Psychology in action
- Article 3 of 25
- Infoconomist, May 2001
The ability to understand what customers want and how they think is vital to any company's success. Using its Youmeus profiling system, UK-based Applied Psychology Research (APR) has been working towards this elusive goal.
The ability to understand what customers want and how they think is vital to any company's success. It is the secret behind increased sales, increased loyalty and, crucially, increased profit.
Using its Youmeus profiling system, UK-based Applied Psychology Research (APR) has been working towards this elusive goal ever since its inception in 1997. Founded by psychologist Dr Daniel Brown and multimedia lecturer John Turner, APR's software creates personality profiles of web site users. According to Brown, the software can be integrated into ecommerce applications and intranet knowledge management systems to enable companies to assess the effects of different media on users' emotions.
The principles of Youmeus are fairly simple. A customer's future behaviour is predicted by allying a specific profile with more general psychological information obtained through demographics – the type of neighbourhoods customers live in, their age, gender or jobs – and other means. “It's a continually evolving process,” says Brown. “The same customer can be more different at different times than different customers at the same time.”
APR also uses psychological research techniques to alter user behaviour. According to Brown, positive reinforcement, where users are rewarded for repeated visits to a given web site, can be integrated into corporate networks very effectively, particularly where employees are encouraged to share ideas and experience. “There are people in organisations who take pride in their knowledge, but don't want to share it in case they lose status. We use various methods, both social and non-social, for encouraging them to share their skills.
Brown believes that APR's software can have a dramatic impact on sales. He cites the Cooperative Wholesale Society's Grape and Grain ecommerce site in the UK as an example, where web-based sales have increased by an impressive 365% since the Youmeus system was implemented. Other customers include Blockbuster Entertainment and Affinity Internet Holdings.
APR's revenues have increased dramatically in the past two years and the company says it is profitable. Additionally, it has just secured a second round of funding, receiving €11.3 million from Intel and Barclays Ventures. The challenge now is for APR to increase its own profile.