Conversion
Scarcity
We value things more when they’re in limited supply
There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.
The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.
Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.
Mastering quantity scarcity
An airline stating that there's
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.
However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.
Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.
Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.
Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.
Mastering time scarcity
Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.
As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).
This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.
There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.
The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.
Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.
Mastering quantity scarcity
An airline stating that there's
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.
However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.
Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.
Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.
Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.
Mastering time scarcity
Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.
As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).
This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.
146 people were asked to rate identical cookies that were either presented in a jar as scarce or in abundance. They were then asked how likely they would be to want to eat a further cookie.
When scarce, the cookies were rated as more desirable and having a higher value. They were also seen as more valuable when going from an abundant state to scarce than when always scarce.
Scarcity comes in 4 flavors:
Quantity, Time, Access & Rarity.
Control quantity.
To increase perceived value of your product, release it in smaller and diminishing quantities, emphasizing its finite nature.
Restrict time.
When the clock is ticking and we’re overwhelmed, we take mental shortcuts that speed up decision-making.
Motivate customers by emphasizing the limited time remaining in which to act.
Limit access.
Restricting access to your products or services will increase desire and perceived value. Do this selectively for certain features and / or customer segments.
For instance, you might want to design valuable, unique rewards that are only unlocked for very special efforts on the part of the customer.
Conversion
Limited Choice
We’re more likely to decide when the options are sensibly restricted
249 supermarket customers were invited to one of two tables, displaying either 24 jams or 6 jams. They were then asked how attractive the jams were and observed as to whether they bought one.
The results found that though customers considered the 24 jams more attractive, they were far more likely to buy when there were only 6 jams to choose from.
Reduce choice difficulty. If customers are time-poor, reduce the number of dimensions along which your products are compared. Present choices in an organised, non-random order, especially with visual layouts.
Tidy up choice relationships. Highlight one dominant option, align the attributes along which products are compared, and eliminate products from your range that overly complement each other to decrease deferral and increase purchase likelihood.
Adapt to product expertise. Who is your audience? To what extent can they weigh up the benefits of each possible choice? Experts prefer more choice and the lesser-informed crave less.
Build around intent & focus. Intent: are they buying or merely browsing? If browsing, they’re not making a decision, and are less likely to feel overloaded. Focus: a single purchase or a bundle? Bundlers want more options, but Singles want fewer.
Conversion
Default Effect
We tend to accept the option pre-chosen for us
Faced with a set of options, when we’re not sure what’s the “right” choice, Defaults offer a helpful guide.
They help people avoid expending vast amounts of cognitive energy to decide between what could be a large number of options.
This is especially the case for those who don’t know much about the products or services, where Default options can take away the fear of getting that first decision wrong.
They're also a powerful remedy to any potential Analysis Paralysis, and are particularly helpful when making multiple choices one after the other.
Consider that you’re buying a computer, with a range of possible customisations to various parts.
If there were no default choices set, we’d quickly become overwhelmed with what was the right choice in each step.
If you have complicated product ranges or customisations, are you setting helpful Defaults? If you are, think hard about whether these need improving to reduce effort further.
But also, a word of warning.
Defaults can be terribly misused to force people into decisions that they don’t want.
Take people down the wrong path and you’ll quickly trigger Reactance; an angry feeling where people will want to reclaim their independence, often doing the opposite of what you Default them to.
Ensure that your Defaults have peoples’ own intentions in mind and don’t deviate too far from what people would do of their own choosing.
What Defaults are you setting? How can these be improved to help smooth out decision-making and guide people to better outcomes, either for themselves (e.g. helping them save more money) or for the wider group (e.g. defaulting meeting times to 15 minutes instead of 30).
Defaults are set everywhere. They’re powerful and have a big influence on behavior with little effort.
Faced with a set of options, when we’re not sure what’s the “right” choice, Defaults offer a helpful guide.
They help people avoid expending vast amounts of cognitive energy to decide between what could be a large number of options.
This is especially the case for those who don’t know much about the products or services, where Default options can take away the fear of getting that first decision wrong.
They're also a powerful remedy to any potential Analysis Paralysis, and are particularly helpful when making multiple choices one after the other.
Consider that you’re buying a computer, with a range of possible customisations to various parts.
If there were no default choices set, we’d quickly become overwhelmed with what was the right choice in each step.
If you have complicated product ranges or customisations, are you setting helpful Defaults? If you are, think hard about whether these need improving to reduce effort further.
But also, a word of warning.
Defaults can be terribly misused to force people into decisions that they don’t want.
Take people down the wrong path and you’ll quickly trigger Reactance; an angry feeling where people will want to reclaim their independence, often doing the opposite of what you Default them to.
Ensure that your Defaults have peoples’ own intentions in mind and don’t deviate too far from what people would do of their own choosing.
What Defaults are you setting? How can these be improved to help smooth out decision-making and guide people to better outcomes, either for themselves (e.g. helping them save more money) or for the wider group (e.g. defaulting meeting times to 15 minutes instead of 30).
Defaults are set everywhere. They’re powerful and have a big influence on behavior with little effort.
