Two weeks ago I wrote about four major decision science factors I
learned from Nancy Harhut’s presentation at SXSW Interactive. Listening
to her speak on the power of decision science and its impact on
consumer behavior furthered my newly piqued interest in neuromarketing
and all things under the “brain science meets digital” umbrella.
Harhut’s method and tactical how-tos boiled down to one core creed: By understanding the subconscious, automatic, and instinct-driven nature of human decision-making, brands can boost engagement, response, and conversion.
Nancy spoke about seven decision factors; last time around I tackled commitment and consistency, loss aversion, choice architecture, and cognitive fluency. Each approach is powerful on its own but together they’re incredible forces in our journeys to deliver consumer relevance at scale and high value to the brand. Layer in the next three tactics—price, copy, and design—and you’re off to the proverbial races.
Pricing Perceptions
As I explained in my overview of loss aversion, humans are conditioned to do a ton to avoid pain. We’ll actually do more to avoid pain than to seek out pleasure—crazy, right? Interestingly, when we part with money, the experience activates the same part of brain that makes us feel pain. In other words, consumers are hardwired to avoid parting with their cash.
But obviously it’s not entirely bleak for retailers; people do spend money, but we all want them spending it—now, and more of it—with us! And that’s where the power of decision science comes in. To combat the cash-meets-pain-avoidance scenario, brands are employing all sorts of pricing perception tactics to alleviate some of this innate anxiety. Chances are, you’ve seen or utilized a few of them yourself. A classic? Removing the “.00” from a price, which, Nancy explained, creates a perception that a product or service is a better value. Which would you rather buy: the $10.00 item or the $10 item? Your brain says, and analytics indicate, the latter. The same goes for the number nine, which, for consumers, is a clear decision shortcut; one brand experienced a double-digit sales spike just by tacking “9” to the end of its prices. Brands like Walmart have been employing this tactic for decades.
Another trick? Physically separate the original price and sale price in your display, ad, or product landing page. Doing so makes consumers automatically see your product or services as a better buy. And what about those sales? Online coupons create a surge of oxytocin in our brains. But, in some instances, you don’t even have to give them an actual coupon—just seeing the dashed lines we associated with coupons makes the communication feel like a deal, and oxytocin kicks in. When else do we experience a surge of oxytocin? When we hug or kiss someone. Hug, kiss, coupon ... it’s all the same in our brain.
A great way to tap into a few of these cues—including pricing perception—is with strike-through pricing. You’ve seen it—the price is X, with a prominent slash through that “real” price, with the dramatically lower price adjacent. You can see the luggage was $200, but—slash!—now it’s $99. What a deal!
At Adobe Summit in March, Marriott Hotels talked about its experience leveraging strike-through pricing and the impact it had on the company’s mobile business—but, interestingly, it didn’t start that way. After testing strike-through pricing—for example, “View Room with King Bed $229 ... $195”—on the desktop site, the Marriott team was underwhelmed. With the exception of a bump or two here and there, this tactic didn’t make much of a difference. But the team dug into the decision science principles and gave it another go, this time testing it on the Marriott mobile site. The results were staggering, with significant increases in average order values and overall conversion, in contrast to the results with the desktop tests.
As it turned out, mobile users have very different objectives when they find themselves on a hotel site. Marriott’s test unearthed these significant differences and, specifically, that mobile users were often looking for same-day reservations—and to make immediate decisions—and that the strike-through tactic helped them click “book.” They felt they were getting the best price thanks to the visual cues and stopped their comparison-shopping right then and there. It’s pricing perception meets choice architecture—and, in this case, everyone wins. But, again, it’s not like decision science was a hard-and-fast success story for the Marriott—only with testing and exploration did the company determine the best way to utilize the power of pricing perceptions, among other behavioral triggers.
Copy Nudges
How you wordsmith your content—the words you use, the way you use them, the way you order them—is one of the key drivers in consumers’ purchase path. At the end of the day, we all want to fill an information gap. Call out, specifically, “who,” “what,” “when,” and “why” so your audience can readily fill in the blanks. “Because” is also a great trigger; the word, in many ways, is a decision-making short cut, and consumers want to say yes to anything that follows before they even have a chance to work through the reason.
