How to change habitual customer behaviour in the New Year

In this episode we return to the question of how to break old consumer habits and build new ones. We cover four new studies, each of which has practical implications for brands. We begin by looking at when people are open to changing their behavior and discuss the fresh start effect and the destabilizing effect of life events. 

We then turn to the behavioral science of building new habits and look at the foot in the door technique and the perennial question - how long does it take to form a new habit?

Transcript

MAF: [00:00:00] Welcome back to behavioral science for brands, a podcast where we connect academic insights and practical marketing to help you grow your brand and your business. Every other week, we sit down and look at some of the country's best brands and the behavioral science that's powering them. I'm MichaelAaron Flicker.

RS: And I'm Richard Shotton. 

MAF: And today we're exploring how New Year's can help create positive consumer behavior change and lasting habits. Let's get into it. So Richard, as we get into today's episode, we were talking about how we've actually covered New Year's once before, for those that are interested, episode 25, we went through how new year's can really lead to some very positive consumer habit changes, personal habit changes. We looked at implementation intentions, how we form specific plans: when, where, and how can significantly increase the likelihood of sticking to those resolutions. And we talked about habit [00:01:00] stacking, combining the “what we should do” tasks with “what we want to do” tasks helps us maintain motivation over time.

So if these topics are of interest to our listeners they should jump to episode 25. In today's episode, we're going to take a slightly different view and we're going to look at how new years can create a moment that can be used to, for brands, to create fresh start moments, and then how we can use this throughout other times of the year as well, 

But using new years for brands has been historically very good news for lots of different industries, Weight Watchers, in America, one of the largest dieting and weight loss companies, in 2018 did a very specific campaign around New Years and they saw a 25 percent increase in memberships in January, directly attributable to their New [00:02:00] Year, New You messaging that they were running.

Same thing in Planet Fitness, which is a nationwide chain of gyms in America, they did in 2019, a new year's message, a new year's campaign coinciding with creating new new year's resolutions, 30 percent increase in memberships in January alone. So we've got this situation where brands have the ability to adhere themselves to a new year's message, and there's a lot of behavioral science behind the start of the year, the start of a new moment that creates an opportunity to change behavior. So why don't we start there and we can talk a little bit about what's going on here, psychology-wise, what's going on here in the mind of the consumer.

RS: So the most relevant study to New Year's being an opportunity to change behavior comes from Catherine Miltman, who's at Wharton. And back in 2014, she tested a hypothesis. So her [00:03:00] idea was that one of the big drivers of human behavior is a desire to be consistent with our past self. So we have a lot of language that's derogatory about people who change their behavior.

We call them hypocrites or flip-floppers. So she thought to herself, well, if that's true, well, when we enter new time periods, our link with our past self is weakened, and we become more open to change. So this, this bias of consistency that keeps us behaving in the same way again and again is weakened when we enter new time periods.

She didn't just argue this from logic. Once you got that hypothesis, she went out and looked at a variety of different data sets. She looked at volumes of Google search terms over time for things like quit smoking, start dieting. She looked at signups by time for gym memberships and usership over time.

And finally, she looked at American website called Stick. So this is a website where you make a public pledge that you're going to change [00:04:00] your behavior. So I might put a public pledge up saying I'm going to quit drinking, or I'm going to start exercising and what she saw each of these data sets was the same pattern that when people entered a new time period, there was a pronounced spike in behavior change.

Yes, she saw this at New Year's. But I think many people would expect that. That's probably not new news. What was interesting was that she also saw that spike at other fresh start moments. So beginning of the month, beginning of the week, after birthdays, after public holidays, all these moments were typified by an increased openness to changing behavior.

