Described by Rory Sutherland as “A Haynes manual for understanding consumer behaviour”, The Choice Factory explores the power of influence and the role it plays in the marketing world.
Richard Shotton addresses 25 biases and how brands have used or should have used these biases to increase their activity performance. Covering a broad range of topics from overconfidence, to wishful seeing, to “The cocktail party effect” (the brain's ability to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli). The combination of academic findings with observations and real-life applications provide a well-balanced range of ways to understand how consumers make decisions.
Most importantly this study of industry examples collaborates behavioural psychology and marketing in preying on consumer biases. Shotton plays the role of an “observer” and relays his findings as a key informer with the ability to break down the complexity of choice and cognitive biases installed within all of us, uniting our behaviour traits as humans.
The relationship between influence, consumer behaviour and decision-making are a vital part of any customer journey, By covering the different hacks to boost and improve campaign performance, The Choice Factory is a page-turner as the results of multiple tests provide information to apply to our everyday marketing.
To conclude, the psychological study of consumer behaviour is key for marketers to understand. Although marketers are deemed the experts on “how” consumers respond, The Choice Factory opens up a discussion as to “why” consumers behave the way they do. An invaluable read for all savvy marketers.
