Power Marketer Q&A with BJ Fogg, PhD – Part Two

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Stamford University’s BJ Fogg gives us the inside word on the power of captology and how to make behaviour design central to your growth strategy.

In the past, you’ve defined captology as the intersection of computers and behavioural change. How can companies use captology to assist with predictive modelling?

This is related to persuasion profiling – looking at the different ways to persuade specific individuals and mapping out what their ‘hot’ buttons are to being influenced. I respond very well to novelty – if something’s brand new, I respond very well to it. Others might respond to “all your friends are using this product.” We all have different tastes and we have different susceptibilities when it come to persuasion – one of mine is novelty, and someone else’s is “everyone else is doing it so you should.”

What are some of the best examples you’ve seen of companies using behaviour design to shape marketing campaigns?

Let me start with the premise that behaviour design is all about behaviours – it’s not about perception or brand promise but it’s about how to get customers to perform specific behaviours that are strategic to the success of your company. Earlier this year, two of my students started a company called friend.ly. The question I asked them to address was: what specific behaviours do I require from users? The answer was, “we need them to comment on what other people post.” If people comment, that is what will drive readers back to the website.

Commenting is the secret sauce of social media and friend.ly, is about answering questions, and through questions, discovering other people who have the same preferences as you do. Typing in a comment is easy but not easy enough. The like button had already been taken and it’s not interesting enough. Instead of these options, we introduced a series of buttons on friend.ly – one labeled “smart”, one labeled “cool” and another that says “me too.” So instead of having to think about what to comment, users can just push a button instead. Friend.ly achieved hockeystick growth because of our ability to guarantee the key behaviour required for the company’s success.

Article by Neha Kale

Neha is a writer and editor for The Media Pad, publisher of Power Retail. She has a background in business, arts and film journalism and an interest in new media and digital strategy. She is looking forward to exploring how marketers are impacted by the online space for Power Marketer. Neha is a magazine junkie whose other addictions include coffee, travel and live music. She likes to run but has a long-time allergy to team sports.

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