Nudge - Marketing Science Simplified

There’s a lot of nonsense in marketing. Especially when it comes to the brain. At most conferences, you’ll hear some marketer harping on about “appealing to the left brain” or “targeting the lizard brain”. It’s all bollocks. To debunk these marketing myths and give you everything you need to call bullsh*t, check out this episode with Lisa Feldman Barrett.

What does the world’s 5th strongest man, Heinz beans, & Hinge have in common? They’re all examples of great marketing. In today’s show, I sit down with Harry Dry (the brains behind marketingexamples.com) to discuss his favorite marketing examples. We discuss the marketing genius behind Wordle, Bob Bob Ricard, meat-free diets, Ben Foster’s YouTube channel, NordVPN, and Jack Grealish’s socks.

I've spent two years learning how to improve my marketing with behavioral science. Yet, it often doesn't work. I'll regularly try something, expect it to succeed, only to see it fail miserably. Not all behavior science can be replicated effectively. Today, Jason Collins, a behavioral and data scientist, joins me to talk about just that. Listen and learn the nudges that don't work, how I lost email subscribers by testing a nudge, and how to apply behavior science effectively.

When you need to change someone's mind, what do you do? Do you lecture them with facts? If so, you're probably not very successful. In today's show, I talk to behavior change experts Laura Osborne and Alex Chesterfield on the science behind changing someone's mind. Listen to learn why facts don't win arguments, how asking questions is a mind-changing superpower, and the proven tactics to change minds. 

In 2010 a plane crashed in the DRC, Africa. Investigators couldn’t figure out the cause. It wasn’t mechanical, it wasn’t a technical error. No. It was human instinct. In this episode, you’ll hear Laura Osborne and Alex Chesterfield, authors of Poles Apart, explain why we form groups, how these groups affect our decision making and why following the herd caused a plane to crash.

480 minutes of Nudge Podcast were published last year, but what were the best bits? In this special end-of-year episode, I’ve summed up the six best bits of advice I heard. Hear from April Dunford, Rory Sutherland, Louis Grenier, Bri Williams, and Adam Ferrier. You'll learn marketing tips you won’t forget.

Don’t listen to this show. That’s what I told 10,000 people. But people didn’t follow the suggestion. In this show, you’ll learn about the Pratfall Effect and why people embrace flaws. I talk about what happened when I sent 500 people an ‘accidental’ picture of a cute dog, the weird strategy that helped Australia win their first Winter Olympic gold, and why I told people that my podcast was crap.

Did you know longer trips to the dentist can be more enjoyable? The peak-end rule has a weird effect on how we remember negative experiences. In this episode, I’ll explain how this bias increased repeat colonoscopy patients, encouraged a record number of people to sign up for my course, and how a trip to the supermarket ended the cold war.

There are two words that strike fear into the hearts of behavioral scientists. Replication crisis. Today, many famous nudges can’t be replicated. In many cases, they were one-offs. So, rather than share studies, I wanted to run my own. Over the next four episodes, I’ll attempt to grow this show by experimenting with nudges. Listen to this episode on social proof and learn why dozens unsubscribed to my mailing list, what happened when 300,000 people saw my ad, and why everyone, from theatre lovers to Issac Newton falls for social proof.

60% of us think spending +3 hours a day on the web is unhealthy. Yet the UK average time spent online is +4.5 hours. We’re hooked to our devices and suffering. The mere presence of a smartphone can reduce performance in memory tasks by 11%. In today’s show, I’m joined by Elisabeth Costa, senior director at the Behavioral Insights Team, who talks through how nudges are used to manipulate us online.

It’s not easy applying behavioral science. You can geek out on Thinking Fast and Slow and listen to Rory Sutherland rave about nudges, but that won’t mean you feel comfortable applying it in your job. To help, I spoke with Melina Palmer, host of the Brainy Business, and author of What Your Customer Wants And Can’t Tell You. Melina explains her approach for applying behavior science, how to build a team, the budget you’ll need, and my experience with doing just that in my day job.

In today’s special episode you’re invited to enter a brand new clinic. Instead of a waiting room, there’s a bar with live jazz. Instead of a doctor, there’s a marketer in a tweed jacket. Today, we’re entering the Rory Sutherland Nudge Clinic, the place people go for counter-intuitive ideas. Listen to learn the smartest way to run a cafe, how to stop people drink driving, and how to persuade your parents.

Throughout our lives, we’re taught to think rationally. We’re taught to consider the evidence. To make forecasts. To follow the economic models and stick with the trend.

This rational thinking is a core part of our education, our government policies, and our businesses. But in a world where everyone thinks rationally, it can pay to think irrationally.

