Moving Minds is a first-of-its-kind study that groups the UK’s home movers into eight ‘tribes’ according to the attitudes and motivations behind their move. It explores each tribe’s mindset and the behavioural psychology linking this to decision making and purchase behaviour: powerful insight for marketers hoping to unlock the spending potential of this fertile audience.
When we launched the study late last year, we couldn’t have foreseen the seismic shift in, well, pretty much everything, brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
All the enforced time at home during lockdown has seen a major rise in DIY home improvement projects, as well as firmer plans being made to ‘finally get around’ to those bigger upgrades as restrictions ease. With families living cheek-by-jowl, and more time than ever spent staring at our taps whilst singing ‘Happy Birthday’, bathrooms will be high on the list.
The housing market is also coming back to life with estate agents, valuers and surveyors returning to work. Some sources suggest property sales are already recovering to pre-lockdown levels.
There’s a perfect storm brewing, and many businesses are refocusing their marketing plans; seeking ways to take full advantage of the growing wave of opportunity ahead.
By tapping (excuse the pun) into the motivations and psychology behind the purchase decisions made by our most important audiences, we can create campaign messaging, materials and media plans that resonate and influence more effectively.
In particular, Moving Minds investigates the vital role that home interiors play in the expression of our social identity – a key part of every person’s psychological makeup. Social identity expression is a strong motivator of purchase behaviour because it’s a source of support and self-esteem. With the dramatic and long-lasting disruption to our social identities outside the home caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re turning to our homes more than ever to fill that void.
Consequently, there’s a huge – and immediate – opportunity for marketers to tune into this purchase driver and craft marketing campaigns around it.
This guest blog was provided by Gareth Evans, Cogent