I've done some follow up work in which I didn't just look at calendar fresh starts. I also looked at more meaningful fresh starts for people. So when people had moved house, started a new job, had a baby. There, you see a huge spike in [00:05:00] willingness to change behavior. So you talked about a couple of brands like Weight Watchers who were seeing this real opportunity at the new year, why I'd suggest to any brand that has experienced that uplift at New Year would be to test the same message or the same intervention, but after people's birthdays after they've moved house. So if you're a gym, why not send out a free trial opportunity, you know, to anyone who's just had their birthday. Why not do a partnership with local employer, so new starters get a trial at your gym. These are moments when people are really open to changing their behavior, that they're open to exercising for the first time or increasing that level of exercise. It's a really simple insight that can be applied very, very easily by brands. 

MAF: So the base comment here [00:06:00] is that there's an opportunity to use fresh start moments beyond new years to find people that are more willing to make a behavior change and maybe the build on the idea is you can find something that's more naturally endemic to your brand and your product, that's going to be even better. So Weight Watchers at the start of the year, besides saying “it's a new year, I want to have a new me,” it's not the strongest of connections, but finding, you know, a new couple in a new home, wanting to buy upgraded kitchenware, much stronger connection. Because they're likely in the market to buy those things at that time. Well, you know, so thinking about what would make sense for your brand in that moment, it feels like it could be doubly effective. 

RS: Yea, I agree with that. I'd look at it two ways. I'd firstly say any fresh start moment. Even if it feels irrelevant to your brand [00:07:00] purpose, your brand offering, it can still have an uplift. So there's one point there, but the second point is you're absolutely right, if you can pick a fresh start moment that relates to the product, it will be even more powerful.

So one of the areas that I found when I ran that study in 2017, looking at these life events, as opportunities for change, I found for makeup brands, if someone had been divorced in the last year, that was a massive boost. They're likely to try a new makeup brand. If people had moved house, it was a massive boost to trying new types of food.

You're absolutely right. Because I had a new kitchen is this element of disruption you're absolutely right that it's even more powerful if it's a relevant life event 

MAF: And to me this is some of the fun that behavioral science brings to the strategy table into the creative table now we have a whole new brief we have a whole new [00:08:00] way to be creative when we say there's a lots of fresh start moments when you were talking about gyms I was thinking about you know every gym that I've ever talked to - We're almost at the end of the month it's almost a new month let's get you signed up before the end of the month and of course one side of that is they're hitting their sales targets for the month but the other thing is it's a new month let's get you into the gym what's your schedule for the first week as part of the new month so there is that ability to create an end of one period in the beginning of another that can get someone to do something you want 

RS: Yeah the word I really like to use there was creat,  and I won't remember the exact details apologies, but a follow up study Miltman did showed that you don't just have to rely on the calendar moment. You don't just have to say it's the first of the month that's a fresh start. She did a study where she tried to get people to adopt a new behavior on, and I'll get my dates wrong, but let's say March the 15th.

Some people were just told to save more money, [00:09:00] whatever it was on March 15th. Others were told save more money on March 15th or start a savings account. That's the first day of spring. And the group that had the March moment reframed to the first day of spring, they were more likely to adopt new behaviors.

So I think you're absolutely right that you can create these fresh start moments rather than just relying on a set Monday or a set first of the month. 

MAF: It's interesting you raised that, because one of the companies that we own does a lot of work at e commerce and Amazon has their prime days in the middle of summer.

So traditionally a very low time for Amazon sales. I think it's July, middle of July, let's call it July 16 and 17. And what we see across all of our e commerce clients is that there is increased intent to purchase. Not on Amazon during those two days. So Amazon has created a [00:10:00] buying holiday when there otherwise was no reason to buy. A little bit different than the fresh start effect, but same idea that you're talking about, which is you can create an imperative to buy with the right tactics.

RS: Yeah, yes, absolutely. 

MAF: All right, Richard. Well, let's go to a break. And when we come back, let's talk about how ease is critical to creating new consumer habits. 

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MAF: Welcome back to Behavioral Science for Brands, a podcast where we take academic insights and practical marketing together to help you build your brand and your business. Today we're talking ostensibly about new years but what we're really talking about is [00:11:00] creating consumer behavior change around things like new years when is a moment in time where consumers are more susceptible to making a change. So we spent the first half of the episode talking about the fresh start effect and how we can use these moments in people's minds to create an opportunity. Now we want to shift our conversation and talk more about making it as easy as possible. 