Another strong copy nudge tactic? Use numerals, especially in headlines. Seeing “5 Reasons to Visit Alaska” resonates for readers more than “Five Reasons” to plan a getaway. Numerals—especially 10 and multiples of 10—have greater credibility and, simply, just cut through the clutter better. Other copy nudge tricks? Self-referencing cues like “you” and “you’re” outperform “our” or “we” when it comes to response. “Magnet words”—“free” and “new” are great examples—are also extremely powerful when it comes to persuading consumer compliance. Same goes for simple but irresistible calls to action. “Start Selling Today” was Square’s promise (don’t mind if I do). And what about H&R Block’s “Get Your Billion Back America?” Yes, please!
Simple, right? Incidentally, that’s another copy nudge—posing a question rather than a declarative statement (scroll back to the title of this article). Something that sounds controversial can be even more compelling—“Do you want to look your best for summer?” Perhaps? Layer in a self-referencing cue—“Is this your new iPhone 4?” versus “iPhone 4 for Sale”—and you’ll capture even greater attention. Keep in mind that ongoing research indicates the type of message as well as the audience receiving the message can drive varying results when it comes to copy nudges. That said, as always, it’s essential to test your copy and calls to action at every stage of the conversion funnel. A compelling question, self-referencing cue, or numeral may work wonders on the home page but not carry through later in the experience—or, as with the Marriott example—these triggers could be powerful on one platform but fall flat on another.
Design Nudges
Like copy nudges, design nudges draw the eye and brain to the right spots. Visual content is of huge importance in the digital universe, especially when it comes to effective marketing tactics. Very simply, you need images. Images are so powerful, in fact, that just having one adjacent to text makes that written content more believable—even if that visual has zero to do with what the words say. Color is another commanding force in organic decision-making. Blue, for example, lowers pulse rates and spells trust in consumers’ minds. Yellow gets us excited. Red means danger. That’s not to say don’t use trigger colors; just give serious thought to contrast and where, when, and how you’re utilizing the shades. Other visual cues that conjure up serious action? Faces—eyes in particular. Humans are naturally drawn to faces, especially eyes. Setting those images where you want a consumer to click can have staggering results. Pull them in with a pair of baby blues and ... click!
Platforms are available that can help brands determine the impact and efficacy of their design nudges quickly and effectively, as can ongoing testing to identify any stumbling points or areas that don’t generate the same consumer engagement as others. Looking at the experience holistically—the copy nudges, the choice architecture, the pricing perception, and more—will help you better evolve your strategy and ongoing hypotheses, and inform future testing across your platforms. This should be, after all, an iterative process, versus simply utilizing the best of the best of decision science. What works at one point in the customer journey may not elsewhere—or it may not translate to another platform, another product, or another promotional extension. Use these as jumping off points to inform your predictions and your follow through, and see where the testing leads you. Often, it’s in a surprising—and beneficial—direction.
None of this is new, except in the sense that digital is forcing us to rethink how we deliver relevant and engaging experiences. “‘Decision Science,'” explains Forbes, “is a great way to describe the end-to-end process for the next generation of marketing” and is, at the end of the day, all about what marketers do best: understand consumer behavior and engage with those consumers “the right way.” And it’s true—pair this know-how with automated approaches to content delivery and personalization, and you’re on your way. It’s not about building lofty, overly ambitious tactics and strategies. When it comes to decision science, in a lot of ways it’s about getting back to your roots and simplifying processes and workflows to what they should be and, more importantly, what customers want them to be. It’s clearly in step with predictive marketing in countless ways, and bringing the two together just makes sense.
Once you’re there—once you’ve successfully started leveraging decision science and neuromarketing in your optimization hypotheses and testing rollouts—it’s like getting the keys to the kingdom. It’s powerful, exciting, and truly “insider” in every sense of the word. By understanding how consumers think, you can develop strategies and begin testing your messages and touch points to see what best integrates into your branded experiences. And once you’ve found the secret sauce for your business, you’ll be able to deliver greater relevance at scale and inspire profitable, positive action, opening up a whole new landscape of opportunity, access, and alignment—and, with that, the kind of consumer satisfaction and loyalty that drives long-term affinity and organic growth potential. Because, for consumers, having a brand that “gets” them to this level is an incredibly powerful, positive and welcome experience.
