The Desire Path

Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe at Monaco Yacht Show

Since the dawn of the digital age, effective marketing has become about more than great planning and clever execution. Behavioural economics has inspired government policy in the USA and UK. By understanding the disparities between actual human behaviour and classical economic theory we can improve marketing effectiveness and prevent millions being wasted. We have to dive deeper into a customer’s psyche to find their subconscious drivers of action and choice. Here are some examples of how non-rational behaviour affects us unconsciously (and these will never be picked up in market research). People work harder to avoid losing something than they will to gain something else, therefore a surcharge on credit cards is a more effective deterrent than discounting a debit card might be. In a restaurant my father would often say “I’ll have what she’s having”. Some people live just in the moment and are more affected by what's going on around them. This is why vehicle activated speed control signs with sad :( or happy :) faces are proving to be far more effective than speeding fines arriving on your doormat days later. It is always important to find your audience's preferred channel of engagement to be more effective ie. SMS response works for charity donations by 25 year olds . There is also a high value of scarcity. In the 60s live music was abundant and cheap recorded music was scarce which led to the ‘Golden Era of the LP’ (those beautiful, treasured and coveted items). Today recorded music is so plentiful it is virtually free, however live music is increasingly in demand. It is important to focus on one key message as items that promise too much suffer from goal dilution and are less convincing. This is why the mighty Google were so successful in their single minded positioning as a search engine. If one message is too limiting then try 'chunking' as bite sized parts are easier to digest than wholes! In theory, prices should be a consequence of value but in reality it is the reverse – the higher the price, the more we value it. We really do have a perception that higher price means better quality and price cutting can reduce perception not just of product quality but also of efficacy. And finally, framing is all important. We’re all familiar with choosing the second least (or most!) expensive wine on the menu eg. Rolls Royce began selling cars at a yacht show – alongside a £10m yacht a £500,000 car seems like a bargain! When we accept that humans are not rational beings and unlikely to behave in line with economic theory then we can begin more open dialogues between customers and brands.

The vaping zeitgeist has hit the mainstream as Boots sell e-cigarettes. The UK market of 1.3m vapers is booming and the industry is currently led by independent players, such as Nicolites, which was established by pharmacists. Now the tobacco companies are moving in and flexing their heavyweight media spending muscles, will the cultural shift move in the right direction? Vaping culture has become a hobby for many smokers and ex-smokers and allegedly far less harmful than smoking without tobacco’s 69 hazardous chemicals. However, as the independent e-cigarette companies strive to reduce smoking prevalence from 20% to zero the old ‘mad men’ tobacco tactics will no doubt focus on glamourising the e-cigarette to attract a new, younger audience.

At a basic level, a desire path might be said to serve at least two purposes: business and pleasure. The desire path that is all about business is the one that cuts corners in straight lines, its trajectories are shaped by a goal. Desire lines that are about pleasure are less goal oriented, they are less about going from point A to B and more expressions of playfulness. “We do not have to be long in the woods to experience the always rather anxious impression of ‘going deep and deeper’ into a limitless world. Soon, if we do not know where we are going, we no longer know where we are” - Gaston Bachelard author of The Poetics of Space.