The scourge of shitty emails
Do you write annoying emails? Do you receive them? Poorly written emails irritate both the recipient, who resents the interruption, and the sender, who gets frustrated by a lack of response.
So how to get them right? I’m about to take you through five real-life examples that illustrate traps to avoid and how to better engage your intended reader.
I’ve redacted the details of the sender because in no way is this intended to criticise them personally....
The Knife Through Butter approach to behavioural influence
Let's be clear. To influence some else's behaviour means you are going to have to put some effort in.
The smart approach is to be as effort-less as possible, and that means getting clear on your behavioural objective and anticipating the likely resistance you will encounter.
That's what I explain in this 5 minute video using, what else? Butter.
The lily pad lesson: Four ways to overcome customer apathy
Without doubt, the problem I spend most time on with clients is how to overcome customer, staff and supplier apathy.
What to do when people just can't be bothered? How do you make them care? Do you need to?
So I've recorded what I call my "Lily Pad lesson" for you, in which I cover four ways to address apathy:
1.Motivate them -> but this is problematic
2.Reward their short-term bias
3. Use the "move away from" approach
4. Shape the environment -> the best in...
Does shaming work?
A local council in South Australia is proposing to make residents use clear rubbish bins to “shame” people into recycling. Does shame work as a behavioural strategy?
Clear bin initiatives
While peculiar, the idea of clear plastic bins is not entirely new. Mindarie Regional Council in Western Australia trialled their “Face Your Waste” campaign in 2018. According to the ad agency behind the WA campaign, the trial of 20 bins resulted in significant media...
The three C's of designing a behavioural solution
Bri explains that in order to overcome resistance to behavioural influence, you need to focus on:
- Capacity
- Clarity and
- Confidence
The Simplification Paradox
It was 1876. William Orton, president of the Western Union Telegraph Company was approached about a new invention through which people could speak with each other - the talking telegraph.
Orton, well regarded as the leading electrical expert in the country remarked “There is nothing in this patent whatever, nor is there anything in the scheme itself, except as a toy.”
Having had his invention rejected in this manner, Alexander Graham Bell went ahead and established...
Unfu*king prioritisation
Alongside the current decluttering and unfu*king ourselves craze sits the perennial issue of prioritisation.
It’s something we grapple with on an individual level; “how should I spend my time?” and an organisational level; “where should we spend our resources?”
The tangle is not at the extremes – it is obvious what we should definitely do or not do – but the murky middle.
So I’ve been working on a way to behaviourally...
Motivating the unmotivated: The Zorro Technique
Most of the techniques I talk about deal with subconscious influences on behaviour; how the time of day impacts who gets out of jail or how music in a shop can change what people buy, for example.
But today I want to help you have conversations with people. In short, how to lead an individual or group through the need to change so they get on board and stop resisting you.
Bri’s Zorro Technique
Created in 1919 by American writer Johnston McCulley, Zorro is a fictional character who...
Acoustic encoding and other tricks to get into your customer's brain
Lodging yourself in the headspace of your customer is the goal of most marketers. Having a “share of mind” helps in your quest to gain “share of wallet”.
Key to this is your use of language; how you string words and sounds together. The opportunity is to capitalise on Availability Bias – your customer’s tendency to rely upon things that come readily to mind.
With that in mind it seems good timin’ to explain how rhymin’ gets the...
Behavioural Economics has a sticky date problem
Enjoying a weekend away with friends recently and we decided to share dessert. What better on a winter's night than the sweet decadence of a gooey, melting, sumptuous Sticky Date Pudding?
And it arrived.
Only it wasn't as we expected. In fact, we had to confirm that they had given us the right dessert.
Oh yes, it was a Sticky Date Pudding.
It was a deconstructed Sticky Date Pudding.
Dry portion of cake to the left. Sauce in a smear to the right. A quenelle of ice-cream in the...
