivational Map.  

SECURITY

Security, attachment, care and closeness are important for creating communities and for supporting each other. Colleaguesinvest in friendly relationships, the hierarchy is flat and the distance between management and staff is small. Colleagues areon a first-name basis and work together a bit like a family. The opposite would be autonomy and distance, where thedistance between management and staff is very large, there are many management levels and the tone is more formal,using surnames and titles.

  Values that are associated with security: friendship, family, caring, attachment, warmth, sociability, home, nostalgia,loyalty, security, health, reliability.

  Companies that speak to the security motive: Disney with its traditional family values, insurance companies, financialadvisors, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers of traditional brands.

 

Brands that speak to the security motive: "The dentist buys this for his family“, „Only friends give each other Kisses.“, “I  want stay who I am.”, “Reliability for years to come”, “The best things in life never change.“  

  Typical statements: “We are close to our customers," "I enjoy working in a team," "Commun ication is important," "We

are stronger together.", “I have been around for a long time.”, “I have the experience.“, “You are safe with me.”, “I am  dependable.”, “My extensive track record speaks for itself.”, “Leaves your worries behind with me.”  

 AROUSAL

A brand must evolve, otherwise it will petrify. Change, development, discovery – every person has these in them to differingdegrees.

  Values associated with arousal and stimulation: curiosity, fun, creativity, individualism, variety, ease, fantasy, openness,sensuality, enjoyment, humor.

  Brands that evoke arousal: IKEA’s “discover the possibilities“, "Red Bull gives you wings“, “surprising and unexpected“  from Chanel Chance.

 

Typical claims: “I will always offer you new impetus“, “I will show you things you have never seen before,", “I am not  business as usual“, “I seek change“, “Never boring“, “I make sure we’re different from the others."  

 AUTONOMY

Brands that embody autonomy and dominance demonstrate their outstanding performance, their top position, status andpower. They want to prevail, work their way up, expand their territory. Consumers with a strong autonomy motive usebrands with high prices, such as jewelry from Cartier, watches from Rolex and cigars from Davidoff. They drive luxury carsand maintain their performance through fitness.

  Values associated with distance and dominance: triumph, battle, elite, power, achievement, assertion, pride, honor,status, fame, freedom, ambition, efficiency.

  Companies that take up the need for autonomy and dominance: luxury car manufacturers, designer clothing labels,products that enhance performance.

 

Brands that address the autonomy motive: Doppel-Spalt: “For major pain“, Schwarzer Krauser No. 1: “Full-strengthtaste“, L’Oreal: “Because I’m worth it“. 

  Typical claims: "I will give you an edge over the others," "I want to be better than the others," "I work very hard." , “I’m  the expert in my field“, “I like to fight”, “I  take pleasure in victory”, “I’m headed for the top”, “I’d like to expand my  territory” 

Practical tip: we should put our consumers’ values at the center of digital brand management  

WHY LIKEABLE DOES NOT CUT IT

To make likeability a marketing goal is not enough: likeable is a sensation with no direction. The mood is weaker thanemotions. Likeable means to consider a company “nice“. And we all know what that really means.  Producing likeability is quite opportunistic: any and all methods and means work if they generate any sort of positive mood.The biggest weakness, however, is that likeability is hardly suited to clearly differentiate against the competition over the

long term because everyone wants to be liked.Emotions, on the other hand, are clearly framed like pride, joy, luck. They allow the company to position itself clearly andprecisely through the reward promise.