When it’s time to engage with an audience (whether stakeholders, consumers, business partners, colleagues… friends or family), it’s essential to do so with awareness and in a way that achieves the intended goal. This applies whether you’re selling a vacuum cleaner door-to-door or executing a merger between two publicly traded international corporations.
This seemingly obvious premise is addressed by an interesting field of study called “Behavioral Economics” (or “Behavioural Economics” in English), on which RCG bases many of its more “subtle” decisions. When it comes to managing a communication project or an innovative technological process, before even thinking about User Experience, it’s essential to take a step back and look at the bigger picture with particular attention to how the human brain functions.
The liberal principle that a consumer, if properly informed, makes the most rational purchasing choice is, in fact, a somewhat limited view of what extensive studies are demonstrating. Decisions are never made in an “aseptic” and isolated manner; they are influenced by a multitude of external and contextual factors.
Il Nudging
The “Nudge” theory is based on the term coined by Prof. Richard Thaler and Prof. Cass Sunstein in their brilliant 2008 book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.” It involves the idea that anyone who shapes an environment (whether physical or virtual) in which decisions are made has the power to influence those decisions, becoming a “Choice Architect.”
For those who think of it as a “marketing guru” theory or something not very concrete, it can be pointed out that leading university research confirms the actual functioning of the processes (including neurological ones) that it involves. For example, the “Nudge Unit” (The Behavioural Insights Team) of the British Cabinet Office, a UK government entity, has shown surprising results in managing public administration (for example… getting people to pay taxes!) using nudging. Rigorous evidence and tests help us make the right decisions: applying behavioral theories to our activities.
Choice Architect
RCG doesn’t engage in psychological studies or research, but it aims to achieve the objectives of its clients every time it provides consultancy or tackles a new project. For this reason, it keeps in mind both the speed of technological evolution on one hand and the irrationality of individual decision-making processes on the other. Changing the “default option” of a choice can lead to significant improvements in results, as well as offering better feedback. And while large-scale retail (such as supermarkets) has understood this for a long time, many organizations underestimate this approach, which is both highly effective and cost-efficient.
An example? Google’s cafeteria, consciously reorganized based on consumption data and consumer “influence,” with the goal of cost-saving, of course, but more importantly, focused on employee welfare and a significant improvement in the dietary habits of company staff. This is exactly the type of nudging we appreciate: data-driven (and this is where the possibilities of the web strengthen us) and aimed at a useful, but above all, ethical purpose.
The teary eyes of a child looking at us from a banner at a stall asking for a financial contribution are not “poverty porn,” but rather a mechanism (quite obvious) of suggestion designed to lead us to an emotional decision. The opt-in or opt-out option in any form leads to dramatically opposite effects, even with identical samples of the public. Similarly, the cardboard cutouts in the supermarket’s produce section depicting a doctor and suggesting healthy eating leverage our mental “archetype” and are effective. Choosing a smaller plate at an “all you can eat” self-service restaurant is not just an aesthetic choice… just like offering your consumer audience a larger shopping cart, or placing snacks near the checkout.
Call to action
The lock on the human spirit is easy to open when many factors are taken into account. We often talk, when designing a landing page or the graphics of a portal, about “call to action” and UX: placing a button at the top or bottom, in the rush of web consumption by internet users, can make all the difference. It’s fascinating (and essential) to take the topic even more seriously, and not just focus on “managing effects,” but above all, analyzing the causes: if an A-B test of a landing page pushes us in one direction, it’s not just because the audience is fickle and distracted. This is why we will delve into some of these “strategic-operational” principles, which we incorporate into our internal decision-making processes, but which can be explored and deepened on multiple levels. It’s advertising, it’s marketing, it’s ethics, it’s storytelling, but it’s also much more.
For those who would like to get ahead and dive deeper, here are some very interesting contributions.
