The Behavioral Science for Brands Podcast
By decoding some of the world's most famous brands and
campaigns, the Behavioral Science for Brands podcast is meant for
businesses looking to apply proven behavioral science by bridging
the gap between academic studies and practical marketing applications.
Never miss an episode and stay informed.
Ep49 - How to change habitual customer behavior in the New Year
In this episode, MichaelAaron and Richard dive into how brands can harness the fresh start effect to inspire lasting changes in consumer behavior. They also explore the importance of simplifying the first steps of a new habit to increase its chances of sticking over time.
Ep48 - Interview with Phil Barden: author of Decoded
In this episode we speak to Phil Barden, author of Decoded and Managing Director at DECODE Marketing. His excellent book was one of the earliest to look at how ideas from neuroscience and behavioral economics could be used to improve marketing.
Ep47 - Gift Giving
With the holiday season quickly approaching, MichaelAaron and Richard take a closer look into the behavioral science behind one of humanity's oldest traditions: the giving and receiving of gifts.
Ep46 - Les Binet Uncovered: Surprising Secrets of Ad Effectiveness You May Have Never Heard Before
MichaelAaron and Richard sit down with celebrated author and marketing thought leader Les Binet to discuss his research and insights in the field of advertising effectiveness.
Ep45 - Get out the vote: how behavioral science can boost voter turnout
Richard and MichaelAaron discuss how marketers have used behavioral science techniques to increase voter participation.
Ep44 - How Indulgence Brands Can Benefit From Moral Licensing
Moral Licensing: the hidden force driving your guilty pleasures.
Ep43 - How Brands Win with Matt Johnson, author of Blindsight
Matt Johnson talks about how Pret a Manger excites customers with uncertain rewards, Perrier's use of essentialism to launch in the US, and why brands should market to groups, not individuals.
Ep42 - The Practical Application of Behavioral Science with Kate Waters
The practical application of behavioral science with Kate Waters
Ep41 - How Starbucks Made Pumpkin Spice Latte a Cult Favorite with Scarcity
How Starbucks Made Pumpkin Spice Latte a Cult Favorite with Scarcity
Ep39 - Summer Holidays: Selling Nostalgia to Deliver Experiences
How holiday marketing uses nostalgia to sell experiences.
Ep38 - Football: The Lessons Behind Action Bias and Fluent Devices
How football shows us that maintaining course can deliver expected results related to marketing.
Ep37 - Tortillas, Government Agencies, and Behavioral Science with Owain Service
How behavioral science is used in various sectors of the world, with Owain Service joining in as a guest.
Ep36 - Liquid Death: The Power of Smashing Category Norms
How Liquid Death made itself stand apart from the crowd with a distinctive style and the behavioral science empowering it.
Ep35 - Kentucky Derby: Leveraging Data to Build False Confidence
How the Kentucky Derby gives bettors a wealth of data to deliver a false sense of confidence and how this is applied to brands.
Ep34 - Sustainability: Helping Consumers Make Decisions with Lateral Social Proof
How the sustainability movement can be applied to brands and the biases involved with it.
Ep33 - Red Bull: The Pratfall Effect and the Benefit of a Bad Taste
How Red Bull handled its expansion from a traditional recipe in Thailand to having more than 8 billion cans sold worldwide every year.
Ep32 - Chipotle: Piquing Interest by Building Community
How Chipotle used data points derived from their orders to formulate and execute a successful marketing campaign.
Ep31 - Costco: Loyalty Cards, Ski Trips, and the Sunk Cost Effect
How consumer behavior can be decided by loyalty programes and the theory of sunken cost
Ep30 - Optimism Bias with Tali Sharot
How consumer behavior has the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive events and underestimate the likelihood of negative events
Ep29 - Valentine's Day
How intricate Valentine's Day between stated motivations and real behaviors through enlightening studies and practical experiments.
Ep28 - The Big Game: Costly Signaling and the Public's Trust
How brands continue to win consumer sentiment and positive public perception through Super Bowl ads.
Ep27 - Behavioral Economics with Mark Earls
How behavioral science is leveraged to influence public policies and economics.
Ep26 - Crossroads of Consumer Psychology and Marketing
How a person's impression of someone can influence their feelings towards them and the how impactful the illusion of labor can be.
Ep25 - New Year's: The Power of Commitment
How New Year's Resolutions can be achieved with a motivation to change and compounding good habits.
Ep24 - Convenience, Chinese restaurants, and the danger of choice
How Uber Eats masterfully curates menus, sidesteps choice confusion, and plays the pricing game to make you crave those French fries on a Friday night.
Ep23 - Notepads, shutter clicks, and spreading innovation
How Apple masters psychology and simplicity to keep you hooked.
Ep22 - Milk, mustaches, and the messenger effect
How "Got Milk" turned milk mustaches, celebrities, and FOMO into a billion-dollar industry.