161 people were told that they’d just moved to a new US state and that here, the default was (or wasn’t) to be an organ donor. They were then asked to accept or change this donation status.
Results showed that only 42% donated when the default was to opt out, but 82% when defaulted to opt in.
Defaults are powerful. They’re chosen because consumers take mental shortcuts (especially when tired) and because there’s implied trust that they’re the ‘right’ choice. Defaults also act as a reference point against better or worse options. (Dinner et al., 2011).
Defaults can be set around anything: from the standard package you offer to new subscribers, to the pre-set top-up amount for your mobile wallet, to whether each order of pizza should come with salad. Each default can dramatically affect conversion levels and behavior.
Get the balance. Ensure your defaults feel natural and in line with consumer aspirations. The more extreme the default you set (i.e. defaulting to the most expensive option), the more effort consumers will expend weighing up the cognitive / emotional costs of not choosing the default, impacting their experience and reducing overall trust.
Conversion
Zeigarnik Effect
Incomplete tasks weigh on our minds until done
47 subjects were given around 20 small, manual tasks to complete, one at a time. Experimenters randomly interrupted completion of half of these tasks. After, subjects were asked to recall as many tasks as possible.
There was a 90% higher recall of incomplete and interrupted tasks than those completed.
Make important task completion frictionless. If customers leave your site without finishing their order, make it effortlessly easy to get that completion feeling, such as allowing for completion with a single click, tap or swipe.
Focus on completion’s emotional release. Providing reward incentives for task completion actually demotivates consumers. Instead, remind them not just of the product they’ve not yet bought, but of the feelings that this ‘purchase task’ will unlock.
Make known campaigns incomplete and interactive. Greater familiarity with an advert increases consumer ability to complete an interrupted ad message. Active participation also boosts ad memory (Heller, 1956). So if your popular campaign’s reaching its end, consider a special second follow-up version that allows for active participation in completing the ad message.
Conversion
Curiosity Effect
We're driven to seek missing info that closes our knowledge gap
105 people were shown an online promotional offer, with the final offer value of 40% revealed either immediately or only at checkout.
Those in the extended curiosity condition were more likely to buy with the promotion than those who were told of the offer value immediately.
…curiosity will always be effective.
A recent campaign by Cancer Research UK to fill missing letters of the second-most common cause of cancer led to a 22% increase in its awareness.
How can you use curiosity to drive a desire to learn about a new product or important message?
Create positive curiosity.
Vacation company srprs.me let you choose the number of people, dates and continent. You then get a scratch card to reveal your destination…but only at the airport!
Use to convert free to paid.
Popular dating app Bumble uses curiosity to drive conversions. People who’ve already liked you are shown, but with their faces pixelated and no further information shown. Users are then prompted to buy BumbleBoost to close the information void.
Conversion
Metaphorical Shortcut
New or complex ideas are easier understood through existing ones
408 people were shown one of three versions of a shampoo advert. The control just had the words “Say bye-bye to your dandruff” with an image of a couple. The two metaphor versions both had “You may erase anything unwanted” with either an eraser (implicit) or the bottle of shampoo (explicit) rubbing out words on a blackboard.
Results showed greater purchase intentions for the product with either metaphorical ad.
Leverage our existing understanding of the world for new ideas or concepts. Complicated ideas are best understood through existing ones. What analogies can you draw that your customers can relate to?
Easy metaphors aren’t always best. Research has found that metaphors with a little complexity are fun and act as a mild problem to solve. Use with Curiosity and Humor.
Reserve this for known brands or products; for new or abstract technology, keep metaphor complexity low.
Metaphors come in different flavors:
Juxtapositions: two images next to one another;
Fusions: mixing two concepts into a single one; or
Replacements: switching one thing for another.
Just make sure that you harness real world understanding to help ground your new idea.
Conversion
Time Scarcity
We're more likely to act if the clock is ticking…
90 people were asked to solve 50 puzzles in either 10 or 40 minutes. A time-saving notification stating that “This question isn’t worth any points. Press A to skip” would pop up for half the puzzles.
Results showed that the time-scarce group ironically were more likely to miss the time-saving notifications due to their heightened focus on task completion.
Time Scarcity increases conversion under a few conditions
Make sure your use of it is on-brand, authentic and not overly-aggressive to avoid harming long-term trust and loyalty.
A big clock with red flashing text may boost sales in the short-term but risks damaging brand perceptions in the longer term and will lead to Reactance in the more behaviorally-aware and in more mature markets with stronger competition.
Use time windows for excitement.
Particularly for experiments with new ideas or for seasonal Limited Editions. Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappucino was on sale for 5 days only. It sold out in just 3 and generated 160,000 Instagram posts.
Develop novel ways of saving people time.
People who spend money on time-saving purchases report greater life satisfaction (Whillans et al, 2017).
Amazon and Sainsbury’s are exploring no-queue, no-till shopping. Just scan on the app and leave. How can you free up even a few minutes of our most precious commodity?
