Do You Notice These Hidden Biases in Product Marketing?
Observations on how cognitive biases are leveraged today to design better communication, interactions and experiences.
We live in a biased world. Given the amount of information we are processing every moment, our mind looks for mental short-cuts to process and make decisions efficiently. These mental short-cuts are referred to as cognitive biases.
The Book, The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli, landed in my hands a few years ago. That led me to further read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Both phenomenal books that help you understand how our mind functions - how we process and react to information, and the process of decision making. Along with the links at the end of the article, I highly recommend reading these books.
Biases can be good or bad but they can’t be ignored. Unfortunately, there are several ways in which biases are used negatively (intentionally or unintentionally). Reading further about biases will help you discern them better. In this article, I would like to focus on the good and how bias is leveraged today to build great user experiences. Here are a few examples…
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Social Validation 👨👩👧👧
We seek consensus on what is correct for ourselves.
Let’s imagine that you are planning a trip to Bhutan a month from now. If you are like the most of us, you are spending your post-work and weekend time going through reviews of hotels, places to visit, blog posts, Instagram posts etc. In the pre-internet era, you would be asking your friend’s opinion or reading a Lonely Planet guide to help you decide your itinerary. We want to get social consensus to plan our next steps.
+ves: social signals help accelerate our decision making when there is an abundance of choice or when other signals are difficult to get.
-ves: can lead to herd mentality; possible gaming of the system (fake signals) if necessary checks and balances aren’t put in place.
Where do we see this in action?
Marketplace reviews - Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Zomato and the likes.
Movie reviews on IMDb, Bookmyshow
Upvotes on Producthunt, Hacker News
Number of likes or shares or comments on content platforms (FB/Instagram/LinkedIn/TikTok)
‘Trending now’ section on Netflix
Expertise ✅
The greater the external/internal unknowns, the more we seek expert help.
Also called as Authority bias - the tendency to give greater weightage to the accuracy of an opinion from an authoritative figure.
We often visit a doctor and trust them to recommend the right medication for our ailments. Sometimes, just to be double sure, we ask for a second opinion by visiting another doctor. What’s the alternative? Trial and error?
It is the same reason why we hire CAs to file our GST returns, why we hire gym instructors or nutritionists to get us back into shape, why we go to coaching institutes to prep for exams, why we trust Google Maps to show us the right direction. Depending on the context of a product, providing credible assistance helps convert users who are on the fence and helps in building user stickiness.
+ves: experts can help us do the right thing quicker; it is more convenient
-ves: tendency to blindly follow expert advice. Quality check of coaches/trainers/experts is super important. Triangulating opinions is key.
Where do we see this in action?
CA assisted services on ClearTax
Free counselling on Byjus
Expert marketplaces - Clarity.fm or TapChief
1 on 1 trainers or therapy sessions on Cult.fit
AI expertise - Google Maps’ fastest route to your destination
Reciprocity 👉 👈
We respond to a positive action with another positive action.
The same applies to negative action as well which is the darker side of reciprocity. If a system can be built to reward good behaviour or actors, it will result in more good behaviour or actors in the system. Kunal Shah’s recent interview with Yourstory on the journey and philosophy behind CRED covers this concept in great detail.
+ves: rewarding good actions/actors, leads to more good actions/actors
-ves: when done in moderation, there is a high intent to do good action but when done in excess, the intent to get the reward is greater than the intent to do good action. This is also known as motivation crowding. Especially when financial rewards are involved.
Where do we see Reciprocity in action?
Gamification in apps: unlocking new levels on DuoLingo or Todoist
Loyalty/Reward points: like the ones at Starbucks or CRED
Comparison 🥇🥈
We judge everything by comparison.
Also, related to the same are…
Contrast bias - while scanning visual information, we tend to pay attention to things that stand out from their surroundings.
Anchor Effect - we tend to anchor our decisions mostly around the first piece of information we receive.
Comparison is ingrained in our DNA. Remember during school how your marks were always looked at from the lens of how-do-they-compare-with-our-neighbours marks?
With almost all of our actions, we expect the end state to be the best possible outcome for ourselves. Whether we are evaluating job offers, finding our better halves on matrimonial sites, deciding which movie to watch, or deciding what to order for food today. Comparison always helps us decide on what’s a better match for us.
+ves: helps us easily understand the relative benefit which helps us decide faster
-ves: can be negatively used when comparison is done selectively/partially (always best to do our own research, don’t judge a book by its cover!)
Where do we see this in action?
Before/After scenarios:
All of Snickers ads
Basecamp’s latest web update talks about the change upfrontNotion does the same on their homepage
What was the price before and after…
Comparison against peers:
Gmelius, Figma (and other SaaS tools) have a ‘How we compare’ section to convince users why they should switch over.Another example, which we covered earlier, is how ratings and reviews (social validation) help users decide better.
Comparison of options or subscription plans:
Call to action buttons (visual contrast): notice the Call to action buttons on Basecamp and Notion above?
Relatability 🤗
The more human we are in our interactions, the more we will connect.
While I had a rough understanding of what had led to the 2008 subprime crisis, I only fully absorbed it after watching the movie The Big Short (good entertainment. Do read the book/watch the movie). Why? Because when they cut out all the fancy jargon and explained it in layman terms like this for example…it made sense to me. (also because of Bizarreness Effect and Humour Effect)
We are constantly looking to make sense of the world around us and the easier it is to make sense of and remember, the better and faster we get it.
+ves: can massively help enhance user interactions with the product/brand
-ves: the narrative fallacy. Oversimplification can have negative consequences especially in areas where you really need to dig deep. Unfortunately, a lot of PR we see around us is usually littered with oversimplification so always best to dig deeper and triangulate what you see or read.
