Nudge your marketing: intervene on consumer behavior
Behavioral science looks into psychological and social mechanisms which enter into action in our everyday decision-making. 'Nudges' are one type of interventions that have been used since long in marketing, but have now be quantified and fine-tuned to become a key communication element of any brand or government.
Nudges? They’re little influences that softly and subtly steer a consumer choice, based on fine understanding of human decision mechanisms. Softly, as no one likes being forced or manipulated. Last october, Richard H. Taler received the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on Behavioral Science. This choice architecture takes into consideration how people chose before building any choice context. Examples? It can be an opt-out that gets a trillion times more conversions than an effortful opt-in (Defaults are key nudges in websites & emailings). It’s could be as simple as adding the energy consumption of your neighbours on your bill, and let social pressure do its work on your decisions. Or the tiny (cheap) detail of adding ‘limited to max 12 pieces per person” in a in promotion that can triple sales.
Here are a few examples to illustrate Nudging (and help your hiccuping good year resolutions along the way) :
Strong Strategy
Use the “social proof” nudge – What others do exert pressure on you to adapt & fit in. If you knew that colleague companies of similar size & business have a 20% growth yoy because they do XYZ. Wouldn’t you consider it too?
Bike to work 2x/week
Use the framing effect-nudge: people react in different ways depending on how the choice is presented.
Find 5 reasons why biking is good for you: it’s good for unloading stress, it’s me-time, healthy, sustainable, cheap & takes same time as the car in this bloody blocked country.
Do more sport
Did you fall for that useless fitness abo? Try the environmental cues-nudge : Put a poster on bathroom mirror that prompts you to think positively of fitness. Or buy a dog?
Eat healthy
Facilitate choice: Make it easy to make the right decisions without thinking or effort -> Put nuts in your drawer at work, create a big bowl of fruit with premium visibility in your kitchen. You’ll eat less sweets if they're out of reach!
Drive slower
Did you catch that campaign with the “I promised it to my kids” ads? They ticked the opt-in button for you as a default and made the promise for you. If seen as a default, people tend to think that's the standard/preferred choice.
Happy mornings with the kids
Surgeries were proven to be performed more safely with a visual (environmental cue) crisis checklist. We love ticking off things : Who sets the table? Who gets milk & cereals? Everyone got his picnic, water bottle? YES, tick & Go!
What if marketers could use this “libertarian paternalism” to help people to make better choices? Not only to improve effectiveness of marketing activations and make more market share. That's important, but better still : to drive human choices that are the most difficult to make, the ones where immediate & instant gratification are absent.
Let's use nudges to orient people to the wisest choices for their own long term health, to help people to reduce impact on the planet?
Off you go!