Page 62 - Decoding Decisions ~ Making sense of the messy middle

62 CHAPTER 4 INFLUENCING THE MESSY MIDDLE

To make effective use of category heuristics, marketers need to understand
which characteristics consumers most associate with a given product or
service. This is often also the characteristic they value most. For example,
when we looked at broadband, we found that highlighting data allowances
achieved the largest transfer in share of preference away from the initial
favourite brand (figure 6).

Figure 6

1st choice brand 2nd choice brand

100
100 30 57
75

70
50

43
25

0
Stated 1st choice brand Introduction of 2nd choice brand 2nd choice + stronger category heuristic

Category heuristics tested: “unlimited monthly usage” and “dedicated customer service”. Transfer of preference
from first choice to second choice brand – category heuristics analysis, broadband provider category.

Source: Google / The Behavioural Architects. 10,000 simulated broadband provider purchase scenarios. n=1,000 category buyers,
UK online shoppers, aged 18–65.