Conversion
Fresh Start Effect
We're more likely to stick to habits made at the start of new time periods
11,912 members of a gym were surveyed over 442 days for their attendance.
Results showed that, next to the baseline, the probability of people going to the gym increased at the beginning of the week, month and semester, showing our higher in-built level of motivation at the start of new time periods.
Motivate around fresh start moments.
How can you help people achieve their dreams by communicating around multiple time chunks, such as the start of the week, month or year, or even personal events like birthdays, graduations or job changes?
Target one-shots.
Fresh starts are particularly good at helping people make one-off decisions that perhaps they'd been delaying, such as getting that flu jab. What single task can you help people do around new time periods?
Use to overcome failures.
There are countless fresh start opportunities to help people who have let good habits slip. Frame it as a "new you", which gives an opportunity to separate themselves from past failures. Get them started by being empathic and having them Commit to a Tiny Habit.
Conversion
Door In The Face
We're more likely to agree to a small request after first rejecting a larger one
375 mountain hikers were approached as they passed a cheese sales counter and asked to buy a large piece, with all rejecting it. They were then offered a piece half in size and cost and split into 4 groups: 1 - Simple DITF; 2 - a verbal concession that large was too big; 3 - credibility by wearing a traditional uniform; and 4 - 2+3 combined.
Purchases were much higher with DITF, especially carried out by a credible salesperson conceding verbally.
Verbally emphasize the concession of the target request over the initial one. This is vital - hearing the salesperson empathize and adjust their request is required for the consumer to reciprocate and accept.
Only use in physical sales situations. It’s unlikely to work where there is no direct contact between buyer and seller (e.g. online auctions), due to the lack of verbal concession and face-to-face interaction. It’s best used in an in-person context where negotiation is key (car showrooms, charitable giving, B2B contracts etc).
Sizes matter. Don’t make your initial request too high, as consumers will use it to justify their rejection of the target request (Wang et al, 1989). Also ensure that the reduction of the target feels significant enough for the consumer to justify a decision change.
Conversion
Salience
Our choices are determined by the information we're shown
What info we decide to surface visually has a powerful effect on peoples’ decisions. The same is also true for what we choose to hide.
For instance, if I wanted to design a work environment where people ate more fruit, I could buy bananas and apples but store them in the fridge, out of view.
But this would have what we call “low salience”, or a low likelihood of being seen.
Instead, to boost fruit consumption further, we’d want to increase Salience.
So now, instead of hiding the fruit in the fridge, we put it in large colourful bowls in central, highly visible areas of the office in eye line and within arm’s reach.
Now the fruit have “high salience” and are much more likely to be eaten.
Note that this also has second order effects; more salience from the fruit bowls means more people eating fruit, creating a powerful salience cycle.
What do you want people to do more or be more aware of? How can you increase its salience next to other things?
Another strategy is to remove other things around it to increase salience in relative terms. So in the fruit example, we might want to remove the coffee machine to give the bowls greater salience.
What info we decide to surface visually has a powerful effect on peoples’ decisions. The same is also true for what we choose to hide.
For instance, if I wanted to design a work environment where people ate more fruit, I could buy bananas and apples but store them in the fridge, out of view.
But this would have what we call “low salience”, or a low likelihood of being seen.
Instead, to boost fruit consumption further, we’d want to increase Salience.
So now, instead of hiding the fruit in the fridge, we put it in large colourful bowls in central, highly visible areas of the office in eye line and within arm’s reach.
Now the fruit have “high salience” and are much more likely to be eaten.
Note that this also has second order effects; more salience from the fruit bowls means more people eating fruit, creating a powerful salience cycle.
What do you want people to do more or be more aware of? How can you increase its salience next to other things?
Another strategy is to remove other things around it to increase salience in relative terms. So in the fruit example, we might want to remove the coffee machine to give the bowls greater salience.
Over 10 days, millions of people using online ticket marketplace Stubhub were put into two groups, where 15% ticket fees were either made salient up front during ticket browsing, or hidden until checkout.
Results found that for those with delayed salience of the fee, revenue increased by 21%, with a quarter of this due to higher priced tickets being bought.
What is seen is what is done
Surfacing key information in a timely fashion can prompt us to do more of what we aspire to. For instance, Amazon have redesigned their Kindle so that when it's not in use, the screensaver becomes the cover of the book you're currently reading. This acts as a salient reminder to read as one notices the Kindle throughout the day. We can use the same approach to boost healthy eating, having a bowl of fruit on the kitchen table over one filled with salty cashews. What do you want users to do more of? How do you want them to feel? What unique or delightful features can you surface that will help inspire action and make Tiny Habits that much more likely to form?
More knowledge isn't necessarily better
There's a trade-off between what's presented to us now and making good decisions for our future. For instance, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase choose to omit the % gained or lost from one's investments. Research shows that if they instead showed this, people may incorrectly sell coins that have increased in value, while keeping coins that have dropped in value, known as the Disposition Effect.
