Six Ways to Change Consumer Behaviour

Six Ways to Change Consumer Behaviour
by Nicholas Miller

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29 July 2010, Global

Essential to engaging consumers is understanding how they interact with information. As our lives get busier, our time becomes more precious. We're demanding more control over how we consume information, and technology is allowing us to have it.

So, here are my top six tips to engaging with the modern consumer -- the catalyst to behaviour change:

1. Focus on discovery

People enjoy figuring things out for themselves. Letting them explore, piece together and interact with content means they are learning actively, and more likely to retain information and act upon it.

One great example of this was the recent Jimmy Choo 'CatchAChoo' shoe hunt where women eager to own a pair of the prestigious shoes were encouraged to follow the brand on Twitter and Facebook in order to gain clues of where free pairs of shoes were hidden around London.

2. Use the power of the personal touch

A simple rule, but one often forgotten; personalise your communication to the consumer and their interests. Your efforts will be more likely to get noticed, favourably received and acted upon if the communication seems targeted and relevant.

3. Don't forget about physical engagement

While digital channels have become integrated into virtually every aspect of our lives, what will never become obsolete is our inbuilt instinct to learn and discover through touch and physical exploration.

Research using multi-sensory presentation has discovered that although people have limited capacity for processing information using just one sense, they can process much more efficiently when using different senses in tandem (for example, vision and touch).

As such, integrating both digital and physical engagement will help you better engage your audience and therefore influence behaviour change -- just look at the buzz around the new Nintendo 3DS. The most successful marketers will be those who bridge the gap between the virtual world and physical interaction in their marketing campaigns.

4. Remove barriers

Make it as easy as possible for people to find out what they need to know by creating seamless transitions across channels and stages in the journey. Take as many steps out of the process as possible and people will be more likely to respond positively to your call to action.

5. Give people just enough information to start a conversation

People switch off if you try to tell them everything up front. The internet enables people to quickly and easily drill down into information to find out more, so why not let them do the same with brand messaging? Focus on a message that is relevant and will create intrigue, and your audience will follow up to learn the rest.

A recent campaign we worked on with O2 Business is a good example -- they wanted to create a positive experience for new business sign ups and convert them into engaged and loyal customers. We worked with O2 to create a DM start up pack, using our patented iKyp webkey format, which focused on incentives and simplified the set up process.

To learn more, customers simply plugged it into their computer USB port to automatically launch a webpage that featured exclusive offers. By stripping back the content and providing just enough information to create intrigue, the activity delivered a 24 per cent response rate.

6. Make your audience a great, relevant offer

Finally, remember that no matter how great the creative or channels are, people won't respond unless what's on offer is genuinely of value to them, so make sure you're targeting the right people at the right time, with the right offer.

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