Why reducing mental effort can be just as powerful as persuading new consumers
Consumers have more information available to them than ever before. One purchase can involve searches, reviews, recommendations, and a ton of similar products. More information can seem like it would lead to better decisions, but it can make choosing harder. That creates an important opportunity for marketers. Sometimes the most effective way to make consumers purchase something is to make the decision as easy as possible.
In my previous post, When Personalization Gets Too Personal, I talked about how behavioral data can help marketers anticipate what consumers want. But understanding the consumer is only part of the challenge. Brands need to also understand how people make decisions.
Consumers Don’t Always Make the Perfect Choice
There are two types of thinking that go behind purchasing decisions for consumers. Some purchases involve slow, deliberate processing. A consumer may be buying a laptop and research specific details about the laptop, compare prices, read reviews, and evaluate the entire decision carefully. Other decisions rely on fast thinking where habits and emotions make the process easier. The consumer behavior material this week describes these mental shortcuts as heuristics. When it comes to a simple purchase like ordering a coffee, people aren’t making spreadsheets or comparing every nearby coffee shop. They are probably just choosing whatever they are familiar with or what is closest. For marketers, the difference in decision making is important. Not every consumer wants to do research for every purchase they make, so brands need to ensure the product details are clear and easy to understand.
Too Many Decisions Can Get in the Way
The basic consumer decision process goes from recognizing a need, search for information, look at alternatives, make a choice, and then purchase a product. At each step, marketers can make it more simple or harder for consumers.
Research from Baymard Institute found that consumers abandon purchases for reasons like unexpected costs, forced account creation, and complicated checkout processes. A consumer can already what the product and still walk away because completing the decision requires too much effort. This is why making things clearer should be part of marketing and not just website design. Clear product comparisons, customer reviews, simple payment methods and checkout can all help prevent consumers from rethinking a purchase decision.
Starbucks Rewards
Starbucks Rewards is a great example of how brands can go beyond simplifying decisions and reinforce behaviors. Members can earn starts through purchases and can exchange them for rewards, and continued purchasing unlocks new benefits. This connects to instrumental conditioning where consumers learn behaviors through consequences. Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood that a behavior will happen again. Loyalty programs use this by rewarding repeat purchases. Over time, the decision then becomes familiar. When a consumer wants a coffee, they now already have an app with star rewards at a brand they’re familiar with. Now, this decision process is more of a routine that doesn’t require much decision processing.
Make the Decision Easier
Marketers often focus on finding the perfect message to convince consumers to choose them. But persuasion is not the entire thing needed for changing consumer behaviors. A strong marketing strategy should be about requiring as little effort from a consumer as possible. Consumers don’t always search for the best options. Sometimes they settle for good enough instead of investing in more mental effort. This is called bounded rationality and brands that make themselves familiar, easy and trustworthy can benefit from this concept. Understanding consumers means understanding how they choose. When there are tons of different options and information, making a simple path to a decision is more effective than adding another message to look at.
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