Most entrepreneurs get it wrong when it comes to understanding consumer patterns. They develop a thought and look to see if they are correct by intricately studying people’s actions and reactions. Some entrepreneurs have taken the time to survey, poll, sample and exhaustively question consumers with the expectation of obtaining answers. Whereas, what they should be doing is studying their ideal customer’s habits and developing products and services that fit with how that customer archetype desires to behave.
When this approach is selected, the customer archetype will be pre-disposed to taking an action. Because we recognize that habits propel actions, a brand should target their efforts in encouraging new habits and tying the accompanying actions to their brand specifically. Habits are cultivated wherever and whenever there’s a consistent relationship between an interactive environment and repeatable experience. This simply means unless a brand creates a business model where they interact with each customer only once, their customers will develop habits related to their interactions with the brand. Strong brands capitalize on these routine behaviors of their customers. This type of phenomenon can only take place when brands utilize appropriate habits of their own.
Habit 1: Observe Rather Than Ask
It is a known fact that what people say they do, in comparison to what they actually do are different. It is factual in human nature, and also has been proven in science. The scientific theory that describes this is Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. It states “It is impossible by definition to measure exactly the state, either the position or momentum of a particle. Due to the act of measuring it, by definition changes it.” If a brand wants to understand the behavior and actions of their customer archetype, they should observe what they do rather than inquire about their actions. Understanding this requires brands to get out into the marketplace to watch how their customer goes about their daily life. They must listen to not only what’s being communicated, but also what’s not being communicated by their customer, and then figure out how, where and when they can fit in. Observation is not enough to cultivate brand habits, which has also been proven in business and science. The scientific method states “you cannot prove a hypothesis through observation, you can only disprove it.” Therefore a brand must utilize other habits along with the habit of observation.
Habit 2: Improve Rather Than Break
Customers create their own habits in how they interact with brands. A brand must know what these habits are that their customers are creating, and the sequences of these habits. A brand must also understand why their customers created these habits in the first place. These habits and related insights must be documented, and cannot be replaced by studies and reports on demographics or SKUs.
Once understood, brands can then consider how they can influence making the habits of their customers more intense or improved upon without being disruptive. This is the optimal method, preferred over attempting to force customers to change what they have become accustomed to doing. An example that most have experienced is when a brand abruptly alters their packaging, either by introducing new colors, textures or the overall core design. This can be a frustrating experience for the consumer who is looking for the brand’s products on the store shelves. The consumer may become so disheartened that they seek to change to a brand that has done a better job of maintaining brand continuity, or one that hasn’t changed and they know and feel familiar with. This nature of customers in wanting to maintain habits is also explained in science, through Newton’s First Law. The law states that “an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Therefore a brand should recognize that it is best not to try to change habits, but rather to improve upon them.
Habit 3: Incentivize Rather than Demand
If a brand is going to request their customers to change existing habits, it must provide a substantial reason to do so or incentivize. Brands should also be sure that whatever their change of habit is becomes seen as more valuable to the customer the more times they repeat the habit. Brands should also be sure they hedge the requested change in habit with an accompanying incentive that grows over time, and the incentive timeframe is long enough to allow the growth to occur. Brands must give their consumers a meaningful motive to change for sustained periods of time, or they will encounter the risk of their consumer losing interest or converting to another brand. This is also proven in science in Newton’s second law, which states “the larger the mass, the more force required to change its position.” The force that brands must show is in proper incentives, and over time they will change the habits and position of their customers.
By practicing these habits of observing, improving and incentivizing, a brand can reintroduce to the market a product that embodies a better way for customers to practice an existing habit. This “new and improved” product can be developed through studying not only the habits of a brand’s existing customers but also the habits of the customers of competitors. A brand can impact the environment of a customer, and present ways to improve upon their repeatable experiences. In effect, this turns the weaknesses of the competitors into advantages for a brand, and these advantages will have the backing of human nature and scientific theory.
