Boost Your Marketing with Psychology and Behavioral Science

If you're a marketer not using insights from psychology and behavioral science, you're missing out on key opportunities to inspire the behavior change you want. Your marketing decisions should be based on more than just "intuition" or "gut instincts." Use peer-reviewed research on how people think, feel, and act to make your strategy stronger. Researchers have found many hidden factors that influence human behavior. By understanding these triggers, you can find more ways to solve marketing challenges.

Following are the six Tips to Inspire Consumer Behavior Changes: 

1. Choose Your Moment: People are most likely to change their behaviors at the start of a new time period, like the beginning of a week or after a birthday.
2. Create Cues: Use a specific cue, or trigger, to prompt consumers to take your desired action. For example, finishing breakfast can remind people to brush their teeth.
3. Work with Existing Behaviors: Turn a familiar action into a trigger for a new habit. For instance, making flossing a habit is easier if you do it right after brushing your teeth.
4. Simplify Behavior Change: Make it as easy as possible for people to adopt your desired behaviors. For example, birth control pills often include a week of sugar pills so that users can maintain their daily routine, even when hormone pills aren't needed.
5. Uncertainty Wins: People are more likely to do something if their reward is uncertain. Instead of slowly earning a free coffee with a loyalty card, Pret a Manger offers customers a random chance to get a free coffee when they pay, which has been very successful.
6. Repetition Cements New Habits: New behaviors take time to become habits. To make something a habit, support the new behavior over a long period. Research by Phillippa Lally at University College London shows it takes about 66 days of repetition before a new behavior becomes automatic.

Use Friction Wisely to Influence Behavior

Marketers often focus only on œhelping forces that push consumers toward a desired action. They neglect the œhindering forces that prevent actions. Since consumers prefer the easiest path, it™s crucial to remove unnecessary obstacles. This can include pre-populating forms or offering one-click purchasing options like Amazon. Simplify the first step of the customer journey to encourage participation before asking for more effort.

Sometimes friction can be beneficial. It can prevent undesirable actions, like how the British government limited paracetamol sales to reduce overdoses. Adding a bit of friction can also increase perceived value, known as the œIKEA effect: People value something more if they invest time assembling or obtaining it.

Adding a layer of difficulty can help when asking for an "investment." Research shows that people are three times more likely to agree to a request if they first ask for a bigger commitment of time or resources. For example, if you ask someone to run a marathon and they refuse, they'll be more likely to agree to run a 5K instead.

Boost Brand Memorability

To make your brand name more memorable, use repetition, and humor, and engage your audience. Research by Richard Shotton and Mike Treharne found that people remember a brand better when they have to put in some effort. They showed 415 participants either the full name of a brand, like œthe bank HSBC, or a partial name, like œthe bank H_BC. They did this with many brands across five categories. Participants remembered 92% of the brand names when they had to fill in a missing letter but only recalled 81% when they saw the full name. This means people were two and a half times more likely to forget the brand name if they just saw it.

You don™t need to leave out letters from your brand name to benefit from this. Instead, make your message a bit indirect, so the audience has to think a little. Asking questions instead of making statements also helps, as it gets people to engage more and remember better.

People tend to remember stuff they hear or see repeatedly. To make the most of this, pick clear and vivid words like "skinny jeans" or "cashew nut" instead of abstract ones like "innovative quality" or "wholesome nutrition." Also, humor can help. Studies show that students who cracked jokes while learning stats scored 11% higher than those who didn™t. Marketers can use this by making funny ads and branding to leave a lasting impression.

Boost Your Marketing with Rhyme and Alliteration

If you want people to believe what you're saying, make it specific and easy to understand. Many marketers don't use rhymes anymore because they think fancier techniques are better. But they're missing out! When information rhymes, it's easier for people to remember and believe. Psychologists call this the "Keats heuristic." So, try using rhymes or alliteration in your ads. Even if you're not sure about rhyming, alliteration works too. It makes things stick in people's minds and seem more believable.

