Moving Minds is a groundbreaking study that groups home movers into tribes according to their move motivations. It explores what these motivations tell us about each tribe’s mindset and investigates the behavioural psychology behind how this impacts decision making and purchasing behaviour.

We’ve been spending a lot of time getting to know these eight tribes. Recently we headed to the home of the Bex, our Seeker from London... 

Seekers are moving to an area with a community that better reflects them and their values.

This new area, full of people like them, would allow them to better express their true identity and help them feel more confident about the direction their life is going in.

What are their behaviours?

Seekers look to align themselves to groups they instinctively feel best represent their true identity. This means their decisions are often heavily influenced by this need to align with, and be seen to be part of, these groups. They believe ‘belonging’ will reflect positively on them.

The decisions they make are not about standing out or being seen as better. They are about giving them the belief that they fit in and measure up to their peers. Fundamentally their decisions are about giving them a greater sense of self-worth.

How does this drive their purchase decisions?

We worked with Professor Richard Crisp, The Head of the Department of Psychology at Durham University to explore what might drive Couplers spending habits and purchase decisions.

“Seekers are not just looking for a new place to live; they’re looking to define or redefine their ‘social identity’. We all have social identities – affiliations that tell us who we are, like our gender, age, politics and sporting preferences. These identities are important because they’re a source of support and self-esteem. Where we live can be one of our most important identities in this respect: A source of support (a safe, neighbourly community) and self-esteem (a better area, somewhere to be proud of).

To affirm valued social identities, people are often keen to express them (just think of all the football shirts you see after a big win). In a direct sense, Seekers should, therefore, be attracted to goods and services that dress their new home, internally and externally, to maximal effect – within their budgetary constraints.

They will likely be quite house proud. Indirectly, they may be attracted to goods and services, and / or marketing, that supports that broader sense of a new beginning – and be willing to spend a little bit extra to move on up.

In sum, Seekers will likely be interested in expressing their newly acquired identity, with thinking space probably exerting no particular pull.”

Download the full whitepaper to find out more about Moving Minds and our seven other tribes.