This month, I decided to focus on a trendy marketing technique called nudge. Just to show you you may not have to budget heavy communication campaigns to educate people and change their behaviours. Let’s dig a bit deeper:
What is a nudge?
The nudge is based on a host of research on bias in decision making. The idea is to use these biases to change the behaviour of individuals while leaving them free to choose. Much used in the public domain (anti-smoking campaign, incentive to eat fruits and vegetables, registration on electoral lists …), nudges have more recently extended to the private sector. Whether they are customers, consumers or collaborators, it is more about influencing than persuading the targeted people.
What are the decision bias?
The decision biases used in nudges vary. Some of the most interesting ones to promote more responsible behaviour include the following:
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- Loss aversion: individuals are more sensitive to the idea of losing something than of gaining something;
- The framing effect: the formulation and layout of the various options leads to the selection of the most favourable option (typically the pre-checked boxes), a tool to use with caution;
- The effect of salience: highlighting an element related to the desired behaviour and which is not obvious for the target (cost of the food put in the trash in a canteen, for example);
- The effect of temporality: the targeted people favour the short term over the long term;
- The endowment effect: targeted people are encouraged to do something to achieve a goal (used to complete online profiles on social networks, for example, but also in gaming)
- The status quo: individuals do not seek to change the situation in which they are, through negligence or lack of attention.
Concretely, in which cases to use the nudge?
Nudges are focusing in modifying behaviours that have or may have a negative impact. They are therefore particularly suitable for encouraging more responsible behaviours. They can be helpful in educating a target to a particular behaviour. For example, a company will be able to highlight the electricity spent each month in a workshop or a department in order to encourage employees to switch off the lights. They can also be a creative and less costly solution than advertising campaigns or financial incentives.
How to implement a nudge ?
At first, it will be necessary to identify the behavior of the target to change. This will require study, observations and/or semi-structured interviews to understand the reluctance to adopt a more virtuous behaviour. Design thinking techniques can be used, in particular to precisely define the behaviour of target populations, but also during implementation by testing different possible options of nudges. Nevertheless beware that your target does not get used to a nudge, especially if the same type of nudge is repeated over time.
Nudging is certainly an option to consider for companies, in particular to promote a more responsible consumption and adopt gestures more respectful of the environment. But you have to pay attention to the ethical problems related to this technique. Indeed, defining for others what is a desirable decision is somewhat daring. One should be cautious not to fall into gross manipulation of people. Since people are not really aware that they are pushed towards a particular choice, it is important to strike a balance and be transparent in the objective to be achieved. This will be all the easier as nudges are easily measurable (% of people adopting the desirable behaviour over a given period, for instance) and that you can ask your preferred consultant to assist you 🙂