Collegiate Fundamentals of Business.

This post was originally published at: www.goclockwise.com

Unless you are a writer then I am sure that a vast majority of the grammatical lessons we all learned in our academic careers seem like a distant memory. Psychology may have only been a required course that you needed to graduate, and the one connection to your immediate reality is probably Pavlov’s dog theory when you feed your pup. Matter of fact many of us flee from the subjects that don’t play a key part in our careers. Especially the ones that made us cringe, sigh, and pull our hairs. Complex sentences and Anthropology (the study of humans) aren’t leading topics of conversations. They don’t seem to hold an ounce of importance when trending topics in business are: cloud servers, biometrics, virtual reality,IoT, etc., but there is something to be noted about those core collegiate courses we were obligated to take.

“A complex sentence contains an independent clause and at least one dependent clause. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence and makes a complete thought and a dependent clause can not stand alone, even though it has a subject and a verb.”

If you take an elementary look at how businesses break down their business models, these core academic principles are still very much apparent. Companies whose business models reflect the structure of a complex sentence tend to find greater success than their direct competition. It is the thought that goes beyond the first independent clause (what your product is) and answers the consumers questions with a dependent clause (what makes this of value).

Example:

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

The independent clause: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’sinformation…”

• We know exactly what their stake is in business and the mission of the company as a whole.

The dependent clause: “make it universally accessible and useful….”

• We then learn what sets them apart. This is dependent upon the original mission of the company (independent clause). This is what makes the independent clause possible; it is what sets them apart from the countless number of search engines out there.

Both statements are vital in accurately illustrating the mission of Google. They display what the company is about, and why they are viable in their market.

Those of which that employ psychological principles in their branding and advertising are able to establish themselves as leaders in their industry. It is the dissection of the idea, “for every action a human takes, there is a motivation”, that sets a companies efforts apart from those they are in direct competition with.

“Each individual has his or her own motivations behind his or her actions, but there is no theory that can accurately predict what those motivations may be. The only way to determine a person’s motivation is by communicating with, listening to and observing that person. If you can discern the proper motivation, you can consistently get people to purchase the products and services you provide. Therefore, the process of determining motivations should be a primary task for anyone concerned with selling goods to consumers.”

A company has to actively seek out their target audience. Mass communication was greatly impacted by the influence of social mediums. The manner in which we communicate is mostly remote and consumers expect to be engaged and have active interaction with the companies they choose to buy from. In branding and marketing, customization is key. One of the driving forces behind Clockwise Time Keeping and Attendance software system is their unique ability to tailor their product directly around each and every individual customer. The consumer wants to know the value of what they are investing in. Search engines have revolutionized the manner in which we research items before we purchase. The moment we connect with a prospective consumer on a singular individual level, and provide the answer to their need is when we are able to establish an equally beneficial relationship. These relationships shape the consumers outlook.

Example:

“Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X,iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.”

Apple uses “i” as the suffix for majority of their products. They immediately begin the branding with the name, and made it personalized to each consumer with: iPads, iTunes, iPods, etc. Each user has the feel that the machinery is catered to their specific lifestyle, and has the security of knowing that it is a trusted professional brand. Some people have very mixed feelings about Apple, but there is no denying their stake in their business sector. Apple is one of the biggest trading companies in the world. The psychology behind Apple’s branding and marketing play a huge part in their success.

If you continue to look at other dominating companies, 9 times out of 10 you will easily be able to find a company that can provide the similar foundational services, but can’t seem to muster up the same attraction. Toshiba provides personal computers, music devices, and telephones, but they haven’t seen the same successes as Apple in the tech industry. Yahoo also provides search engine capabilities, but hasn’t been able to reflect the same success as Google. In 2016 simply introducing something into the market isn’t enough. We live in an omni-channel/ cross-culture platform type of world. When developing a mission for a company think about the question consumers may ask, and have this reflect in your business model. When you begin to brand and advertise this business, apply consumer psychology into how you reach your target audience. Some of the key fundamental principles we once thought were useless in our career paths should be utilized to gain an advantage in business.