Principles of Human Behaviour & How it Relates to Marketing

Priming

This is the concept of semantic association between two things and how it can improve recall of either of those things. It's the key principle behind that game where Person 1 says a word e.g. "Grass". Then Person 2 says the first word that comes to mind e.g. "Green".

Using subtle priming techniques, you could help your consumers remember key information about your brand and perhaps influence their buying behaviour.

A study was conducted comparing Toyota and Lexus cars (for those that are unaware, these are very similar cars owned by the same company). Consumers who had been primed for price, by showing a graphic with a green background featuring pennies, spent longer looking at the price of cars - thus preferred the Toyota. Whereas consumers who had been primed with comfort-related information spent longer comparing comfort-related features on the cars and thus preferred the Lexus.

All this to say, you can subtly tell consumers what you want them to pay attention to e.g. Price, if you're running a promotion.

Reciprocity

Introduced in Dr. R. Cialdini's book 'Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion'. Simply put, if someone does something for you, you naturally will want to do something for them. In marketing, there are several ways to take advantage of this e.g. Giveaways, providing knowledge, etc. The crucial part of this is you must provide something for free, before asking for something in return. This is why promotions don't work via reciprocity.

Social Proof

Social proof is the idea that people adopt the beliefs or actions of a group of people they like or trust. This is similar to the concept of conformity, which has been studied many times. Notably Asch in 1951 with his line experiment and to some degree Milgram with his obedience study in 1961.

This can be implemented in a variety of ways with regard to marketing, whether it be passively through having a large social media following, or more actively by highlighting reviews and comments about your products.

Decoy Effect

Often seen implemented in pricing models where an option is included with the sole purpose of enticing consumers to purchase a different (often more expensive) option, under the assumption that it is better value. This is seen mostly with service and SaaS companies that will have multiple tiers to their services.

Scarcity

This principle goes back to the simple law of supply and demand. The more scarce a product is, the more popular it is likely to become. This is why we are seeing more and more 'Limited Stock' or 'Limited Edition Release' marketing text.

Anchoring

This concept suggests that people often make decisions based on the first piece of information that they receive. This is why it's important to include a 'before' price when running a sale.

Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon 

The phenomenon I'm sure you've just heard of and now are seeing everywhere. Essentially you want to simulate this effect by having your brand and ads be everywhere they can be. Ideally, you want your target market to start seeing you everywhere, as this serves as some form of confirmation bias.