RS: Yes. There's an amazing study. It's like a real classic in psychology back in 1966 by Freeman and Fraser.

And it looks not just at ease, but it looks at the importance of making the first step of a habit as simple as possible. So for their study, they go around to Californian neighborhood, they knock on people's doors and they give them a five minute spiel about the danger of speeding. And at the end of that talk, they [00:12:00] asked people to put up a sign in their front garden saying drive carefully.

They've purposely made this sign big, they purposely made this sign ugly. So very few people, 17 percent of people say they'll put up the sign. That's the first group. That's the control. Second group of people, they knock on their doors. They give them exactly the same talk about road safety. But at the end of the talk, they say, will you put up this little sticker in your window saying drive carefully?

Tiny little sticker, very important topic. Most people agree. Vast majority. Psychologists leave. They wait two weeks and then they come back with their genuine ask. Anyone who's put up the sticker, they say, they knock on their door again and they say, will you put up the giant sign? Most people put up that sign - 76 percent of people agree. So yeah, exactly- 17 in the first group, 76 in the second. So you've got this massive swing in behavior. [00:13:00] And Freeman and Fraser make a very similar argument to Milkman. They say that an awfully big drive of human behavior is this desire to be consistent. So imagine you're in that second group and imagine you've put up this sticker, psychologists knock on your door again, and they say to you, will you put up the large sign or you think to yourself, you know, I've put up this sticker, I guess if I put up the sticker, I must be really interested in road safety.

If I'm interested in road safety, I should put up the big sign, the big ugly sign. We become beholden to our past behavior. So the interesting thing here for brands is that if you ever have a big request, if you want to change people's behavior in really big ways, don't try and get people to make a huge leap, but instead identify what is the smallest thing you can ask of your audience that gets them to change their identity.

Get them to do [00:14:00] that. Once they've done that, then you follow up with your genuine ask, you remind them of their small step, and then you try and encourage them to take that bigger change in behavior. 

MAF: This feels very applicable to brands who want to get folks to make a bigger change. The big ask may be too much upfront, but what's a smaller step you could start with that would move them down the path of getting to the bigger ask.

RS: Exactly. And it's known as the foot in the door technique, which I think encapsulates it quite well. So maybe you want to get someone to change their environmental behavior. Well, rather than encouraging to switch to electric car, maybe you should start thinking about, turning off the lights when you leave the room.

And then once they've started to do those behaviors, you say, well, you know, you obviously care about the environment. If you care about the environment, maybe the biggest impact you can have is getting an electric car. Get people to make a small step. And then [00:15:00] you can use that to encourage that big, big behavior change.

MAF: Yeah. You know, it strikes me that for brands to effectively do this, they have to be bigger than just their product. So often you meet brands that say all of our time is focused on making the most perfect thing, or we have a great product, if only they hear our RTBs of our product, then they should buy it because it's just superior to everything else on the market.

But what we're talking about here is there's really a lot more that needs to happen in order to get someone to be really connected with your brand or to get to larger changes that you might want them to make. 

RS: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's an underused tactic that far more brands can apply.

MAF: Yeah. And it also gives you a wider breadth as a marketer, whether you're on the brand side or on the agency, side to say, how else can my brand be relevant in an [00:16:00] authentic way to the larger need that our consumer has? So in the example of electric cars, you know, big business, lots of money being spent, not a ton of connection necessarily to all the other things that need to change in your life to be able to support an electric car or to be able to be a more eco-minded driver.

And so to think about the 360 world that that consumer would need to see in order to be on the road to making that type of bigger change you know, to get to that big consumer change, there's a lot of steps. 

RS: Yeah, I think so. If you are trying to sell electric cars. You could think, well, maybe reposition them as being not a radical change in technology from the previous combustor engine, but showing them as a continuation.

