‘Priming, altruism and unintended consequences’: Another three ways to think like a behavioural scientist

In an industry that talks a lot about technology, this column explores how we can keep our marketing strategies more human.

Throughout this four-part series – How to Think Like a Behavioural Scientist – we’ve explored everything from the importance of not listening directly to the customer, how we shouldn’t assume the barrier to behaviour change is motivation, and why certainty is the key to consumer confidence.

Here are the next three ‘commandments’ to start thinking like a behavioural scientist.

7. Always prime your audience

If you’re a nappy manufacturer it’s critical to win the contract to supply hospitals. By default, new parents will purchase the same nappy brand as the ones used on maternity wards, so win the hospital contract and you also win the consumer contract.

But B2B sales processes are remarkable in their lack of thinking like a behavioural scientist, and we forget we’re using the same brain to make B2B decisions as we are B2C. So rather than changing the price, sales materials or product, we looked at the psychological dynamics at play in the sales pitch and made some adjustments.

Rather than going in cold, ahead of the sales pitch we had midwifes fill out a questionnaire on their likes and dislikes about the incumbent supplier, which afforded the salespeople much needed leverage to tailor their pitch.

Why It Works: How Marmite took a weakness and turned it into a strengthBut here is where we really think like a behavioural scientist. Counterintuitively, we ask them to recall ten things they like about the incumbent and three things they dislike. Conventional thinking would suggest it’s better to get people to think of more bad things than good, but research shows that ease of recall is a critical factor.

Because it’s harder to list ten things you like about something, they start to question whether they really do, and because three disliked things come to mind much easier, the groundwork is now laid for a conversation about an alternative product. Combined with other techniques sales increase by 25%, all by understanding the mind of the B2B buyer.

With sales it’s all too easy to focus on the pitch, but the real salesmanship happens outside.

8. Don’t rely on altruism

Many brands do not know how to get their customers to make sustainable decisions because they mistake their words for eventual actions.

Every hotel room will have a sign that requests you to re-use your towels to save energy in laundering them. Most of the rooms pull the environmental lever and ask you to do the planet a favour, but some will pull the social proofing lever and say ‘many guests choose to re-use their towel…’.

When you think like a behavioural scientist you can spot unintended consequences which are often invisible to traditional analysis.

If you ask guests what will change their behaviour they will say the environmental message. But test this in hotels and you find the social proofing message is significantly more effective.

So, don’t fall into the trap that just because people say they care about the planet that they will act on it. Each of us live inside of our own worlds and it is that one brands need to speak to.

9. Check for unintended consequences

When we look to improve our marketing activity we always think that must mean adding something, but the more powerful marketing strategy may lie in subtraction. This is what psychologists call ‘subtraction blindness’ and it leads us to miss impactful and easy to execute opportunities.

A big tech firm wanted to improve retention rates on their flagship product. To help they had instructed their call centre to ask for the reason of cancellation, but it’s much harder to save a customer once you’ve asked them to repeat why they want to leave.

‘Motivation, certainty and visibility’: Three more ways to think like a behavioural scientistInstead, a behavioural scientist suggested they ask, ‘why were you looking to join in the first place’. The agent then had a conversation about how to achieve their original goal. Retention rates increased by 8% thus equalling millions in retained revenue.

When you think like a behavioural scientist you can spot unintended consequences which are often invisible to traditional analysis. This is where marketing leaders are accidentally driving with the handbrake on, but by recognising where well intentioned activity is holding them back, they can release the brakes.

What it means for you

An underappreciated skill in marketing is to figure out where you are operating with false assumptions so you can rethink your approach.

Whether that is recognising selling doesn’t necessarily happen in the pitch, or that consumers don’t care about the environment as much as they say they do, or even if there’s something lurking in the system with an unintended consequence. These false assumptions are everywhere and can be damaging to your brand.

But if you continually obsess on why and how people really think, feel and act, just like a behavioural scientist, you’ll spot more opportunities to be an effective marketer.