Check out our two minute trailer from last week’s “Mob Commerce” webcast featuring Forrester Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

In this webcast, Sucharita ties the Forrester Consumer Forum’s uber-theme of the universal needs of consumers (Connection, Uniqueness, Comfort and Variety) to what we do at Baynote.  She made us realize that product recommendations can tap into all four needs.  Sometimes recommendations provide an online shopper the reassurance that a particular product is “mom-tested” or “peer-validated”, meeting our need for connection and comfort.   In other contexts,  recommendations might allow someone to explore their need for variety and uniqueness by exposing long-tail niches like “third-person shooter” games.

For another angle on how human needs and desires affect how and why we buy, you might want to check out Martin Lindstrom’s recent book buy.ology -truth and lies abut why we buy.  Of particular interest and the direct tie to the Forrester material and our webcast is Chapter 3 I’ll Have What She’s Having — Mirror Neurons at Work.  It talks about how our need for connection is wired into our brain structure.  Mirror neurons drive us to imitate and, interestingly, work in conjunction with dopamine to make that imitation feel good.  It’s no wonder then that people who use recommendations buy more and feel good doing it.

Another interesting point of the book is the difference between what people say they want to buy, as uncovered through market research, surveys, or focus groups and what they actually buy.