Page 65 - Decoding Decisions ~ Making sense of the messy middle

65 CHAPTER 4 INFLUENCING THE MESSY MIDDLE

Cross‑functional implementations

We also tested a selection of more involved biases. Implementing these will

require collaboration across functions, particularly where increased costs
are likely to be incurred.

The power of free

Giving something away isn’t always the sole discretion of the marketing
department, so capitalising on the power of free will probably involve buy-in
from other departments such as finance and merchandising. However, the
effort is likely to be rewarded, as our simulation findings show that the power of
free can be a major influence on behaviour, having either the largest or second-

largest effect on transfer of preference in 18 out of 31 categories.

In the car hire category, we tested the power of free by boosting the
shopper’s favourite brand with a free car clean, while the second favourite
brand offered a free extra day’s hire. This effect turned out to be the third
most powerful of all the biases we tested, with a transfer of 70% away from
the favourite brand (figure 10).

Figure 10

1st choice brand 2nd choice brand

100
100 42 70
75

50
58

25
30

0
Stated 1st choice brand Introduction of 2nd choice brand 2nd choice + stronger expression of power of free

Power of free executions tested: “free day - 3 days for the price of 2” and “free car clean”. Transfer of
preference from first choice to second choice brand – power of free analysis, car hire category.

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