Where do we see this in action?
Mac vs PC ads (also leverages Comparison/Contrast)
Brand communication on Social media
Reliability 👍
We will go to the source that is more reliable in providing the solutions to our problems.
This is also linked to…
Availability bias - we tend to think of examples that immediately come to mind while evaluating a decision.
We also tend to judge our experiences by how we felt at extremes (peak-end rule) or on the basis of recent instances (recency bias).
We see this in action everyday. Let’s assume you are in Bangalore and are trying to hail an Ola or Uber. You try both the apps and wait for a driver to accept the ride. It’s your lucky day, you get a cab within a minute on Ola. The same happens again the next two times. The fourth time, you find yourself opening only the Ola app (or Uber depending on your experience) because your previous experiences were good.
+ves: the more your product helps solve’s people’s problems, the greater the reliability
-ves: false perception creation (always best to dig deeper, test multiple cases and arrive at your conclusion; don’t fall for taglines blindly)
Where do we see it in action?
Virtuous content loops: the more of valuable user generated content there is on the platform, the more consumers use the platform which in-turn generates more valuable user generated content. Reviews, Ratings across marketplaces such as TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Zomato etc
Google: provides an answer for your searches and does so reliably.
Phone Pe: over the last year, Phone Pe’s on-ground presence has sky-rocketed. You recollect seeing Phone Pe QR codes at your last 4-5 store visits and that might make you use Phone Pe and if your experience was great, you might continue using it.
Because 🤷♂️
We feel reassured when we know the why.
As mentioned earlier, we are constantly trying to connect the dots. And given there is infinite information being thrown at us, we tend to absorb those where the justification is easily available.
+ves: makes it super easy for users when you explain why they need to perform an action
-ves: when overdone, you are just providing false justification. E.g. the WeWork S-1 filing
Where do we see this in action?
Handling customer grievances: I recently had booked an appointment at the Fortis Hospital online and had pre-paid the consultation amount. However, on reaching Fortis, the doc wasn’t available and I had to book a fresh appointment and pay again. While waiting for eternity, I noticed a “Server Maintenance. Apologies for any inconvenience caused” sign at the desk. If they had instead put the message up online, I would have chosen to directly go to Fortis and walk-in vs feeling like a volcano about to erupt that day.
Communication done well…in the bathroom:
If the message was just to take a cold shower, I wouldn’t have thought about it because I’m not used to taking cold showers. However, the communication of the benefits, made me reconsider the decision, do some google search and decide to give it a try.
Control 🕹
We like to be in control of our individual journeys.
Slightly related to the same are…
Effort Justification - when you put a lot of effort into something, you tend to overvalue the outcome.
Loss Aversion - we prefer not to lose value (that we have with us) than to gain an equivalent value.
Let’s take Notion for example. There have been note taking/organisation tools before Notion’s existence but what differentiates Notion is the flexibility and control it provides to the users by combining the most common functionalities into one app. I can take notes, create check-lists, plan projects, store and organise data, and view calendar without having to invoke another app. I can shape and use Notion however I want. Over time, because I use Notion for everything, I don’t see a need to use an alternative tool. The more degrees of freedom built in, the more ownership towards the product.
+ves: allows users to customise or personalise product to their needs; increases user stickiness
-ves: extreme degrees of freedom can result in - “where do I start”, “what’s this about” i.e. inaction. Can be solved by getting the on-boarding process right.
Where do we see this in action?
Most productivity or project management tools: Basecamp, Calendar, Gmail, Google Docs, Notion
Google Maps gives you an illusion of control by providing multiple route options you can choose from
If you’ve ever bought furniture from IKEA, you would have experienced the joy of assembling the furniture yourself.
Zero-risk 😇
We seek to reduce risk in our life choices.
Back in the 90s, me and my friends used to reach theatres 30 minutes before the movie and stand in the queue at the ticket counter early. On our minds we had very important life questions such as - Will we get the best seats at the back? What if we get a corner seat and the screen view ended up like a parallelogram? Will we end up on the first row? Balcony or Gandhi-class? Enter internet and BookMyShow and this whole suspense is now gone. We can choose where to sit, book popcorn before-hand and can reach 15 minutes late so we miss all the advertisements and jump right into the movie.
Similarly, why do we rush to the airport well in advance - and if you are in Bangalore, the previous day? So that you reduce the risk of missing a flight. Zero-risk bias is a tendency to prefer the complete elimination of a risk (even when alternative options produce a greater reduction in risk).
+ves: solving for reducing risks helps in providing greater security and reliability to users
-ves: can’t think of any when it applies to one’s interactions with external parties. Internally, I personally think people should take calculated risks in life and be a bit more tolerant to changes.
Where do we see this in action?
Biases are a given and they are natural behaviour. I think I’ve just scratched the surface here and there are a plethora more biases in action today across products, in product marketing, in advertising, in PR and more. We need to be aware of it and use it (or avoid it) responsibly to build great experiences for users.
If you need a quick overview of all the biases, the first couple of links will help you out; for a detailed read - the book links are also below:
[Book] The Art of Thinking Clearly
[Book] Thinking, Fast and Slow
Bonus stuff - 6 useful resources for marketeers/designers discovered last week:
picchustudio.com - to create awesome illustrations for your website/app
startuplist.pro - links to useful tools for startups
Really Good Emails, Good Email Copy, Email Love - collection of best emailers
Abyssale (alpha version) - to create marketing banners in a few taps
Will see you again in couple of weeks. If you have any suggestions or feedback for the newsletter, I would love to hear it - I’m at prao24 on Twitter or you can just comment below.
Cheers,
Prao