Using Psychology to Drive Business Strategy

FF Fashion

Wed, Mar 17, 2010
The Business Times
By Timothy Seow


A 'trust' model may not sound like a novel way to boost your company's sales performance, but add psychology to the mix, and you may just be onto something new.

'I think we're the only company that actually uses psychological insight to drive business strategy,' says Alan Fairnington, managing partner of Mext, which started here in Singapore last July.

'Trust,' Mr Fairnington says, 'is based on what we call psychological tensions. We have an understanding of what these tensions are, so we are able to define people's trust relationships with the company.'

The trust model is based on a modern branch of psychology called 'morphology' that tries to map the tensions in human decision-making.

The father of morphology is Wilhelm Salber, an ex-market researcher who went into academia. Dr Salber apparently became frustrated because the tools used for market research were more for clinical psychology and not geared towards the market, says Mr Fairnington.

'So he started an investigation to try and understand the decision making process in the mind, and what the factors were and so on, and he called it Morphology,' Mr Fairnington adds.

'Basically what we have developed and refined over the last few years is a model which defines the key attributes of trust. If you are weak in a certain area, we can help you strengthen that area so it guides the company in understanding how they can improve the level of trust and loyalty.'

Since Mext was set up in Singapore in mid-2009, the consultancy has worked with a number of notable companies such as M1, Crabtree & Evelyn, Yellow Pages and Qatar Airways.

'In most cases our work involves some in-depth consumer research. We have our own psychologist on staff, and they actually conduct the in-depth interviews which take about 90 minutes with every respondent,' Mr Fairnington explains.

Mext's research also aims at depth rather than breadth, which Mr Fairnington illustrates by drawing an analogy with cars.

'It's a little bit like doing research about motor cars. What you really want to understand is how the cars work - so we lift the hood of the car and try and take the engine apart and see how it works.'

In the case of companies, the key is also to interview customers, he adds. For example, in the M1 project, Mext interviewed not just M1's customers, but also those of its rivals.

The ex-CEO of advertising firm Bateys says too many companies have a 'top-down' approach, whether driven by the CEO's vision ('which is often his own gut feel'), or input of branding consultants.

'Nobody has actually talked to the customers, so we are doing everything from the bottom up, from the customer's perspective,' he says.

Mr Fairnington does not believe the trust model should be regarded only as purely a branding solution.

'You can develop marketing strategy, communication strategy, sales strategy and a promotional strategy,' he says.

'You can use the trust model to drive the entire business.'