the nudges@Commerce

Architecting  triggers in the consumer journey to create the desired change for Whisper to win @ commerce in South Korea.

Despite being the market leader, in a highly competitive market of South Korea, competition generated more than 20X sales from ecommerce versus Whisper, and registered higher brand affinity, and a higher intention to purchase and engagement as compared to Whisper. 

A systems approach & a thorough audit of the brand, and its competition, revealed a problem of the brand not being able to bring in new users effectively and /or drive loyalty amongst chance purchasers. While the older converts to the brand continued using Whisper, the new entrants to the category chose competitive brands, causing the brand’s share to shrink year on year. 

Through an understanding of the consumer and all her context cues - cultural, competitive, connections, category, communications, community, we identified all possible sources of insights that could help embed the right triggers in the consumer journey to create the change in the direction desired. Brand Communication was changed to reflect an understanding of the motivations of the target audience, while nudges, guided by how people makes choices, were embedded along the path to purchase to engage the consumers and help close the sale.
 
Some of the Nudges* @ Commerce 

1. Defaults. All things being equal, consumers are more likely to choose options that are presented as a default. A default is defined as a choice frame in which one option is pre-selected so that individuals must take active steps to select another option. This insight was used to drive recurring purchase with a  monthly delivery opt in at e-commerce when you bought the pack online, the first time. We also embedded  an option to personalize the ‘cycle’ of recurring delivery, such that once opted in, a pack of pads arrived at your doorstep in sync with your cycle, month after month.  Given no one loves shopping for sanitary pads, this was a simple nudge in the direction of efficiency & in eliminating consumer discomfort. Of course, opting out as a choice was always clearly and obviously extended to all consumers.
2. Categorization Attribution & Driving Complementarity. Whisper was being shelved and stocked in the same space and next to household cleaning products & ‘mom buying’ categories. Little wonder that the younger audiences saw little relevance and felt no affinity towards the brand. We corrected this by decoupling sanitary protection from household cleaning & mom space. Additionally, we drove complementarity with recommendations that included stocking the special ‘occasion’ packs alongside fashion wear, outdoor sports wear, next to active lifestyle, travel sections – all in a bid to drive heightened relevance.
3. Mappings to Own the Cycle not just the Period.  Instead of technical talks on ‘absorption’, cues like specially created  travel packs, party packs, with tailored packaging and messaging was used to cue occasion specific product superiority. Recommendation included ‘Owning the cycle, not just the period’ with always-on year round online events that gave the lonely and stressed Korean teens an opportunity to bond over shared interests, with conversations  & support groups to boost their wellbeing. The work also helped inform the creative idea. The support of other women is sometimes all that is needed to give a woman the confidence boost to achieve what she desires and recognize just how unstoppable she can be. The communication focused on women enabling other women to voice their frustrations & be helped through overcoming some of the period-related challenges they had.
4. Reducing Choice Overload by enabling quick and easy comparisons by grouping products & visually presenting value communication.  
5. Trust = Person like me. People trust ‘real’ people. This insight was used to create peer recommendations. The insight was also the cornerstone of the strategy to use Power Claims on the storefront using consumer reviews, rewarding loyal customers who chatted real time with potential customers to inform them of their own product experience. This was all about driving trust using real stories and experiences of people. 

 
Result The human experience centered choice architectures, reimagined & recreated E-commerce Experience to create an online model for growth for Whisper in Korea that tripled the business from ecommerce within 12 months.  This approach was reapplied across all other developing markets, and called out as Best in Class Consumer Experience Design by P&G. Brand desirability registered a positive rise for the first time in 3 years.
 
*A nudge, as explained by Robert Thaler, the Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist,  is “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.” (Wikipedia)