Harhut’s method and tactical how-tos boiled down to one core creed: By understanding the subconscious, automatic, and instinct-driven nature of human decision-making, brands can boost engagement, response, and conversion.
Nancy spoke about seven decision factors; last time around I tackled commitment and consistency, loss aversion, choice architecture, and cognitive fluency. Each approach is powerful on its own but together they’re incredible forces in our journeys to deliver consumer relevance at scale and high value to the brand. Layer in the next three tactics—price, copy, and design—and you’re off to the proverbial races.
Pricing Perceptions
As I explained in my overview of loss aversion, humans are conditioned to do a ton to avoid pain. We’ll actually do more to avoid pain than to seek out pleasure—crazy, right? Interestingly, when we part with money, the experience activates the same part of brain that makes us feel pain. In other words, consumers are hardwired to avoid parting with their cash.
But obviously it’s not entirely bleak for retailers; people do spend money, but we all want them spending it—now, and more of it—with us! And that’s where the power of decision science comes in. To combat the cash-meets-pain-avoidance scenario, brands are employing all sorts of pricing perception tactics to alleviate some of this innate anxiety. Chances are, you’ve seen or utilized a few of them yourself. A classic? Removing the “.00” from a price, which, Nancy explained, creates a perception that a product or service is a better value. Which would you rather buy: the $10.00 item or the $10 item? Your brain says, and analytics indicate, the latter. The same goes for the number nine, which, for consumers, is a clear decision shortcut; one brand experienced a double-digit sales spike just by tacking “9” to the end of its prices. Brands like Walmart have been employing this tactic for decades.
Another trick? Physically separate the original price and sale price in your display, ad, or product landing page. Doing so makes consumers automatically see your product or services as a better buy. And what about those sales? Online coupons create a surge of oxytocin in our brains. But, in some instances, you don’t even have to give them an actual coupon—just seeing the dashed lines we associated with coupons makes the communication feel like a deal, and oxytocin kicks in. When else do we experience a surge of oxytocin? When we hug or kiss someone. Hug, kiss, coupon ... it’s all the same in our brain.
A great way to tap into a few of these cues—including pricing perception—is with strike-through pricing. You’ve seen it—the price is X, with a prominent slash through that “real” price, with the dramatically lower price adjacent. You can see the luggage was $200, but—slash!—now it’s $99. What a deal!
At Adobe Summit in March, Marriott Hotels talked about its experience leveraging strike-through pricing and the impact it had on the company’s mobile business—but, interestingly, it didn’t start that way. After testing strike-through pricing—for example, “View Room with King Bed $229 ... $195”—on the desktop site, the Marriott team was underwhelmed. With the exception of a bump or two here and there, this tactic didn’t make much of a difference. But the team dug into the decision science principles and gave it another go, this time testing it on the Marriott mobile site. The results were staggering, with significant increases in average order values and overall conversion, in contrast to the results with the desktop tests.
As it turned out, mobile users have very different objectives when they find themselves on a hotel site. Marriott’s test unearthed these significant differences and, specifically, that mobile users were often looking for same-day reservations—and to make immediate decisions—and that the strike-through tactic helped them click “book.” They felt they were getting the best price thanks to the visual cues and stopped their comparison-shopping right then and there. It’s pricing perception meets choice architecture—and, in this case, everyone wins. But, again, it’s not like decision science was a hard-and-fast success story for the Marriott—only with testing and exploration did the company determine the best way to utilize the power of pricing perceptions, among other behavioral triggers.
Copy Nudges
How you wordsmith your content—the words you use, the way you use them, the way you order them—is one of the key drivers in consumers’ purchase path. At the end of the day, we all want to fill an information gap. Call out, specifically, “who,” “what,” “when,” and “why” so your audience can readily fill in the blanks. “Because” is also a great trigger; the word, in many ways, is a decision-making short cut, and consumers want to say yes to anything that follows before they even have a chance to work through the reason.