Differentiate by removing information
Whereas knowledge can be power, it can also demotivate. For example, weight loss scales Shapa does away with the number telling you how much you weigh, instead providing 5 colour bands denoting averaged performance. Omitting the number shifts us away from short term fluctuations in weight that can lead to feelings of failure causing us to give up. What information or options could you hide that could otherwise lead users to short term or harmful outcomes? What can you remove that could confuse or overwhelm?
Delayed salience can trigger shock
Also consider the ethical implications of hiding key information, as in the study above. In this case, any reactance felt will be relative to the proportion of the extra fees incurred, customer expectations, industry norms and how frequent the transaction is. Hidden fees on more regular transactions like grocery shopping will be subject to higher levels of reactance than one-offs like a car purchase. There is an art to surfacing such painful information at the correct time in order to generate a sale. Try adding an explanation of why the fee exists to reduce drop-off, like Airbnb do.
Branding
Fluency Shortcut
Statements that are easier to understand are more believable
205 people were shown a description of a digital camera printed in a font that was either easy to read (high fluency) or hard (low fluency).
Results found that when easy to read, only 56% delayed choosing the camera, next to 71% when hard. Why? Fluency breeds familiarity, which we value greatly, because it’s unlikely to be harmful (Zajonc, 1968).
Keep it short. Whether for marketing, nudges or political persuading, low syllable, easy-to-conceptualize slogans will feel dramatically more intuitive for consumers. Next to a competing message, they’ll believe the one that’s easier to understand (Schooler & Hertwig, 2005).
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The mere act of repeating your message will increase its familiarity, which itself increases the extent to which it’s seen as true (Reber & Schwarz, 1999). Keep it consistent across your team and put it everywhere.
Keep product benefits concise. Consumers actually like a product less the more positive traits they bring to mind (Menon & Raghubir, 2003). This is because they start to associate your product with greater complexity and lower fluency.
Branding
Self-Expression
We constantly seek out ways to communicate our identity to others
274 people were shown 10 t-shirts, split into 4 groups and then asked to rate the shirts on either likeability, casualness, colorfulness or how much it matched with a cap. They were then asked how fun the task was.
Those given the ability to express their like or dislike rated the task as much more fun than the other groups. Simply, we value ways to express how we feel.
Personalization pays.
Bold, scaleable self-expressive features increase loyalty and sales.
Coca-Cola’s #ShareaCoke campaign - switching out the product name for a person’s name - led to a 10% rise in 2014 sales and a 7% spike in Facebook growth.
An Australian store sold 400,000 customized jars of Nutella for $10 each, becoming their top seller.
Tie it back to emotions.
Though there are successes like Kraft Heinz personalized soup “Get Well Soon ___”, with consumers happy to spend five times more, know that personalization has upper bounds on price and has less impact as it becomes more common.
Like Heinz, the smartest brands will tie personalization to underlying product emotions - care and sympathy in this case.
What emotions do you want end consumers to feel? Use personalization to help express these publicly.
Loyalty
Rewards
We change our behavior when given gifts that reinforce actions and goals
58 households in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had their fruit and veg shopping monitored for 8 weeks. Half were offered a 50% discount reward on all fruit and veg purchased and half were not.
Results showed that the reward increased healthy food purchasing behavior from 6.4 to 16.7 servings of fruit and veg on average per week per household.
Rewards come in two types: Extrinsic and Intrinsic.
Extrinsic rewards are economic: pay, discounts, working conditions, gold stars, healthcare, promotions etc.
Intrinsic rewards are emotional, coming from a sense of achievement through skill and hard work, unplanned verbal praise from authority figures, and peer recognition.
Too much extrinsic will lessen internal motivation as it’s seen as controlling, especially if they’re later removed (Murayama et al., 2010). Ensure that they’re significant enough to motivate against task boredom (Hidi, 2015) and are in line with the market needs of employees / customers.
Focus on rewarding intrinsically - seen as a superior reward (Deci et al., 1999) - with greater levels of trust, choice and freedom to make one’s own decisions. You’ll be rewarded with a more motivated, loyal following as a result.
Loyalty
Endowed Progress Effect
We reach our goals faster when we have help getting started
300 customers at a car wash were split into two groups and given one of two different loyalty cards for a free wash upon completion: either one with space for 8 stamps or one for 10 (with 2 spaces pre-stamped).
Despite both cards requiring the same amount of effort, completion of the non-pre-stamped 8 card over a 9-month period was only 19% whereas the pre-stamped 10-card was 34%.
Get them started. Endow progress with a fraction of points, stars or a brand-specific measure. Make sure you endow enough to motivate use, aiming for between 10-25% of the total effort required for the first reward. As well as helping with initial effort, make the reward itself substantial and meaningful to assist habit-forming.
Never endow at the end. The closer we are to a goal, the more we value our own internal efforts to complete it. Doing so on their behalf will devalue existing effort, perceived reward value and reduce loyalty strength.
Make it seamless. In Christmas 2013, 1 in 8 Americans got a Starbucks Gift Card. On redemption they were automatically endowed with progress in the form of loyalty stars, creating 1.5m new loyalty members as a result. How can you seamlessly channel gift customers through to your loyalty scheme?