We’ve all heard advice on beating anxiety. We’re told to vent our frustrations, to break down and analyze the problem, sometimes we’re told to try and forget about it or move on. But what does science say? Today I’m joined by Ethan Kross, author of the national bestseller Chatter. We discuss the surprising truths about beating stress and anxiety.

What do you do when you get stressed out? Do you work through exercises and routines to solve the problem, or do you hope it’ll go away? Most of us wait for the experience to pass, but we shouldn’t. In today’s show, bestselling author Ethan Kross talks through why we get stressed and three proven tactics to beat it.

Speaking to customers isn't something that comes naturally to many marketers. We're not researchers. We're not trained to interview. And yet it's a vital task for all of us to master. My guest today helps marketers with this. Louis Grenier is a bit of a customer interview expert. He’ll explain how many customers you need to talk to and what to ask. 

As little as 16% of marketing is remembered and recalled successfully. That means that as much as 84% of marketers’ work is wasted. To capture consumer’s attention we’re told to stand out. To be different. But how? In today’s show, Louis Grenier explains how to be radically differentiated - to capture attention and grow your business.

You might be surprised to learn that a 5/5 star review isn’t the best, or that an imperfect cookie tastes better. The science behind this weird phenomenon is the Pratfall Effect. In this episode I chat to Joseph Marks about how the effect improves ads, wins court cases and can help you get a second date.

Charm pricing (also known as 9-ending prices) is one of those marketing tricks that is known by all. It has left the marketing textbooks and is used by everyone from kids selling lemonade to businesses selling smartphones. With such widespread adoption, it's worth exploring if the nudge still affects consumers. In today's episode, we take a look at the history of charm pricing, explore case studies of businesses that have used it, and ask if it's something you should try. 

Wondering why your latest product won’t sell? Well it might be due to lazy, scared and overwhelmed consumers. These are the three big barriers stopping customers from making a change and buying your product. In this episode, my guest Bri Williams talks through her model for behavior change highlighting some crucial marketing tips.

Could highlighting a product weakness increase sales? In today’s show, I join Adam Ferrier to explore the negativity bias and attempt to understand why we are drawn to negative events over positive ones. We chat about how newspapers use this bias to write their headlines, how some of the best marketing campaigns leverage negativity, and why negative thoughts stick in your head for longer.

Customers lie all the time. In fact, we all lie, often without even knowing it. When asked, 25% of high school seniors say they’re in the top 1%. Often talking to customers can lead to bias, unreliable results. So my latest guest has a solution … stop talking to customers. Today, Adam Ferrier and I discuss why companies like Apple and IKEA don’t listen to their customers and how market research can make your brand bland.

Think about all the decisions you’ve made in your life. Deciding where to work, agreeing to go on that first date with your spouse, asking for fries with your burger. We like to think all of these decisions are considered and thought through. In today’s show, Tim Ash explains how most of our decisions aren’t rational. Instead, they are dictated by evolutionary traits developed thousands of years ago.

Many hate building IKEA furniture and yet tend to value it higher than pre-built furniture. In fact, many prefer it to expert-built furniture. Tune in to learn why we irrationally value Super Bowl tickets, how Betty Crocker became an overnight success and why so many investors make dumb decisions.

Following the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, commentators began to claim that highly targeted personalized ads had helped swing the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. In this episode, I speak to Patrick Fagan, a former Cambridge Analytica employee to discuss whether personalized ads work, what effect advertising has on our life satisfaction and why digital advertisements may be an improvement on traditional marketing.

What is the best way to learn about someone's personality without meeting them. Is it by talking to their spouse? Or is it by looking at their Facebook profile? Research suggests that Facebook knows more about our personality than our closest loved ones. Data about each of us on Facebook can be used to predict our behavior helping marketers learn what we buy, what we like, and what we believe. But how much of this is science fiction? To figure that out, I chat with Patrick Fagan, former Lead Psychologist at Cambridge Analytica about the power of online data.

All too many companies struggle to position their product. They pick the wrong market, highlight the wrong features or fail to spot the right competitors. But get positioning right and something magical happens, all your work improves. In today’s show, the great April Dunford will talk through how to identify true competitors, tips for picking the right market and examples of successful positioning pivots.

Most marketers have spent years studying the profession either on the job or in education. And yet, when it comes to positioning, something which is fundamental to every aspect of marketing, most of us struggle. In this episode, I chat with positioning expert April Dunford on why that is and her plan to solve it.

In this special end of year episode we revisit some of the best insights shared on the show in 2020. We hear how to ask your customers the right questions, how to plan for 2021 and how to overcome burnout and stress in your job.

There’s endless advice for entrepreneurs out there. It's overwhelming. With so many success stories it’s hard to know who to follow. In this episode, I debunk many of those stories and reveal the real science behind success. I’m joined by Melina Palmer, host of the Brainy Business podcast and we discuss three lessons, backed by science, that every entrepreneur should know.