They're saying to people, look, your previous car you [00:17:00] purchased because it was super fuel efficient. Well, if you're interested in fuel efficiency, the way to exemplify that now is to buy an electric. You know, you position whatever you want people to do as being aligned with their, their past behavior.

MAF: And if you can do that, then the lift or the change to get them there as much less. Yeah. Excellent. So Richard, let's talk about how to get to the behavior change we want. One of the other keys is about having repetition. 

RS: Yeah, there's a lovely study from Philippa Lally, so back in 2008 when she was at UCL, she recruits a group of people and she gets them to pick from a list a new behavior that they're going to adopt.

So it might be taking a vitamin with breakfast, doing five press-ups after lunch. People choose their habit they're going to try and embed. And then she gives them a diary. And in the diary, she says every day, fill out. Did you do the behavior? [00:18:00] And how easy was it? And she defines a habit as being created once people virtually always do the behavior and they find it easier to do than not do.

Basically, there's a degree of automation to the behavior. By that definition, it takes, on average, 66 days to form a habit. Now she does stress a few things. She says, look, that is an average number. It masks big variation. 95 percent of people fell between 18 days to create a habit and I think 254.

So you have this big, big variation, but on average, 66 days to form it. She also notes, of course, how long a habit it takes to create depends on how hard the task is. So if you're asking someone to take a vitamin after breakfast, that'll be a bit quicker. If you're asking to do something a bit tougher, like five press-ups after lunch, that will take a bit longer.

So there is a [00:19:00] bit of a nuance, but the figure is still super useful because it contradicts people's expectations. There's an awful lot of bogus information on the internet about how it's taking 21 days or 28 days. There's no real science behind those two numbers. They seem to have just been plucked out of the air and repeated ad infinitum.

But if people believe those bogus numbers, the danger is they do short interventions, which aren't comprehensive enough. What Lally would suggest is you need at least two months of support for your consumer. If you're going to really embed a new behavior. 

MAF: You know, Richard, what you're saying really rings true because you can feel that some activities you start, you commit to, you're working hard at, they start to feel automatic.

And then you wake up and you realize, oh, I haven't been doing them for a few weeks. Again, they haven't really taken hold. They, they haven't become part of what you habitually do. And so that [00:20:00] just rings true, at least from my own experience. There's a brand that started here in the UK called Gym Shark.

Really popular brand, moved to the US in the us. They were D2C darling and they took Lally's study pretty literally - they have their 66 day challenge and in their 66 day challenge, they're trying to get people to be more healthy and more active. And they're using her number kind of pretty literally.

RS: Yeah, that's a lovely example. Too many brands create short bursts of activity, which aren't enough to really embed that habit. It's lovely to see a brand taking an academic validated piece of research and apply it directly to their comms. 

MAF: I wonder if we thought more broadly outside of Weight Watchers and Planet Fitness and now Gym Shark, we thought more broadly about, um, brands [00:21:00] that could use this.

Let's take, for example, a knife brand. If you wanted to create the habit that people were using your knives in a certain way - a series of videos that you could do over a long period of time, a series of… what else could you do to help people build that habit, you know, in maybe something more of a durable good or something that's not like signing up for a service.

I'm just interested if, if anything comes to mind for you. 

RS: Yeah, so I think you would look at the same principles we've discussed. You'd think if we want people maybe to stop using cheap knives to use a professional kind of chef's knife. Don't just target them randomly - target them in a fresh start moment.

So maybe when they've moved house, if you've moved house, particularly relevant time for any food related brand. 

MAF: Get rid of your dull knives, bring in professional knives. 

RS: Yeah. You’ve got a new kitchen, your habitual behaviors have been [00:22:00] destabilized. So that would be a brilliant moment. You then would think around, well, whatever I want them to do with that knife, focus on the tasks that are easy rather than maybe it's full capabilities.

So you know, I nothing about cooking. So this is – I’m starting to feel out of my depth here - maybe you'd focus on, you know, it's brilliant with vegetables. Rather than doing something fancy with meat, focus on the easiest possible task. And then that final part about - the Lally work.