Loyalty
Tiny Habits
We're more likely to reach goals when broken down into smaller ones
96 women were given fitness trackers and asked to either walk 10,000 steps per day or walk a bit more each day than the average of their own last 9 days. This equated to a lower number of steps than the 10,000 group but had the benefit of adapting to each person’s own step count.
Results showed that over 4 months, those with a smaller, adaptive goal walked far more than the 10,000 group.
Start very small.
We’re time and attention-poor, wanting results now. As one step up from Endowed Progress, what is the smallest, valuable task you can design for that affords a fast, positive Feedback Loop?
To increase long-term success, Tiny Habits creator BJ Fogg suggests using an existing behavior to trigger a new one by 'chaining' new tiny behaviors onto existing habits.
Keep the bigger goal front of mind.
People who’d completed a small exercise task were less likely to eat healthy food after, due to a short-term feeling of success (Fishbach et al., 2006). However, prompting a reminder of the larger Goal Prime of becoming fit removed this problem.
Time the reminder after tiny task success.
Make it adaptive.
A system that flexes with our fluctuating capacity (i.e. time or energy) will always work best. Understand users’ habitual patterns & weak points and design empathic experiences around these.
Loyalty
Goal Gradient Effect
Our efforts increase the closer we are to task completion
172 people were told of a fundraiser called Sheila who needed to sell 100 candy bars for her sports team and told she had to sell either 1 or 21 more bars to meet her quota. They were then asked how likely they were to buy a candy from her.
Those in the almost-complete task state were far more likely to help than when there were many left.
Visualize to motivate.
Showing quantifiable task progress with a visual and numerical indicator will increase completion speed (Cheema & Bagchi, 2011).
How can you heighten desire to close in on the reward?
Note that effort levels will fall after the current reward has been attained, so reframe progress around the next goal.
Be ahead of the curve.
Endow Progress and put more weight on task completion at the start than when close to the goal.
Place easier tasks at start and middle, saving harder or bigger ones for just before reward.
Reframe task size.
Motivation to complete a task is directly proportionate to its size. So, for viewers new to Breaking Bad, instead of Netflix initially highlighting all 5 seasons, reframe the task as a single season with a sense of completion.
Once season 1 is watched, reframe season 2 as a natural extension of 1 but distinct from 3-5.
Pricing
Anchoring
What we see first affects our judgement of everything thereafter
During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments.
Once an anchor is set, other judgements are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor.
For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable, even if they're still higher than what the car is really worth.
Studies have shown that anchoring is very difficult to avoid.
For example, in one study students were given anchors that were obviously wrong. They were asked whether Mahatma Gandhi died before or after age 9, or before or after age 140.
Clearly neither of these anchors are correct, but the two groups still guessed significantly differently (choosing an average age of 50 vs. an average age of 67).
During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments.
Once an anchor is set, other judgements are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor.
For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable, even if they're still higher than what the car is really worth.
Studies have shown that anchoring is very difficult to avoid.
For example, in one study students were given anchors that were obviously wrong. They were asked whether Mahatma Gandhi died before or after age 9, or before or after age 140.
Clearly neither of these anchors are correct, but the two groups still guessed significantly differently (choosing an average age of 50 vs. an average age of 67).
Participants were asked to quickly estimate - within 5 seconds - the answer to one of two same calculations, anchored either low or high.
Those with the low anchor guessed 512 on average, whereas the high guessed a much higher 2,250. The correct answer was 40,320.
Put the highest price first
This will make subsequent prices appear cheaper in comparison and increase sales.
For instance, on the wine list shown, instead of putting the expensive items at the foot of the list, rearrange them in descending price.
Alternatively, if higher, show your competitors' prices first before revealing your comparative value.
Don’t set your anchor price too high
If you do, the natural inclination to anchor other options against this price will diminish.
Be realistic. Keep it within an appropriate region of your other prices in order for your anchors to be effective.
Audience matters.
Anchoring effects weaken for those with higher cognitive ability (Bergman et al., 2010) and those with prior product-buying experience (Alevy et al., 2011).
Pricing
Round Pricing Preference
We prefer and trust whole numbers over those ending in a 9
306 people visited one of three coffee shops and were asked to buy a coffee at either: €0.99, €1, €1.01 or an orange juice that was €0.15 cheaper than the respective coffee price.
Results showed that, contrary to conventional research on pricing (shown by the dashed line), the round-priced coffee saw the highest % of sales.
Use round prices to reduce fatigue.
There’s a growing trend for cognitive convenience in the face of Time Scarcity and Analysis Paralysis.
A banana costing £1 is easier and faster to process mentally than one costing £0.95. UK retailer Tesco now adopts this specifically for promotions.
If your brand places a value on saving time and energy, consider doing the same.
Use for premium, green or pleasurable products.
Marks & Spencer (UK), Saks (US) and Levi’s now adopt round pricing, showing the zeros. Doing so signals brand quality, warmth and trust.
Use to nudge secondary behaviors.
