Industrial marketing leaders are literally changing minds...

Neuroscience is contributing real breakthroughs that help explain human behavior and organizational change. In the private industrial manufacturing mid-market, where many second-generation owners are now taking the reigns of leadership, one of their foremost challenges is bringing about behavioral change. This change is inherent in the marketing and branding process, which is all about internal value definition and external (customer) value recognition. Fortunately, as today's younger business leaders are discovering, changing a person's mind is no longer a figurative expression.

Changing minds nowadays means just that.

Internal value definition often starts with the question: "What business are we in?" But before a leader can ask this question of his or her core coalition, that leader should expect it will be neurologically painful for some people to contemplate, as the answers will threaten current beliefs that are entrenched in the basal ganglias of many. The basal ganglia is that portion of the brain that makes us feel good when we behave in keeping with certain rituals. Such a seemingly innocent question will also trigger the amygdala, that part of the brain that acts on our instincts, which drives our habits and fears of change, and is known as the "fight or flight" function of our brains.

In other words, ask people to seriously contemplate any action that implies change, and fight or flight are the very reactions a leader should expect. Is there a better way to bring change, to really put marketing and branding to work for a company? Here again, neuroscience provides the answer, with ample research showing how one's use of the prefrontal cortex can not only help a business leader change his or her own thinking, but the thinking of the core coalition and the entire organization.

The prefrontal cortex is that area or the brain that is used (or not) to observe and evaluate our own behaviors. It is that part of the brain that actually thinks, that brings into assessment the facts of a situation, including such B2B leadership initiatives as whether to invest in a new production line or a new marketing opportunity.

For example, when the prefrontal cortex is put to work on the mission-critical question of internal value definition versus external (market segment) value recognition, it will very soon seek to establish two reference points essential to decision making: 1) an objective understanding of the company's full sources of value as articulated to the marketplace (brand identity), and 2) an objective understanding of a customer segment's perceptions of this value (brand image) in regard to unmet and often undiscovered needs, i.e. voice of customer.

If Company X fails to reach its greater potential in the coming years, neuroscience is telling us why. It will be because the leaders at Company X failed to use their prefrontal cortexes, giving in to the more primitive regions of their brains.

jb
www.centrifuge-now.com