Seven Steps to Behavior Change – How These Steps Impact a Brand?

It is a well-known fact that “people want to buy, but they do not like to be sold to” under any conditions—would you agree? That is why many entrepreneurs may find traditional marketing unattractive. If they are not savvy marketers, often, they can miss out on great opportunities to the competition. It is of utmost importance that brand owners consider a transition to unconscious behavioral change marketing to make the target customer hear their voice more prominently.

Douglas Van Praet has outlined a seven-step plan to inspire behavioral change applicable to effectively target customers. In his book “Unconscious Branding,” he explains how these steps can help break old habits through which brands can benefit the most.

Let us briefly look at these steps.

Interrupt the Pattern

As evident from the very name, interrupting the pattern is an effective marketing strategy that disrupts the regular behavioral pattern of the consumers, to make them do something differently.

Think about what you aim to achieve when you are formulating your marketing strategy. Capture target audiences’ attention-right? As entrepreneurs, you need to get your target audience’s attention by doing something different to alter their behavior and differentiate your brand from the competition. You have the potential to interrupt your audience to consider what you are presenting to them. But to do this effectively, you will need to initiate their pattern of behavior.

“Take Netflix, for example, and the way it has revolutionized media consumption. The company began by offering a service to compete with traditional video rental purchasing behavior that adapted home delivery to the movie industry. […] But what is disruptive about Netflix is how the evolution of that service has changed the way consumers interact with and consume media. […] With the expansion of its live-streaming services and the instant availability of a complete TV series, Netflix has reconditioned consumers to expect instant access to whole seasons of shows—an otherwise unheard of demand for this category,” revealed by Bailey Brand Consulting.

Create Comfort

Human nature is drawn towards familiarity and find comfort in old ways. While new things catch our attention, there is still a craving for familiar ideas.

To adapt to the interrupt pattern’s behavior, you should have something familiar for the customer to make them feel comfortable. For example, make sure your communication is clear and have humor in your message that will make them laugh, put them at ease, or keep it real so they can learn to trust your brand. 

Surely this familiarity will work in your favor. The consumer will be more open-minded and less reactive about the change the brand promises to make.

Lead the Imagination

Change can be fascinating. Humans accept a transition if they believe it would help their needs. You must appeal to people’s creativity in this phase to think of new possibilities and benefits. Your message should make your audience ready to adapt to the new behavior.

Demonstrate to your audience why behavioral change is necessary, and how it is for the betterment of their life in general, and not just about the product itself. For example, if you sell black tea, you can show that your black tea is free from side effects and will not make your customers addicted. Potentially the response could triple that of other black tea brands because you are now making the message relevant on a personal level.

Shift the Feeling

According to the study, our emotions impact the way we think and act more than how our thinking influences our emotions. 

Feelings must shift to encourage change in behavior. Reflect on the effects of transition and what that could mean, for instance, this black tea brand means no addiction, a more active “you,” no effects on withdrawal, etcetera. When emotional commitment is reached, you can feel the sensation of change. In this case, after drinking the black tea, the person can smile or look relieved.

Shift the feeling can be extremely rewarding for your brand. Let us take an example of one of the benefits experienced by Volkswagen in using shift the feeling behavior change to generate emotions with consumers.

“Volkswagen’s decision to run ‘The Force’ paid off. It became among the most beloved and shared Super Bowl ads ever, amassing a staggering 56 million views on YouTube, earning a reported 6.8 billion impressions worldwide and more than $100 million in earned media,” according to Fast Company.

Satisfy the Critical Mind

What motivates you to act? Is it your feelings? The answer would be “yes” in most cases. But, would you agree? Spontaneously the human mind rejects any idea which feels irrelevant.   

Entrepreneurs need to present facts in such a way for people to feel that the information is related to them, so that they can accept it and change their behavior. To be genuine, provide details that elicit enthusiasm, keep it simple or be authentic, are a few ways you might satisfy the critical mind.

Change the Associations

Further studies show that memory and association go hand in hand. Because of the repetition and associated anxiety, the human mind acts on positive and negative associations that spur emotions. Thus, to change behavior, associations also must change. 

For example, you can quickly strengthen traditional associations by using clear and convincing messages that evoke feelings and reactions, suggesting meaningful associations towards the brand.

Studies show you can intensify this activity by selecting the right names, making the right brand extensions, selecting endorsers carefully, among other variables.

Final Words

Now that you are almost at the final of the seven steps of change behavior, can you see how this will impact your brand?

Behavioral change in marketing is the most effective method to tap into your audiences’ emotion and get them to support the brand. Brands can massively benefit from it if they use it correctly and follow the steps outlined to differentiate from the competition.

So now, let us look at step seven.  

Take Action

It is time to act after effectively motivating the target customer to modify their behavior. We often hear “old habits are hard to die,” but customers will develop new behaviors with practice and repetition.

Your marketing strategy should be strategic to drive sales through positive brand interactions. Here are a few ways to influence action—making your brand story memorable and turning your business into a powerful brand. Remember, the goal is to encourage emotions and stimulate the minds of consumers so that you can transform consumers’ well-being.

“The more a certain product activates the reward center with its unique characteristics or its predominant social stature, the more that product gets chiseled into the long-term memory of the consumer, making it a fundamental part of the individual’s psychological well-being.”

― Abhijit Naskar

So, what is next?  Looking to learn more? While we elaborate on behavior change, it is also essential to learn more about consumer behavior. Let us take a look at consumer behavior in branding.

Please share your thoughts and comments.