Habits are nasty, and nice. Nasty, because the habit cueing mechanism – which enacts the entire sequence of behaviour – does not require the original supporting ‘goal’ to be remembered, or even exist. Nice, because the habit cueing mechanism – which enacts the entire sequence of behaviour – does not require the original supporting ‘goal’ to be remembered, or even exist.
A paradox, surely?
No. Not really. The nastiness or niceness of the characteristics of a habit depends on the view-point.
- If one wishes to relieve oneself of habitual behaviour then habits are nasty, trigger happy, pervasive behaviours that happen unawares and a difficult to break
- If one wishes to afford our limited cognitive capacity as much free space to think, observe, engage, and interact with the world around us, then habits are lovely, automatic, stress-free behaviours that happen unawares
So slow, in fact, movie buffs will eat stale popcorn.
Wood and Neal (PDF) tell us this captures an essential component of habits:
When people frequently have performed a response in stable contexts, the context can come to trigger the response directly in the sense that it does not require supporting goals and intentions.
Once embedded, they’re triggered by any part.
“habits are broken through the strategic deployment of effortful self-control”
but they forget one factor that Tim Cotter elevates (in conversation with Greg Foyster),
‘Fixed conditions hold habits in place, so if you change those conditions, you can help change the habit.…”
That’s how habits broken: change the conditions. How do you use this insight in marketing?
However, it is clear once our decision is made we don’t have to make the decision ‘as new’ every time we do something – such as getting into our car. In fact, as long as our car performs as expected, we build a knowledge-bank of rewarding experiences allowing us to be confident in the car, and the manufacturer. Breaking this lock-hold is tough.
Too tough?
Of the campaign, she says;
“To get people to test drive the new Chevrolet Cobalt, they sent one to the point when people are most likely to think about changing their car: when they’ve broken down.”
Certainly those with breakdowns are forced to consider fixing or replacing their car, but the crux is that their habitual behaviour is under forced examination. This isn’t a home-run yet, though, because our knowledge-bank of rewarding experiences is accrued slowly over time, and while breaking down is not such a good experience, the research suggests it’s not enough alone to break behaviour. Indeed, Maréchal tells us of habits that, along with a change in environmental cues and induced deliberation (which is clearly in place with Chevrolet ‘rescue drive’),
‘ . . . time and repetition will be needed to promote alternative habitual behavior’.
This is not part of the campaign, as far as I can tell.
Why not lend the Chevrolet Cobalt to the rescued drivers for two months (which approximates the seventy days Lally shows)?
Even better, do some lend-testing and give group A the car for a week, group B for a month, and group C for two months. (Or other variations more desk research would suggest.) Now you’re using some insights into behaviour to get some behavioural insights. That would make a robust piece of behavioural communication.
Not bad from Chevy in its current form though – well done them.
For more on this speak with us, or have a look at our capabilities
Also, as co-founders and supporters of the London Behavioural Economics Network, join the Meetup group and Facebook group for more details and events
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Excellent analysis and commentary. Consistent with what leading brand companies (Target, Sprint, Campbell's, Eli Lilly, P&G…) are doing with Habit Marketing techniques.
Thank you Doug – and yes, Chevrolet are not alone.
[…] place many of us go. But really, it’s environmental conditions that hold habits in place. I’ve written about habits and the behavioural lock-in here so won’t replicate it in this post (do read, it’s interesting background if nothing else) but I […]
This ad showed on how Chevrolet is appealing to our constant desire for everything new, in this case a car. They challenged our perception or notion about what makes an old car serviceable or a liability.