According to Ogilvy Consulting1 and other resources, using behavioral science techniques resulted in:
- 60% increase in account openings for a financial services company
- 56% increase in chips sales for KFC
- 122% increase in purchases for PEP
- 8.8% increase in customer retention rate for Adobe
- 146% increase in the selection of long mixed drinks for DIAGEO
- ≈75% of all viewer activity on Netflix comes from personalized recommendations.
- 30–60% increase in paid subscriptions for Dropbox with a free trial (reciprocity technique) option.
Behavioral science is an interdisciplinary field that studies how people make decisions, form habits, and behave in various contexts. It draws from psychology, sociology, economics, and neuroscience to understand the factors that influence human behavior.
The applications of behavioral science in business are human-centric and align with human needs, experiences, behaviors, and motivations., which makes business outcomes more efficient.
I learned the basics of applied behavioral science from various resources, including certification courses.
I compiled a list of the most commonly used behavioral science techniques and their applications in different areas of marketing in a document. I used some of these techniques in my previous roles.
Note: The document has reference links wherever possible, and generative AI tools were used to write some of its content.
Areas of applications of behavioral science techniques in marketing
- Personalization (behavioral targeting)
- Positioning
- Brand awareness and recall
- Brand associations
- Product design
- Persuasive communication
- Customer acquisition
- Customer engagement
- Customer retention
- Pricing
- Conversion optimization
- Customer experience
- Customer support
What is covered in the document?
- Behavioral science vs Behavioral economics
- Key concepts in behavioral economics
- Key concepts in behavioral science
List of behavioral science techniques and their applications in marketing
- Messenger effect
- Choice architecture
- Social norms and social proof
- Value Payoff
- Concreteness vs. Abstractness (messaging)
- Framing effect
- Scarcity
- Urgency
- Priming
- Perceptual priming
- Conceptual priming
- Semantic priming
- Operational transparency
- Anchoring
- Endowment effect
- Denomination effect
- Reciprocity
- Availability heuristic
- Mental accounting
- Liking
- Present bias
- Loss aversion (prospect theory)
- Source credibility and source attractiveness