5
Goals
The Driving Forces of Purchase Decisions
Goal value – the driver of motivated behaviour
We have seen the many powerful ways to optimize interfaces along the path to purchase. Using insights from behavioural economics there are fascinating possibilities to add value and reduce cost. We can use heuristics to optimize our tariff structures, flyers and promotions when selling, for example, cars. But why does someone want to buy a car in the first place? And from which brands will they seek information? There clearly is an additional level that drives the value–cost equation, above and beyond heuristics, and this level is motivation. Motivation is the main driving force behind all human behaviour and, hence, purchase behaviour, so let’s have a closer look at what motivation is about from a neuropsychological perspective.
A fascinating paper called ‘A neural predictor of cultural popularity’ (2012) by Gregory Berns and Sara Moore from Emory University sheds some ...