Ep21 - Diamonds, romance, and The Wheel of Fortune
How De Beers invented the diamond engagement ring and made diamonds forever.
Ep20 - Trash, graffiti, George W. Bush
How the "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign reframed littering, using behavioral science and avoiding authoritarian messaging.
Ep19 - Candy, comedy, and the power of a cue
How Snickers humorously triggers your inner hangry self to crave their candy bars.
Ep18 - Decoys, trainees, and the Power of Puzzles
How The Economist effectively used the generation and decoy effects, boosting circulation and brand engagement significantly.
Ep17 - Pigeons, speed cameras, and the power of uncertainty
How Zuckerberg intertwined computer programming and psychology to create a billion dollar company.
Ep16 - Used cars, American presidents, and the power of surprise
How past American presidential campaigns captured the moment of our nation and won the hearts of many.
Ep15 - Cakes, furniture, and making it easy
How Blue Apron created home chefs though the balance of friction.
Ep14 - Sex in the City, charities, and the power of pricing
How Grey Goose convinced audiences that French vodka tastes better.
Ep13 - Vacuum cleaners, real estate, and the ball barrow
How Dyson revolutionized household appliances from product design to brand marketing leveraging key behavioral science tactics.
Ep12 - Fried chicken, beer, and the CBL's first national experiment
How KFC’s approach to innovation, based on behavioral science, made them a leader in the fast food industry.
Ep11 - Scarcity, Spotify, and second opinions
How Spotify revolutionized the music industry while leveraging behavioral science tactics to gain popularity.
Bonus Episode - The Illusion of Choice
How marketers can use Richard Shotton’s new book, The Illusion of Choice, to make their advertising more effective.
Ep08 - Socks, sounds, and increasing sales
How Wellow Compression Socks rooted their name and brand positioning in behavioral science
Ep07 - Trust, rhyming, and snacking
How Pringles leveraged behavioral science to become America's favorite chip.
Ep06 - Skiing, schools, and America’s biggest e-commerce player
How Amazon Uses Behavioral Science to Dominate E-Commerce
Ep05 - Andy Warhol, vodka, and an unexpected cologne
How Absolut turned the iconic shape of its bottle into a cultural phenomenon.
Ep04 - Umlauts, ice cream, and what's in a name
How Haagen-Dazs used factious words and invented the category of luxury ice cream.
Ep03 - Summertime, cocktails, and the color orange
How a single distinctive color drove the remarkable success of Aperol.
Ep02 - Beauty, baked goods, and bottles of wine
How L'Oréal Paris' famed tagline has endured the test of time.
About the Hosts
MichaelAaron Flicker and Richard Shotton are two entrepreneurs and thought leaders
committed to applying behavior science to increase the effectiveness of marketing and
advertising. They have jointly launched the Consumer Behavior Lab, an R+D unit that
brings the benefits of behavioral science to companies and brands across America.
MichaelAaron Flicker
Founder of XenoPsi
Richard Shotton
Founder of Astroten, Ltd.
MichaelAaron Flicker
As a thought leader at the intersection of business consulting, advertising and technology, MichaelAaron is passionate about helping brands tackle their toughest business challenges. He excels at bringing innovative, growth-driving thinking to a variety of businesses, concentrating on start-up and challenger brands across a wide variety of sectors.
Richard Shotton
Richard is the author of The Illusion of Choice and The Choice Factory, a best-selling book on how to apply findings from behavioral science to marketing and advertising. Astroten is based in London and helps such clients as Google, Barclays, BrewDog and Facebook to better understand why consumers make the decisions they do and how to better influence their decision making process.
Celebrating Richard's Second Book
Critical Acclaim From The Industry
“
The Illusion of Choice is provocative and practical. Shotton utilizes the best of behavioral science to demonstrate surprising ways you can improve your business.
— Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
New York Times Best Selling Author, Everybody Lies
“
No one should be allowed near a layout pad or a keyboard until they have read this book. It is an antidote to the tediously direct and transactional nature of much of modern marketing.
— Rory Sutherland
Columnist for the Spectator & Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy One
“
The Illusion of Choice explains lesser-known research in an easy-to-read manner to give consumers and businesses insights into how products persuade.
— Nir Eyal
Author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
“
Comprehensive, compelling and immensely practical, the Choice Factory brings the building blocks of behavior change together in one place.
— Richard Huntington
Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi
“
In a cacophony of overstatement, Richard Shotton possesses a melodious and balanced voice. In this short but powerful tome you can learn about how marketing actually does influence consumers.
— Mark Ritson
Columnist for Marketing Week and Professor at Melbourne Business School
“
A short guide to applying behavioral economics to marketing, this book is both fun and useful. A great little bag of tricks!
— Les Binet
Head of Effectiveness at adam&eveDDB & Expert in Econometrics
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