For transactions, add a Foot In The Door to give the rounded difference to charity (supermarket), savings (banks) or tips (fast food), for example.
Pricing
Boundary Pricing
We're more likely to upgrade if the base price feels closer
378 people were were split into two groups and offered two coffees, small and large, with prices either $0.95 and $1.20 or $1 and $1.25.
Results showed that people were 55.5% likely to upgrade to a large coffee when the small was $1 than when it was $0.95 (28.9%). Average coffee sale prices were also higher in the boundary condition ($1.14 vs $1.02).
Offer upgrades? Use boundary pricing.
If you offer more than one product option at different prices, boundary pricing can help improve the rate of upgrades.
This is because, next to a price set just below a boundary (e.g. $95), increasing a base price to just above ($105) makes the upgrade option ($135) appear cheaper and less of a painful step up.
It's because of the way we encode numbers, chunking them into broader numerical categories to infer value. This increases willingness to upgrade and therefore spending.
Works with multiple upgrade options
As long as the prices all sit within the same price boundary, the effects persist for product ranges with more than two options. This was shown with further studies on purchases of apartments and cars, which both offered multiple upgrade options.
Maximise upgrade range by setting your base price around a more round numerical amount (e.g $10,000 vs $11,000).
This will allow you to offer upgrade options that sit within a broader, albeit the same price boundary ($10000-19000 vs $11000-11999).
Present options together, not sequentially
The effects of boundary pricing disappear when the options are shown separately (different screens / post-purchase), relying upon the user's memory in some way.
Ensure that users can easily see the value of upgrading, by showing the base price next to the upgrade.
Note that impact also reduces when the upgrade option sits in a higher boundary ($205) than the base ($105).
Product Development
Picture Superiority Effect
We remember images far better than words
142 people were split into 3 groups and were shown either 72 nouns, abstract words or pictures on a projector for a split-second each, with 5-second pauses in between. They were then asked to recall as many items as possible.
Results showed that those in the picture group recalled far more than either word groups.
Boost your message.
Visual ads are remembered better in the long term than verbal ads, especially when we are under greater cognitive load (Childers and Houston, 1984).
What emotional message can you convey more powerfully with a striking, visual metaphor over mere words?
Boost learning by adding in visual references, and not relying solely on text-based language.
This can help broaden understanding across cultures and age ranges.
Where are you trying to change behavior?
What image do you want to stick in peoples’ heads to simplify understanding?
Make product choices distinct.
Images are internalized twice, both visually and verbally (see Dual Code Theory), so they stick in the brain better than just words.
This holds as long as the images aren't abstract or similar to one another (Reder et al, 2006).
So if you sell a large product range that looks similar, consider modifying their design or how they're presented to heighten relative differences and create a more distinct range of choices.
Product Development
Analysis Paralysis
Our capacity to process information and make decisions reduces with each made
42 people were either asked to make 35 'A or B' choices that would inform the design of an educational course they were attending, or instead to just read the course material. Both were then tasked with solving math puzzles and were timed until they gave up.
Those who had to make the choices beforehand persisted for less time on the puzzles and also got fewer right.
Protect your decision capacity.
Prioritize your day around and take breaks before making harder decisions. For example, restaurant inspectors can reduce errors by scrutinizing sites at higher risk of failure at the start of the day (Ibanez & Toffel, 2017).
Create product contrast.
When no option in a set offers a distinct advantage from the others, we're most at risk of not choosing at all (Dhar, 1997). How can you improve your choice architecture to offer variety that actually makes deciding easier?
Order matters for revenue.
Prospective Audi owners given a high number of customization options early on more readily accepted, higher-priced defaults in later steps (Levav, 2010). Though be careful not to trigger Reactance by pre-selecting defaults that are seen as too expensive.
Product Development
Goal Priming
When we’re reminded of our aims, we're more motivated to reach them
The food choices of 89 people both dieting and not dieting were analyzed in a cafe. Diners were given a menu with either information highlighting low-calorie options or not (the control).
Results showed that dieters primed with the reminder of their future goal consistently made healthier food choices than unprimed dieters.
Who is the target group?
They could be people who are motivated to protect the environment, improve productivity at work or improve the quality of their lives. Note: they must have already stated a desire for this goal. Your prime will merely aim to nudge their existing Commitment to meeting their own aspirations.
Where can you trigger these long-term motivations?
As well as environment, timing also matters, so make sure that you do so very close to the actual decision point, i.e. at the start of a meeting, at the ordering counter or on the inside of a restroom door.
Boost with the Spacing Effect.
What's the specific behaviour that you're allowing them to perform to help move them towards their long term goal?
It has to be obvious and easy to do, such as clearly identifying an eco-friendly substitute, bolting on a salad or opting for an equally-priced, dairy-free option.
Product Development
Product-Person Bias
We look for and value human connections in our products
146 people were asked to view one of four cell phones that had buttons made to look like a smile or a frown with either upturned or downturned eyes. They were then asked to rate how much they liked that particular phone.
