The big power of a little nudge

How to use behavioural science to improve your marketing

[Image courtesy of Mark Smith at Flickr Creative Commons]

“Too late – I took it to the bank,” said a friend of mine the other day on a WhatsApp chat.

I’d made what I thought was an ironic comment, but he’d taken it literally.

You know what they say about giving a thing and taking it back. By the time I tried to rope in my backhanded compliment, he was already basking in the warm glow of praise, unwilling to let it go.

We all ‘take it to the bank’ from time to time, often without realising it. We hear what we want to hear, project our thoughts and feelings onto the words of others, and often overrate our own abilities. It’s all part of being human – which is what makes us all endlessly fascinating.

Nudging your way to success

I was thinking again recently about why we do what we do when I revisited Nudge for a project I’m working on.

This was the book that took the world by storm back in 2008, becoming one of The Economist’s must-reads of the year. It was so influential that the British government set up its own ‘nudge unit’, otherwise known as the Behavioural Insights Team, and Barack Obama appointed one of the authors, Cass Sunstein, as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The idea is pretty simple: you can make small changes that have big consequences. You don’t need to spend billions or deploy an army of civil servants. You simply need to understand what ‘nudges’ people to behave differently.

‘Psychological interventions’ – in other words, nudges – are incredibly powerful, because they hit the sweet spot and spur people into action. Here are some examples: 

• Asking voters about their motivations for voting the day before the election increases turnout by 11%. By contrast, $4bn in TV advertising in the recent US presidential election increased turnout by just 10%.
• Writing to doctors at the beginning of the flu season telling them they’re high prescribers (among the top 20%) can reduce prescriptions by as much as 3.5%.
• Telling taxpayers most people have already paid boosts tax take. Going one step further and saying most people in their neighbourhood have done so yields even more impressive results. 

To err is human

All of these nudges rely on the cognitive biases that most of us have.

Conformity bias is what’s driving the doctors and taxpayers: while everybody says they want to be different and individual, in practice they really just want to be like everybody else (which explains the irresistible pull of Facebook and other social media). 

These cognitive biases are so pervasive we hardly even notice them any more. See if you recognise any of them (as I certainly do): 

• The path of least resistance, which you’ve probably experienced when you’re faced with endless choice on a shopping trip. You go for the easiest, most hassle-free one. If you’re planning any sort of campaign, sale or offer, remember that. Easy is good. 
• Availability bias, where things that are top of mind tend to be the ones you reach for. This is a particular trap you should try to avoid if you’re carrying out a survey: you get the answers to the questions you ask, so make sure you’re not leading the witness. 
• Loss aversion: if somebody tells you you’re going to lose £100 it’s twice as powerful as if they say you’re going to save £100. So choose your words carefully when you wave those numbers around. The same figure can yield different results depending on how you use it. 
• Anchoring: where you start dictates where you end up, whether you’re negotiating a fee or buying an LBD (was £500 – now only £250!). All value is relative, so your perception of that value is inevitably linked to something else: a previous purchase/sale, a mental price tag, how many cups of coffee it would buy instead. 

These mental flaws that we all have are not only fascinating to behavioural scientists. They’re also a way for marketers to connect with clients and prospects.

The more you understand human nature, the more you can craft a message that’s relevant, targeted and successful. One in which what you say is what they hear, whether it’s a marketing campaign or a WhatsApp chat.

And maybe this time, you can take it to the bank. 

Find out more: 

• How a few words can help people hand over millions (BBC Future).
• The Behavioural Insights Team (aka the British government’s ‘nudge unit’).