Don't just sell the knife and, you know, send them one follow up email, try and send them a variety of prompts, a series of messages about all the different ways you can use it for that two month period. And what you would hope is that people get the habit of using your particular product in the kitchen, that means that it will wear out quicker.

And then, you know, a year [00:23:00] later, they're back into the market and they'll buy you again. 

MAF: That to me, that helps round out our discussion because there's a lot of broad application for our listeners. When we're talking about something that's not just a health service or not just a gym. So I think that that helps round it out for me.

Yeah. 

RS: And it's not extrapolating excessively from the underlying studies. The fresh start effect and the disabling effects of life fence that has been shown in multiple categories, coffee shops, uh, travel behaviors, um, cinema usage. It's not just health and fitness, definitely. So I agree with you there.

MAF: So as we come to a close today, if we wanted to wrap up, can we just go through the few major takeaways? 

RS: So three big learnings. The first one is people are creatures of habit. If you want to change their behavior and you send out your message randomly, the chances are, it will fall on deaf ears.

Focus your [00:24:00] messages for change at the start of a new time period. Beginning of the year, beginning of the month, after a birthday, after a public holiday, after someone has undergone what I would call a big life event. These are your windows of opportunity. The second thing, people tend to think the way to change behavior is to motivate people to want to change, to believe that this new way of behaving is really appealing. Yes, that's important, but what's even more important is making that change as easy as possible. And that is doubly true at the start of a habit creation. So focus on making whatever you're asking people to do as easy as possible at the beginning.

So don't - if you want to get people to be healthy - don't tell them to do 50 press ups after lunch, get them to do one. And then once that's becoming an automatic behavior. Then you can start stepping it up. And then the third and final one, an intervention, if it's going to be successful in creating a habit needs to be sustained, the work from Philippa Lally shows that [00:25:00] on average, it takes about 66 days to form a habit.

So half of your audience might have formed a habit in 66 days. So make sure you are sending out a series of sustained communication. So at least that time period, if you want to really give yourself the best chance of changing behavior. 

MAF: Thanks so much for sharing those. So as we come to a close, is there a resolution you've made this year in a past year that you've been able to stick to by following some of these pieces of advice?

RS: Yes. So I, uh, decided this year that I was going to try and stick to the governmental recommended limits on alcohol. Okay. So that's in Britain, 14 units a week. Uh, and I've downloaded an app called Try Dry. So you log your drinking each night and at the moment, just about 13 ish units a week on average. So as things stand, uh, I'm on track. 

MAF: At the point of this recording. [00:26:00] We can make sure it stays all year.

RS: if business goes downhill. I'll be drinking my sorrows away.

MAF: Congratulations. That's a big accomplishment. 

RS: Yeah. And yourself, any, any… 

MAF: I made a new year's resolution that I wanted to do 50% of breakfasts or dinners at home with my kids Monday through Friday.

And so the big challenge for me was how can I step towards it? Getting to that, what meant I need to plan my weeks and some days instead of being able to make dinner, I'd be there for breakfast other days I needed to make sure I'd make enough days in a row. So breaking it into smaller things. Doing one week at a time and then making it as easy as possible.

Just moving a meeting later in the morning. So I could be there for breakfast, made it easier for me to follow these exact rules. Excellent. 

Well, that wraps up today's episode. If you found value in our discussion, please give a follow on [00:27:00] YouTube or leave us a review. Those actions help us reach more listeners just like you.

Additionally, if you'd like to go deeper on our content today, visit theconsumerbehaviorlab.com. On there, we have a video of today's recording, a full transcript, and what we call show notes, which are Reference materials that goes back to the studies we discussed and more material that back up today's conversation. Also on Linkedin we have regular updates of everything the consumer behavior lab is doing, so make sure to follow us there as well until next time i'm MichaelAaron Flicker 

RS: and I'm Richard Shotton 

MAF: Thanks for tuning in today and we'll be back week after next with our next episode of Behavioral Science for Brands.