How To Make Consumers Buy (Kinda)

Inspired by Richard Shotton's "The Choice Factory" and "The Illusion of Choice," this article explores the nuanced process of changing behaviours or consumer habits. It acknowledges the challenges faced when motivation is scarce, and the resistance to change is strong.

Here's a concise guide to navigating through these obstacles, aimed at achieving behavioural change or influencing consumer decisions more effectively and with greater ease.

Below are some steps for changing behaviour (or getting consumers to buy when they weren’t before):

• Kick off changes with a bang at the start of new periods. Think birthdays, New Year's, or even public holidays. Or get creative and mark the 20th of March as the official "First Day of Spring." It's all about framing these moments as fresh starts to spark the change you're aiming for.

• Motivation is great, but it's not everything. You need to give a little nudge or create a sense of urgency. Just wanting something doesn’t always get us moving. Sometimes, we need a little poke to take that leap. Increased desire doesn’t always translate to behaviour change (this is known as the intention to act gap); sometimes a cue is needed to prompt behaviour.

• Lean on what's already there. Changing behaviour is hard. So why not hitch your wagon to an existing habit? By linking a new behaviour to something we already do without thinking (habit stacking), it's a lot less of a hassle to adopt.

• Make it super easy. Break down the new behaviour into bite-sized pieces. It's like making a complex dish seem doable by tackling one ingredient at a time. The easier it feels, the more likely we'll give it a go. Use chunking; split behaviour into the smallest possible steps. This reduces the cognitive dissonance (difficulty) and perception of the behaviour and makes it a lot more likely that a consumer will do it.

• Rewards are cool, but unpredictability is key. Just like Skinner's rats, we're all suckers for rewards. But the catch is, the reward should come as a surprise. Too predictable or consistent, and it becomes expected and loses the desired feeling it initially creates.

• Rinse and repeat. Consistency is your best friend here. A one-off attempt isn't going to cut it if you want this change to stick.

Dealing with Friction and Boosting Motivation:

So, how can we make this journey smoother? It boils down to either encouraging motivating forces or removing restraining forces…

• Encourage or ease the way. By shaping the environment around us, we can either boost those motivating vibes or clear out the hurdles that stand in the way.

• Hunt down and squash friction. Ever been annoyed by an online store that makes you click a bazillion times to buy something? Yeah, that's friction. But then you have the genius of Amazon's one-click purchase. Less hassle equals more action. Friction comes in all shapes and sizes so keep experimenting.

• Start small. Making the first step ridiculously easy can trick us into taking the bigger leaps later. It's all about building up that momentum with minimal effort.

• Keep choices simple. Too many options can lead to decision paralysis. Keep it straightforward to avoid overwhelming everyone.

Remember, tweaking behaviours or consumer habits is more of an art than a strict formula. But with these pointers, you're well on your way to making a bigger impact than you might think.

This is the power of behavioural science. Interested to learn more?