Behavioral Science For Brands: Leveraging behavioral science in brand marketing.
Episodes
140 episodes
How Novartis used humor and NFL tight ends to tackle the embarrassment keeping men from prostate screening
Richard and MichaelAaron unpack Novartis' campaign 'Relax Your Tight End', winner of the Pharma Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. They explore why present bias lets a moment of embarrassment outweigh long-term health, how humor sidesteps the ostrich ...
Award-Winning Campaigns - How KitKat turned a stolen truckload of chocolate into a Cannes Grand Prix by making scarcity the story
After 12 tons of KitKat bars vanished the week before Easter, the brand turned a supply chain crisis into a Cannes Grand Prix winning campaign. MichaelAaron and Richard unpack the scarcity, Zeigarnik and IKEA effects behind it, and how brands c...
Award-Winning Campaigns - How Wisła Kraków turned a legal requirement into a 42% attendance increase
Polish law requires every club to identify each fan entering the stadium. Wisła Kraków's Football Club turned that compliance database into the Lucky Fan Index, a metric for how much luck each supporter brings, and game attendance rose 42%. Mic...
How William Poundstone's book Priceless turns anchoring, relativity and fairness into pricing power
MichaelAaron and Richard revisit William Poundstone's Priceless to unpack why price feels relative, not absolute. They cover anchoring in courtroom and Williams-Sonoma pricing, why a $5 saving matters more on a $15 item than a $125 one, and how...
Writing for Busy Readers: how Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink explain the curse of knowledge
MichaelAaron and Richard unpack Writing for Busy Readers by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink: six evidence-backed principles for readers who skim rather than read. Why a 49-word email beat a 127-word one, why subheadings doubled newsletter cl...
How Charles Spence's book Gastrophysics translates sound, shape and weight into pricing power
Charles Spence's book Gastrophysics argues that taste is built by every sense, not just the tongue. MichaelAaron and Richard work through the evidence: classical music lifting restaurant spend 10%, heavy cutlery raising willingness to pay 16%, ...
Interview: Andy Nairn, author of Go Luck Yourself, on why brand archeology beats originality.
Guinness made you wait, Avis was second, VW was small. Andy Nairn and Richard unpack why owning a flaw beats hiding one, and how the same instinct led Lucky Generals to raise its own size in pitches before a prospect could ever hold it against ...
How charities can use anchoring, reciprocity, and overhead framing to boost donations
MichaelAaron and Richard explore why charity donations are especially resistant to typical marketing tactics. They unpack behavioral studies on anchoring, present preference bias, reciprocity, and overhead aversion that show small shifts in fra...
Interview: Rami Dudin, head of strategy at Courage, on why the most obvious message beats the most novel one
Courage strategist Rami Dudin joins MichaelAaron and Richard to discuss why distinctive often beats different, using SickKids' $1.3 billion fundraising turnaround, CIBC's no-fee campaign, and neobank scarcity tactics like Monzo's golden ticket ...
How small changes to choice design can help pharma brands drive better prescribing outcomes
MichaelAaron and Richard explore why half of chronic-illness patients skip their medication, and why scaring them into compliance backfires. They cover a study on avoiding bad medical news, a simple diagram that cut medication errors in half, a...
Interview: Michael Norton, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Ritual Effect, on how brands turn ordinary consumption into rituals that build emotional connection
Harvard professor Michael Norton, author of The Ritual Effect, joins MichaelAaron and Richard to explore why identical actions feel meaningful to one person and trivial to another. They cover how Oreo, Stella Artois, and Guinness turn consumpti...
Why 95% of companies stall on AI, and the behavioral science that fixes it
MichaelAaron and Richard unpack a new Behavioral Insights Team report on why most companies fail to get employees using AI, covering how social proof lifts adoption, why removing small points of friction beats motivational pitches, and why fram...
Inside Influence: Live with Dr. Robert Cialdini
In this special finale to the Inside Influence series, MichaelAaron and Richard are joined by Dr. Robert Cialdini to revisit the principles behind his landmark book Influence. Together, they explore ethical persuasion, authori...
Inside Influence Part 3: How Cialdini’s Principles of Consistency and Unity Shape Modern Marketing
In part three of the Inside Influence series, Richard Shotton and MichaelAaron Flicker explore Cialdini’s principles of commitment, consistency, and unity - revealing how small commitments, shared identity, and group belonging can dramatically ...
Inside Influence Part 2: How Cialdini’s Principles of Social Proof, Scarcity, and Authority Shape Consumer Behavior
In part two of the Inside Influence series, Richard Shotton and MichaelAaron Flicker unpack Cialdini’s principles of social proof, authority, and scarcity - exploring the psychology behind popularity, trust, exclusivity, and why small shifts in...
Inside Influence Part 1: How Cialdini’s Principles of Reciprocity and Likability Drive Consumer Action
This week, MichaelAaron and Richard kick off their miniseries “Inside Influence” on Robert Cialdini’s classic book Influence. They unpack the principles of reciprocity and liking, exploring how gifts increase spending, why similarity builds tru...
How behavioral science reveals what traditional market research misses
In this episode, MichaelAaron and Richard challenge some of marketing’s biggest assumptions about consumer research. They explore why people often can’t explain their own decisions, why A/B tests outperform surveys, and how observing real behav...
Interview: Richard Chataway, author of The Behavior Business, on why every business is in the business of behavior
In this episode, we speak with Richard Chataway, founder of Communication Science Group and author of The Behaviour Business. Richard reveals how he used behavioral science to help people quit smoking, why diversity has both a moral and commerc...
How AI is influencing marketing and why human judgment still matters
In this episode, MichaelAaron and Richard explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and behavioral science. They discuss why AI amplifies good and bad thinking alike, how overreliance can weaken judgment, why creativity risks becoming...
How e-commerce brands use behavioral science to increase perceived value
In this episode, MichaelAaron and Richard explore how behavioral science can improve e-commerce performance. From why perfect reviews reduce trust to how scarcity boosts value perception, they unpack practical ways brands can increase conversio...
Interview: Michael Hallsworth, creator of the EAST framework, on what really changes behavior
In this episode, MichaelAaron and Richard sit down with behavioral scientist Michael Hallsworth, co-creator of the EAST framework and author of The Hypocrisy Trap. They explore behavior change, social influence, hypocrisy, and why relatable mes...
Behavioral Science for Agencies: Strategy
In this episode, MichaelAaron Flicker and Richard Shotton explore how agencies can use behavioral science to build stronger brand strategies. From the mere-exposure effect to the halo effect and goal dilution, they unpack why consistency, focus...
The 4 P's of Marketing: Place
In this episode, the fourth and final installment in a miniseries on the 4 Ps of Marketing, MichaelAaron Flicker and Richard Shotton explore how behavioral science shapes “place.” From making products easier to access to using scarcity and prem...
Interview: Robert West, creator of the COM-B model, on the three forces behind every human behavior
In this episode, MichaelAaron and Richard sit down with behavioral scientist Robert West, creator of the COM-B model, to explore the three forces behind every human behavior: capability, opportunity, and motivation. They discuss why behavior ch...
The 4 P's of Marketing: Product
In this episode, part three of a miniseries on the 4 Ps of Marketing, MichaelAaron and Richard explore how behavioral science shapes product design. From optimal newness to visible social proof and sensory cues, they show how small design choic...
