psychology without an apology

​Human beings are irrational.  As are the choices and decisions they make. 
Irrational, however, does not mean unintelligent. It simply means that it is not logical and may even appear unfounded, unjustifiable, unless we dig deep and observe carefully the psychological reasons that led them a certain way.
To use a psychological solution is to suspend being judgemental. It is to identify with the person and try and see the world they way they do in order to come up with sometimes, oblique solutions that make a real difference, and that often cost next to nothing . Except for ingenuity that stems from empathy.
Here is an interesting example of a Psychological Solution to drive mass behavior change drawn from Rory Sutherland’s TED Talk . ‘Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, first president of Turkey, wanted to modernize the Turkish people’s dressing. He wanted people to stop wearing the veil, but knew that a ban would result in strong resistance. So he tried a softer approach, which was to make it compulsory for prostitutes to wear the veil.People soon stopped wearing the veil’ (https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_sweat_the_small_stuff)
 
Some more examples of psychological solutions in the everyday?

• Closer home, in Singapore, all the traffic lights have a countdown timer that tell you exactly how many more seconds there are for the light to change. A simple solution in response to the fact that it is the indefiniteness of waiting which is the most stressful and not the waiting in itself, and one that has resulted in the least amount of jaywalking and traffic accidents in this part of the world.
• Instead of generic signs in public transport that urge people to give their seats up for the more ready, Singapore transport authority demarcates certain seats as the seats to give up. You will clearly know if you are in one of those seats – and you will have to give it up if someone needs it more than you. Thinking that someone will give up their seat to more needy meant that no one gave up their seats. By indicating seats as the ‘special seats’ – Singapore put the onus on people and activates their sense of ‘responsibility’.
  
• Many houses in India, line their boundary walls with images of gods and goddesses - a strategy to stop people from disposing litter outside other people’s homes, and to stop them from relieving themselves in the open. Using Gods and Goddesses to inspire fear and respect and solicit good behavior is a trick used with abandon (and to great effect !)

 
Through all of these examples, Rory, & other behavioral economists like Daniel Kahneman, Robert Thaler, speak about the importance of resorting to psychological solutions to solve some of the biggest problems we face. 
 
Most discussions with marketers today, focus disproportionately on the big changes to address the issue at hand – and solutions range from expensive product innovations to innovations in data and technology that help us address audiences with precision. And while all of it is great, it often overlooks the psychological solution to solving for an issue that a brand may be facing. And the context cues that can be tweaked to affect a change the desired change behavior. 

Examples?

• Against a backdrop of competition generating 20x sales from eCommerce Vs Whisper, the psychological solutions reimagined & recreated E-commerce Experience to create an online model for growth for Whisper in Korea. E commerce is a highly curated & customized experience & having to shop for pads in the same space as ‘household cleaning products’ -  as was the prevalent brand experience - was off-putting. That was the first thing we changed. We then changed the context cues. Instead of placing it next to cleaning products & diapers (as was the norm) we placed it next to sportswear and fashion wear to connote an unhindered lifestyle. 
  
• In Japan, where the brand perception  for Whisper was negative and the scores on ‘a brand for me’ was lower than the competitors, the brand regained a stronghold in the consideration sets and buying behaviours of Japanese girls with a solution that was more psychological than product innovation led .In Japan, bathrooms are shared spaces, and girls crave discrete spaces and privacy especially when it came to storing their sanitary pads, Whisper designed and distributed decorative boxes that the girls could use to store their period ‘stuff’, resulting in huge offtakes.
  
• In India, Pampers was dropping in sales while Huggies, its competitor, was gaining shares despite spending a fraction of what Pampers was spending. To a lower and middle tier Indian mom, diaper is a luxury purchase and if bought needed to be showcased to feel the satisfaction of a purchase. The diaper is not something she could 'show', the packaging is what she would ‘show’ to indicate purchase of a branded ( and therefore, more expensive item, thereby connoting status). Given this context, it was no surprise that Huggies with its orange packaging could easily be seen and spotted in a mom’s bag (and chosen by casual buyers) whereas the blue Pampers packaging was rejected because of people confusing it with the blue Whisper packaging and it becoming  a source of embarrassment if seen in the open.

Solutions to a problem can come from any source, and any angle. More often than not, the industry favors, the data, tech, engineering solutions. Those solutions are good AND they have tremendous value.  As do the psychological solutions. And they come at a fraction of a cost.
So the next time you get a brief, instead of jumping to data, tech solutions, think of how you could use psychological solutions to achieve the desired change. You will likely succeed at your task, and get that bonus too on account of all the money you helped save.