Drop the vague figures and get specific. Instead of saying you have "one million customers," go for the punch with "over 1.15 million customers." Specific numbers make your stats look more legit. Non-round numbers make your brand seem even more valuable. For instance, saying something costs $4.85 instead of $5 makes folks less likely to think you're pulling a fast one. They'll see the value, not just the price tag. 

Perceived Value Secrets

Here are three sneaky ways to boost how people see the value of your offers:

1. œBase Value Neglect: People often focus on flashy numbers rather than the actual worth of what's being offered. So, they're more likely to go for something that promises a "50% bonus" rather than a "35% discount," even if the discount is actually a better deal.
2. œExtremeness Aversion™: Ever notice how there's always a middle option when picking something? That's because people tend to shy away from extremes. So, if you want to sell something at a certain price, offer a higher-priced and a lower-priced option alongside it. People will usually go for the one they see as somewhere in the middle.
3. œDenominator Neglect™: Big numbers catch our eye more than small ones. That's why making your sale price bigger and the regular price smaller can make a deal seem way better than it actually is. It's all about playing with what people pay attention to.

Fair Treatment for Consumer Engagement

If you want people to support your brand, treat them right. A study from Northwestern University found that folks are willing to give up benefits just to stick to their principles of fairness. They'd rather walk away than accept less than what they think is fair. When talking to customers, point out how you're fair and how your competition might not be.

When you need to raise prices, explain why. People are more likely to agree if you give a reason, even if it's not the most logical one. Just saying "because" before your explanation can make a big difference.

When you want people to do something differently, being polite works better than making demands. This is especially true for loyal customers. They might not like it when you tell them what to do strongly “ it can feel like you're stepping on their freedom. This feeling might make them want to push back, especially if they come from places where individual freedom is important. When you need to tell your customers the rules, it's better to be polite and use someone less powerful to deliver the message, like a janitor, rather than a big authority figure like a chief of police. People don't like feeling like someone has more power over them.

Success with the "Red Sneakers Effect" and the "Halo Effect"

People often like to blend in with others, but sometimes, going against the crowd can actually make you stand out in a good way. Imagine everyone wearing suits, but you show up in bright red sneakers. That's what Harvard Business School's Francesca Gino calls the "red sneakers effect." It's about being different on purpose to show you're part of a cool group. Think about tech folks. They often dress casually to look important, wearing things like red sneakers instead of fancy shoes. You can do something similar with ads. Instead of following the usual boring patterns, try something new and exciting. But be smart about it. Make sure your brand is seen as special enough to break the rules. And always show that you're doing it on purpose.

Brands can score big with something called the "halo effect." It's like when you think someone's awesome just because they have one cool trait. Imagine this: if people don't know much about your brand, they'll likely think it's amazing if they see just one good thing about it. This halo effect is super powerful, especially for stuff you can't touch, like feelings about quality. Take design, for instance. If you make your product look slick, people might assume it's top-notch even if they don't know much else about it.

Craft Memorable Customer Experiences

In 2003, researchers at the University of Toronto found something interesting about how people remember experiences. They discovered that when patients recalled having a colonoscopy, they mainly remembered two things: the most uncomfortable moment during the procedure and how it ended. This means that even though they might forget a lot of details, those peak moments and the ending stick in their minds the most. This is called the "peak-end rule."

How to Create Better Customer Memories: 

1. Focus on Memorable Moments: Identify the high points of your experience, the low points that could worsen, and when your customer journey ends.
2. Reduce "Troughs": People usually remember bad experiences more than good ones. To help change this, airports can make tough situations easier. For instance, Houston Airport changed the walking routes passengers take after getting off the plane. They added an extra eight minutes to the walk, but when travelers reached baggage claim, their luggage was already there waiting for them.
3. Enhance "Pinnacles": Focus on delivering one or two amazing moments that delight users and leave them with a positive impression.
4. Finish on a High Note: Leave customers with a positive impression by providing an experience that goes beyond their expectations.