Another strong copy nudge tactic? Use numerals, especially in headlines. Seeing “5 Reasons to Visit Alaska” resonates for readers more than “Five Reasons” to plan a getaway. Numerals—especially 10 and multiples of 10—have greater credibility and, simply, just cut through the clutter better. Other copy nudge tricks? Self-referencing cues like “you” and “you’re” outperform “our” or “we” when it comes to response. “Magnet words”—“free” and “new” are great examples—are also extremely powerful when it comes to persuading consumer compliance. Same goes for simple but irresistible calls to action. “Start Selling Today” was Square’s promise (don’t mind if I do). And what about H&R Block’s “Get Your Billion Back America?” Yes, please!
Simple, right? Incidentally, that’s another copy nudge—posing a question rather than a declarative statement (scroll back to the title of this article). Something that sounds controversial can be even more compelling—“Do you want to look your best for summer?” Perhaps? Layer in a self-referencing cue—“Is this your new iPhone 4?” versus “iPhone 4 for Sale”—and you’ll capture even greater attention. Keep in mind that ongoing research indicates the type of message as well as the audience receiving the message can drive varying results when it comes to copy nudges. That said, as always, it’s essential to test your copy and calls to action at every stage of the conversion funnel. A compelling question, self-referencing cue, or numeral may work wonders on the home page but not carry through later in the experience—or, as with the Marriott example—these triggers could be powerful on one platform but fall flat on another.
Design Nudges
Like copy nudges, design nudges draw the eye and brain to the right spots. Visual content is of huge importance in the digital universe, especially when it comes to effective marketing tactics. Very simply, you need images. Images are so powerful, in fact, that just having one adjacent to text makes that written content more believable—even if that visual has zero to do with what the words say. Color is another commanding force in organic decision-making. Blue, for example, lowers pulse rates and spells trust in consumers’ minds. Yellow gets us excited. Red means danger. That’s not to say don’t use trigger colors; just give serious thought to contrast and where, when, and how you’re utilizing the shades. Other visual cues that conjure up serious action? Faces—eyes in particular. Humans are naturally drawn to faces, especially eyes. Setting those images where you want a consumer to click can have staggering results. Pull them in with a pair of baby blues and ... click!
Platforms are available that can help brands determine the impact and efficacy of their design nudges quickly and effectively, as can ongoing testing to identify any stumbling points or areas that don’t generate the same consumer engagement as others. Looking at the experience holistically—the copy nudges, the choice architecture, the pricing perception, and more—will help you better evolve your strategy and ongoing hypotheses, and inform future testing across your platforms. This should be, after all, an iterative process, versus simply utilizing the best of the best of decision science. What works at one point in the customer journey may not elsewhere—or it may not translate to another platform, another product, or another promotional extension. Use these as jumping off points to inform your predictions and your follow through, and see where the testing leads you. Often, it’s in a surprising—and beneficial—direction.
None of this is new, except in the sense that digital is forcing us to rethink how we deliver relevant and engaging experiences. “‘Decision Science,'” explains Forbes, “is a great way to describe the end-to-end process for the next generation of marketing” and is, at the end of the day, all about what marketers do best: understand consumer behavior and engage with those consumers “the right way.” And it’s true—pair this know-how with automated approaches to content delivery and personalization, and you’re on your way. It’s not about building lofty, overly ambitious tactics and strategies. When it comes to decision science, in a lot of ways it’s about getting back to your roots and simplifying processes and workflows to what they should be and, more importantly, what customers want them to be. It’s clearly in step with predictive marketing in countless ways, and bringing the two together just makes sense.
Once you’re there—once you’ve successfully started leveraging decision science and neuromarketing in your optimization hypotheses and testing rollouts—it’s like getting the keys to the kingdom. It’s powerful, exciting, and truly “insider” in every sense of the word. By understanding how consumers think, you can develop strategies and begin testing your messages and touch points to see what best integrates into your branded experiences. And once you’ve found the secret sauce for your business, you’ll be able to deliver greater relevance at scale and inspire profitable, positive action, opening up a whole new landscape of opportunity, access, and alignment—and, with that, the kind of consumer satisfaction and loyalty that drives long-term affinity and organic growth potential. Because, for consumers, having a brand that “gets” them to this level is an incredibly powerful, positive and welcome experience.
