Why are we in love with our (de)Vices?

This week at Health Plus the brilliant Debbie Millan spoke.

She founded Design Matters, one of the world’s first and longest running podcasts.

Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company.

I could go on but I won’t be able to do her justice.

Why We Brand, Why We Buy was her presentation.

To explain how we got to our current behaviours she took us back in time to share neurological influences on human appetite to buy brands.

Now I don’t have space here to write here all the wonderful insights.

I want to focus on one element.

What Debbie called ‘wave 5’.

The rise of the limbic brand.

Our limbic system is ‘a complex system of nerves and networks in the brain, involving several areas near the edge of the cortex concerned with instinct and mood. It controls the basic emotions (fear, pleasure, anger) and drives (hunger, sex, dominance, care of offspring)’.

More importantly it drives our sense of connectedness.

This has shifted greatly over the past century.

And Debbie shared one of the turning points.

“In 2005 a website came out that became the most visited site on the planet. And that was Myspace. That became our primary way of connecting, and that’s only changed and grown volumetrically since then with Myspace being taken over by Facebook and so forth. We think we fell in love with our devices, but we didn’t really. We fell in love with the connection that we feel via the devices”.

As more and more people are consumed by their devices.

As more people live alone.

As more people are driven by convenience and efficiency aka. ordering online vs. going to a shop

We erode the physical connection.

So we need to build new connections to replace that.

But connections that need to be as fulfilling as those we have lost.

Or in the case of the younger generations, ones that they may have grown up experiencing less of.

This is a big challenge for companies, for brands, for marketeers and society.

But one that we should explore and address through our work at Havas.

When I return I have new questions to ask myself.

Questions I’ll ask my clients and team.

Questions that will shape a ‘limbic’ brand.

How can we help people feel more accepted?

How can we inspire them to feel ok as-is?

How can we build a sense of belonging?

How can we help them create ‘social capital’?

And most importantly, how can we make a difference to their lives?

For further reading on limbic brands you may want to look at: Create Loyal Customers For Life: Making Limbic Connections With Experiential Branding, Seth Godin’s talk: Quieting the Lizard Brain.

If you have any other recommendations please share!