Search for content of interest

  • About
  • ServiceS
    • Branding
    • Innovation
    • Naming
    • Strategy
    • Research
    • Design
  • Work
  • Insights
  • News
  • LOCATIONS
    • Shanghai
    • Paris
    • New York
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia

CN FR
  • About
  • ServiceS
    • Branding
    • Innovation
    • Naming
    • Strategy
    • Research
    • Design
  • Work
  • Insights
  • News
  • LOCATIONS
    • Shanghai
    • Paris
    • New York
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
CONTACT

EN

  • CN
  • FR

Home Insights Our Thinking Detail

EXPERTISE

  • Research
  • Innovation
Contact Us

Behavioral Economics in Brand Research and Marketing

In brand research and marketing, there is always a new buzzword on the block: biometrics, neuromarketing, big data, and small data. One such buzzword is behavioral economics. While traditional economics is driven by rationality, behavioral economics shows us that human behavior is actually quite irrational- we have many “heuristics” and cognitive biases that cause us to take reasoning shortcuts and make suboptimal assumptions. Hence the saying, “We’re only human.” 

Let’s have a look at 3 key takeaways of Behavioral Economics in brand research and marketing from a branding perspective, based on foundational principles: namely how to do brand research, how to frame your offer, and how to communicate and engage.

How to Do Brand Research

Anyone involved in consumer research knows that answers can be elusive. Often what people say and what they actually do are different. What are the respondents doing? Are they lying to researchers? Maybe, but maybe not. Behavioral economics suggests that people have two types of thinking: System 1, which is fast, intuitive, and often irrational, and System 2, which is slower, controlled, and analytical. Often we act based on System 1 alone (which we may not care to admit), and other times our System 2 just doesn’t have insight into why we acted a certain way. If people are asked “Why?” by a researcher, they feel inclined to give an answer, and unfortunately, it may not be highly accurate.

Brand Research: Anyone involved in consumer research knows that answers can be elusive.

So if there’s one thing brands should be careful about when doing brand research, it’s asking consumers why, and then making marketing decisions based on those responses. In this case, we are asking the consumers to be scientists, rather than leaving that up to the researchers. It is often more effective to ask many non-why questions – what, where, when, with whom – the answers to which the researchers then collate and analyze to form a hypothesis for, hopefully, the real whys.
 
Just because consumers aren’t good at answering all of our questions doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask them any- but we should design brand research with the backdrop of Behavioural Economics’s system 1 and system 2 in mind, to be aware of limitations and to get the most out of the questions we can and do ask. 

How to Frame Your Offer

Let’s say you have a new brand or even an existing one, and you have a nice brand platform document that outlines your brand vision, values, target audience, brand personality, benefits, proposition, and the like. That document works well to align internal stakeholders, but it then needs to be adapted into consumer-friendly messaging that frames the value proposition in a compelling way. Behavioral economics can help us with that.

Behavioral economics can help brands align internal stakeholders and create consumer-friendly messaging.

The various ways Behavioral Economics in brand research and marketing can do so could make a small book in itself, but key insights can be narrowed down into three points:

  • Use comparisons (our brain is better at assessing relative value vs. absolute),
  • Use visuals (eg. show the number of sugar cubes in one drink vs. another), and
  • Try to trigger system 1 with intuitive and emotional cues (it’s more powerful than system 2’s “logic”)

How to Engage towards Purchase

The third takeaway from Behavioural Economics for brands is the frameworks and tips it offers on how to communicate and engage with an audience. For example, the thoughts and feelings in the consumers’ minds at the time of consuming a product, versus at the time of purchasing the product, are different. Most of the time brands want to trigger purchases, so communication should speak to the goals that are active at the time of purchase. To illustrate: Perhaps at the moment of consuming (i.e. eating) a health food product a consumer’s healthy living goals are active, however, when they face the shelf of health foods at the supermarket, convenience, and value-for-money are salient. Brands need to first understand the goals common among their target audience, and then trigger the salient goals during consumption as well as purchase.

Behavioral Economics Insights for Brand Research and Marketing: The third takeaway from Behavioral Economics for brands is the frameworks and tips it offers on how to communicate and engage with an audience.

To recap, behavioral economics from a brand perspective gives us several takeaways:

  • How to do research: People don’t do what they say they will do, and they can’t explain why.
  • How to frame your offer: Brand messages can’t just be communicated, but need to be framed.
  • How to engage towards purchase: Goals can help a brand trigger purchase and consumption. 

Ironically, once you are comfortable with the fact that people are irrational, the world starts to make a little more sense.

  • SHARE
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
BACK

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest insights, tips, and trends in branding, naming and innovation.

Related Article




Brand color – Minion Yellow: Energizing Colors for Digital Media

Bold, bright, vibrant, and ‘uplifting’ are the words used to describe Minion Yellow, the Pantone Color Institute’s latest addition to the Pantone Color Library. In a stat…

Art of Naming: Conveying Sensoriality in Naming

With consumers more attuned to subtle differences during brand purchase and discovery, engaging with their senses has become essential for brands. Today’s customers relat…

Driving Brand Innovation in the FMCG Sphere

Are you ready to take your brand to the next level? Look no further than Labbrand Spotlight! Our news collection is your go-to source for the latest and greatest insights…

What’s in a Name? Testing Your Brand’s Verbal Assets

Unraveling the significance of a brand's verbal assets is like delving into the essence of its identity. The name encapsulates the fundamental attributes, becoming the co…

Brand Marketing Strategies: How Chinese Teens Use Digital: Getting to Know Your Customers of Tomorrow

In this comprehensive report on brand marketing strategies, we consistently refer to the terms “teenagers” and “post 90s.” Although the year of birth may not be a perfect…

What is Brand Portfolio Strategy and How to Optimize It

We live in a world of brands. Corporations, products, not-for-profit organizations, celebrities, politicians, nations, tourist destinations, movies, and more, can now all…

Going Vegan: Crafting Your Brand’s Plant-Based Strategy

The Rise of the Plant-Based Category Embrace the accelerating health and wellness trend with a focus on brands' plant-based strategies. The surge in vegetarian and vegani…

Blended Travel for Reconnecting in the Digital Age

As the world emerged from the pandemic, travelers and workers continued to welcome a more hybrid, blended living. In this issue of Labbrand Spotlight from Singapore, we e…

Ready to take your brand to new heights?

Let's start a conversation.
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CAREERS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Labbrand Group
  • Labbrand
  • Madjor
  • SpringPillar

* Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy

A Labbrand Group Company © 2005-2025 Labbrand All rights reserved

沪ICP备17001253号-3
  • Follow us:
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

Contact us to get the latest insights, tips, and trends in branding, naming, and innovation.

* Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy

Cookie Notice

To improve your experience, we use cookies to provide social media features, offer you content that targets your particular interests, and analyse the performance of our advertising campaigns. By clicking on “Accept” you consent to all cookies. You also have the option to click “Reject” to limit the use of certain types of cookies. Please be aware that rejecting cookies may affect your website browsing experience and limit the use of some personalised features.

Accept Reject