Those who saw a friendly face liked their phone far more than those who saw a sad, negative face.
Make it human.
Doing so will speed up familiarity with abstract or complex products (Hart, 2013), or for new or lonely customers (Hart & Royne, 2017).
Where can you add warm humanness to your product?
Go all in.
In 2009, price comparison site Comparethemarket changed its fortunes overnight by introducing Aleksandr, a talking Russian meerkat. With his own language, highly active social media presence, soap opera, merchandise and even a pseudo-autobiography, he’s one of the most talked about ad campaigns in recent UK history.
Unboxing as ‘birth’.
Consider Flymo's Robotic Lawnmower. Many owner reviews on Amazon gave their 'new family member' a name, but Flymo could build this smoothly into the unboxing experience. How can you design for a subtle human bond at first sight? Doing so may create a stronger Ownership Bias and may lead consumers to take greater care of their product, along with being more tolerant of any of its characterful 'shortcomings'.
Experience
Humor Effect
We’re more motivated by and remember things that make us laugh
72 people were split into 3 groups: Humor, Neutral or Contentment and shown a respective video: Mr Bean (a British comedy show), an educational video or a beach scene. They were then all asked to solve a secretly-impossible puzzle.
Those humored spent 50% more time and made 2x more attempts trying to solve the problem than others.
Make it funny. Consumers have more positive attitudes towards humorous ads and their brands, increasing intentions to buy (Eisend, 2008). However, levels are dictated by product category and how related the humor is to the product.
Funny stories are more memorable than other positive emotions like admiration or respect. Puns are particularly memorable because they force us to simplify our humor delivery to a single line, reducing mental effort (Summerfelt et al., 2010).
Bring humor into the workplace. It helps boost employee satisfaction (Decker 1987), leads to higher productivity (Avolio et al. 1999) and boosts creativity (Brotherton 1996). Ben & Jerry’s, Southwest Airlines and Sun Microsystems are well-known for their use of humor within organizational culture (Barbour, 1998).
Experience
Spacing Effect
We remember things better when repeated over time and across environments
40 students were taught a topic and either given the respective homework once instantly or 3 times over the next 3 weeks. They then had an exam a month later.
Those who had the homework spaced out over time performed much better in the exam than those who were asked to do it immediately after learning.
Spread out the learning.
Research shows that spaced repetition is the most robust means of learning but is rarely used by companies. Most knowledge is delivered once and forgotten, wasting money and time. Develop shorter learnings spread over time, using different tools, both digital and physical.
Use it or lose it.
Knowledge only sticks when we use it. After reading a book chapter, summarize learnings into bullet points, a list of actions, or even better, become the teacher. Blinkist could send some simple interactive questions after readers have finished a book. Use Slack app QuickQuiz to follow up Lunch & Learns with a Tiny Habit of bite-size questions.
Make progress trackable.
Learnings apps like Duolingo and Memrise create powerful Feedback Loops through points systems, daily goals and leaderboards to create positive reinforcement. Tracking progress gives us a sense of growth and improvement.
Experience
Chunking
We process information better when put into small groups
48 people were shown 100 sets of numbers of different lengths, split up into a number of smaller chunks. After seeing each set, they were asked to recall the numbers in a memory test.
The results found that, on average, people were good at remembering about 7 numbers and 4 chunks before memory errors started kicking in.
Chunk for clarity.
Our short-term memory is limited, so whether you're designing a food menu or trying to share a new idea, prevent Analysis Paralysis by breaking information down into 3-5 smaller bites that are easier to process.
Chunk requests.
If you're asking for a lot of info from customers, how can you break the task into more manageable segments?
Data capture company, Typeform are a great example of this, turning the concept of chunking into a core USP for its data capture products.
Chunk for long-term understanding.
Boost knowledge retention by structuring each chunk learned to build upon what was learned in previous ones. Repeat past chunks to build a strong, modular connection between fragmented bouts of learning.
Language app, Duolingo does this in an engaging visual way.
Experience
Biophilia Effect
We're drawn to living things and become stressed if too detached from them
68 people were shown photos of shopping environments, either with or without plants. They were then asked about the environment’s percieved restorative power.
Those who saw the biophilic environment reported a higher restorative effect on wellbeing than those without plants.
Use nature to restore consumer attention and boost dwell time (Lee et al., 2015).
Even a short exposure will reduce mental fatigue. Where are the most stressful points along a customer journey? Focus on ‘biophying’ these areas first.
Leaf the stress behind.
Research (Ulrich et al., 1991) suggests that having restorative green spaces in the workplace reduces stress, even though 58% of office workers still have no plants (Human Spaces, 2014).
Seeing plants from a worker's desk lowered self-reported sick leave next to those without a bio-optimized view (Bringslimark et al. 2007).
Start small and slowly work your way down the list of biophilic enhancements.
Create familiarity through nature.
Use natural references to ground marketing of technologically-complex or abstract products to boost understanding and brand warmth (Rafaeli and Vilnai-Yavetz, 2004).
