The Science Behind Why People Buy
With Decoded author Phil Barden
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Phil Barden is one of the world’s leading authorities when it comes to decision sciences and the author of the book Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy . If you haven’t read Decoded it is a master class in understanding what drives our purchasing decisions. Before leading his own firm Decode, Phil held leadership roles at T-Mobile and Unilever at key points in those companies’ histories.
In this episode we talk about psychology, human behavior, marketing sciences and iconic marketing campaigns, including London’s first flash mob.
Top Takeaways
The basis of decision sciences are conclusions from the collective learnings from neuroscience, behavioral economics, and psychology. Much of the decision sciences in marketing originated from the work of the late psychologist Daniel Kahneman about the two modes of thought he discovered: "System 1" is fast, instinctive and emotional and "System 2" which is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.
Decision sciences are crucial to understand in marketing as the essence of any commercial business is behavior change, especially when considering that research has shown that humans are not very good at evaluating the rationality of past decisions. By better understanding human behavior, we can unlock additional sophistication and effectiveness in marketing.
Marketers have learned that most decisions that made are in the system 1 (i.e. autopilot) mode of thinking, which makes tangibility, immediacy and certainty effective in marketing strategies - customer prefer to buy products and services that they can see / touch / feel, that have a short term payoff and a guaranteed outcome.
The biggest thing that Phil wishes he would have understood sooner is the importance of goals in human decision making, specifically implicit and explicit goals. Explicit goals are category specific objectives (e.g. reliability of a car or amount of memory for a computer) while implicit goals are driven by emotions and habit.
Resources:
Full List of Topics Covered:
Phil’s discovery of decision science
London’s first flash mob
Daniel Kahneman’s research and it’s impact of marketing
Inherent flaws of focus groups
Implicit and explicit goal
Marketing around the irrationality of people
The concept of tangibility, immediacy and certainty
Hope you enjoy the conversation, feel free to share and let me know if anything resonates with you in the comments.
-Adam
You should check out the book sum of small things