Why will a free 72-ounce steak draw in hoards of customers for one restaurant but zero customers for another? Nudges are loved by many marketers across the globe, yet they don’t always work as expected. In this episode, I chat with Dr Michael Hallsworth, managing director of the BIT North American about some empirical evidence that reveals if nudges really work.

Does money motivate you? For most of us, we’d probably say yes. We work 9-5, five days a week for money. We can’t live without it. It’s normal to think that money therefore is the ultimate motivation. If you want someone to do something just pay them, right? My guest today, Dr Michael Hallsworth managing director of the BIT North American unit shares a different point of view.

Most businesses make obvious mistakes when it comes to pricing. Some businesses undercharge, leaving money on the table, others are overpriced and put off buyers. Getting your price right isn’t easy. In this episode, I chat with pricing expert Ammanuel Selameab about the common pricing mistakes and how to avoid them.

We’re obsessed with food. We spend more time creating it and more money on it than we ever have before. But do we love the actual taste of what we eat or simply how it makes us feel. In this episode I’m joined by Eve Turow-Paul, a globally recognized expert on food. We discuss our modern-day obsession with food, our irrational views of what we like, and studies that show how marketing distorts our perception.

What do Star Wars, oil spills and eBay descriptions have in common? They help us understand what makes communication great. In this episode, neuroscientist Dr. Matt Johnson and marketing expert Prince Ghuman discuss the power of storytelling in marketing and the brilliant campaign that encourages millions of Americans to start paying for bottled water.

What’s the point of branding? Why do companies spend billions every year on it? To understand that we need to look beneath the surface at the brain. In this episode, neuroscientist Dr. Matt Johnson and marketing expert Prince Ghuman discuss how brands change how we perceive a product, what happens in our brains when we see a brand and what makes some brands more memorable than others.

Some of us love it, some of us hate it, but is it good for us? In this episode I’m joined by Dr Emma Byrne where we discuss how swearing can make you more resilient, how it can increase your trustworthiness and how it changes from country to country. 

Growth hacks are loved by many marketers around the world. But should you use them? And are there any risks? In this episode, Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro, Inbound.org, and Moz explains what happens when growth hacks fail and a smarter way to plan your marketing.

Ever get the feeling no one’s listening? Have you ever spent months working on a project only to find no one cares? Turns out most marketers have had this experience, but not because they’re bad at their jobs, instead it's because they haven’t found their audience. In this episode, Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro, Inbound.org and Moz explains how to find the right audience for your product or service. 

Have you managed to get your side hustle off the ground? Do you keep planning to work on it but never find the time? Do you wonder if you’ll ever create something that resonates? In today’s show, Jeff Gothelf, coach, author and keynote speaker, will talk through simple steps to get your side hustle up and running. 

How do you price your product? Do you painstakingly quiz consumers on what price will work for them? If so, you might be making a big mistake. In today's show, with pricing expert Leigh Caldwell, we explain the science behind pricing strategies that work. We'll cover the decoy effect, how to increase prices without losing buyers and the power of free. 

Pricing a product isn't easy. We're reliant on out of date models and frameworks that don't reflect the real world. In today's show, with pricing expert Leigh Caldwell, we explain the science behind pricing strategies that work. We'll cover how to use anchors, if charm pricing works and the importance of product positioning. 

Who should make the final call on a new hire? What should you ask during an interview? Can a job ad exclude good candidates? To answer these tough questions I’m joined by Kate Glazebrook, Co-Founder of Applied and formally of the UK’s Behavioural Insights Team. In this episode we highlight the mistakes most hiring managers make and how to avoid them.

Marketing at a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup isn’t easy. Usually you’re short on budget, given dozens of responsibilities with only a handful of teammates. But that hasn’t stopped some of the leanest organizations grow to multi-million dollar brands. Today I’m chatting with Georgiana Laudi who has helped many SaaS businesses grow from one employee to thousands. In this episode we chat through 8 hacks every SaaS marketer can test out and apply. 

The best adverts are the ones that make us cry, or laugh, or both! Right? Well not quite. In this episode, Phil Barden, author of the best selling consumer psychology book Decoded, explains the science behind adverts that really work, why emotion is important but not everything, and gives an analysis of the best ad from 2019.

Did you know judges and doctors make better decisions when given less time? Turns out our first impressions are seriously accurate. Today I’m joined by Phil Barden, MD at Decode and best selling author of the consumer psychology book Decoded. In the show we chat about the importance of first impressions in marketing, how you’re more likely to spot a McDonald’s logo when you’re hungry, and the trick that makes street food stalls so successful.