BEHAVIOR CHANGE

“ Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped” – Charles Duhigg.
 
Behavior change in its essence is every marketers goal. Changing consumer behavior is essential in marketing where we are trying to subtly influence, inspire and inform consumers of who-why-when-how they should be changing their current preferences.
 
Many frameworks exist that help us navigate the process of creating behavior change. One that stands-out in its clarity and single-minded consumer centricity is by BJ Fogg. Fogg’s template shows that three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur: Motivation, Ability, and Trigger.

1. Motivation : When motivation is high (there is a strong reason ‘why’) the effort made by consumers to change their behaviors will also be high. It begins to subside as motivation becomes lower. The job of a marketer is to understand the core motivation level (its dynamic) and provide the right trigger that motivates a consumer to make the change. Example : if a cable broadcast provider wants to improve subscription rates amongst sports enthusiasts they would use the exclusive broadcast rights of a sports event as a motivator to entice behavior change. Asking a sports fan to perform complex tasks in unsubscribing to their current service provider and then shifting loyalty can be accomplished when the reason for the shift is ‘worth it’. Asking ‘Why is it worth it?’ before planning for behavior change is understanding the consumer through their consumer journey, lifestages and context.
2. Ability : Does the consumer have the ability to change ? The emphasis is on the brand to make it simple to change Vs asking the consumer to learn. Simplicity achieved via consumer experience design (streamlined order form, clean navigation, transparency of steps, customer service) can all help activate the change. A part of ‘ability’ is the resources available to the consumer (time, access, money, technical knowledge) and brands need to compensate for low ability with highly intuitive design to help failitate the change. Example : If a bank wants to shift its offline consumers to using its online services it needs to make sure that the online services are designed keeping in mind the range in abilities of their various consumers. The FAQ section might need to be revamped, on-line chat functions enabled, customer service call centers trained in ways that will help basic migration barriers be overcome.
3. Triggers : these are a call to action to change behavior and signals urgency to do so. In my aforementioned example of people migrating from offline to online services the trigger could be a sign at the bank that encourages transacting online during busy hours. It could be an email timed pre-tax filing periods to encourage you to login to your bank account for the first time and experience features that help you file your expenses accurately.

 
Behavior change requires consumer centric thinking for it to be successful and assumes that change will be frictionless for it to stick.
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