Experience
Temptation Bundling
We're more likely to do the hard stuff when coupled with the pleasant
226 people were asked to go to the gym and split into three groups: a control and two other groups given devices with audio books. Recommenders were told to restrict playback to when at the gym and Committers had to store their device in the locker after use.
It was found that commiting to this restriction boosted gym visits by 51% next to the control.
Bundle feats with treats.
What sort of behaviors do you want to encourage with your team or customers? Temptation bundling can be very effective in areas where short-term self-control is weakest, like saving, exercise or food choices. What complementary experiences can you bundle alongside the toughest tasks?
Create your own “If-Then” commitments.
Ideas include only listening to your favorite podcasts if cleaning the house, getting a coffee on the way to work only if you cycle or walk, or committing to a nice hot bath only if you’ve kept to your weekly spending budget.
Keep it fresh.
Commitments are a powerful way to maintain long-term behavior change (Royer et al., 2012). However, life does get in the way and we tend to eventually hedonically-adapt to all good things. Keep engagement high by highlighting people’s past successes and creating new bundled experiences that are uniquely attractive. For instance, a gym having all streaming services, even those you might not have access to at home.
Experience
Measurement Paradox
We enjoy experiences less when we track them
With the rise of wearable devices, personal quantification is easier than ever. It's not a surprise that self-tracking has a large adherence in a competitive, comparative culture where the individual is constantly improving his performance in every possible measure.
But it has a cost.
One of the responsibilities of product creators is to understand and examine the resultant behaviours that modifications to the product design will trigger. By adding certain features or changing their salience, you will inevitably change the behavioural dynamics.
It’s well studied that external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation, but now we know that the act of tracking can also impact it by reminding us of the output, making the activities seem like work. Thus, not everything that can be measured should be measured.
Peter Drucker said “What gets measured gets managed, even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organization to do so”.
It’s a warning from the father of management that it’s not often taken to heart, and this study reminds us of it.
With the rise of wearable devices, personal quantification is easier than ever. It's not a surprise that self-tracking has a large adherence in a competitive, comparative culture where the individual is constantly improving his performance in every possible measure.
But it has a cost.
One of the responsibilities of product creators is to understand and examine the resultant behaviours that modifications to the product design will trigger. By adding certain features or changing their salience, you will inevitably change the behavioural dynamics.
It’s well studied that external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation, but now we know that the act of tracking can also impact it by reminding us of the output, making the activities seem like work. Thus, not everything that can be measured should be measured.
Peter Drucker said “What gets measured gets managed, even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organization to do so”.
It’s a warning from the father of management that it’s not often taken to heart, and this study reminds us of it.
95 university students spent the day leisurely walking. In the measurement group they were given the choice to wear a pedometer. In the control group, everyone used a sealed shut pedometer. Afterwards, they rated how much they enjoyed walking.
Measuring led participants to walk more but decreased how much they enjoyed it – even for those who chose to be measured.
Consider what you want your users to feel.
While measurement may improve performance, it comes at the expense of enjoyment. By adding a measurement option, the behaviour will feel like work instead of fun.
Understand why users engage in an activity when deciding whether to measure it.
Sometimes the benefit of achieving more may outweigh the cost of users enjoying the experience. Does the end you’re looking to achieve justify the means of measuring its progress?
Switch the motivation type by becoming pro-social and giving meaning to the measurement.
For example: If you reduce your calories, you could send the equivalent of those excess calories to someone in need of food.
Prior data can set reference points that demotivate us
Our personal motivation can suffer in the face of prior data, setting unhelpful reference points about future expected efforts.
For instance, consider the following: "I can see that I ran 10k 3 times in a row, so if I don't run 10k this time, I feel that I'm doing worse. But I just don't feel like I can do 10k today, so I won't go at all."
However, in absolute terms, you're doing more in total by doing any more running at all, whether that's 1k, or even 100m, so you're best off ignoring the data and doing *something*.
A good counterbalance to this is to focus instead on the *experience* that running provides. This removes the quantifiable reference point and frees us to just enjoy the act for what it is. And who knows, maybe we'll end up running longer than 10k in the process!
Experience
Friction
We’re less likely to complete a task with each step added
733 new employees of a health company used a single opt-in process to subscribe to a retirement plan. Results were compared to a multi-step phone process used with 455 and 407 employees from the two previous years.
Participation rates were 5% after one month and 8% after three months. With the new process, they rose to 19% and 35% respectively.
Perform a friction audit.
Identify all the hurdles and delays your user may feel while using your product and attempt to minimise them. How many barriers to a near-effortless user experience can you find?
Adding friction can help people from making mistakes.
Add barriers to counter System 1 mode, prompting users for conscious reflection to validate important information (e.g. monetary transactions). What strategic friction can you create?
Add friction to make waiting times feel shorter.
Houston airport reduced the number of luggage waiting times complaints by moving the luggage area further away so that passengers spent more time walking and less time waiting.
Remove friction but highlight effort.
Our willingness to pay for something increases by knowing how much work is done for us. We pay more for a cup of coffee if we see the barista working on it for several minutes.