Creating sustainable behaviour by positively influencing choice.

To date we’ve helped NSPCC, Eloise Grey, Vodafone, LSE, Justin Hall, Cardboard Futures, Solstis, and Lipton Tea amongst many others.

Business strategy | Creative | (Ongoing)

Why – despite overt interest and positive PR – are people not buying our cardboard desk?

After seeing us present at a conference Cardboard Futures Ltd have asked us to re-position their flagship product – The Paperweight Desk – using our universal non-rational behaviours as described by the field of behavioural economics. We have prepared our three phase approach: Discovery, Implementation, and On-going comms.

Everybody loves the concept. Including us. Who wouldn’t? 100% cradle-to-cradle recyclable desks at 1/10th of the cost of current desks. But no one was buying – not on the numbers our client wanted – despite almost universally positive comments after understanding the benefits.

So why no move to purchase?

It looked like a cognitive dissonance problem – where potential customers’ System 1 and System 2 thinking disagree. System 1 is characterised by being intuitive, rapid, associative. System 2 is rule-governed and calculating. There are broadly 4 ways these two interact: Automatic decisions, Anchored decisions, Rational indecision, and Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance works like this:
- System 1 decides (intuitive, rapid, associative)
- System 2 overrules input (rule-governed, calculating, reasoning)

How do we use this knowledge?

As part of the first phase of the project we ran a session with experts in the field to map the barriers to purchase. We then went on to identify further behavioural insights, work out that behaviours by audience, and build a practical model of influences – including a behavioural marketing framework.

We’ll keep the main conclusion private so our client’s competitors don’t get an edge – but we were able to map:

1. how to fix the instinctive response
2. how to reframe the instinctive response
3. how to agree with the instinctive response

The less attractive small volume markets are in the anchored space, making them relatively easy sell if you push the right buttons (utility, recycle-ability, or fashion) by agreeing with the instinctive response.

Our approach is not only communicating with words and pictures (although sometimes it is just that), some solutions involve changing the product: We’re not simply marketing the product that’s been developed, but developing the product to be marketed.

For more on this, or any other project, call us on 0844 357 9072, or email us at info@thehuntingdynasty.com

Strategy | Creative Direction | (Ongoing)
The electric motorbike, scooter, and pedal-electric revolution is coming – especially since Boris Jonson’s cycle lane infrastructure and hire-bike scheme is live in London.

We are working with Solstis Electric Bikes & Motocraft to help position their products and refine their retail environment – all using behavioural economics.

For more on this, or any other project, call us on 0844 357 9072, or email us at info@thehuntingdynasty.com

Creative consultation & non-design sketch | 2 days

How do we decrease the clutter and increase the donations?

Action Against Malaria have one of the most compelling propositions around: all donated monies are used to purchase nets. They are unique among charities in this regard. They also focus on the biggest killer of children in the world – malaria.

So why is their website not performing better?

They came to us knowing their online presentation was too cluttered. We fixed it.

We took advantage of the three most common non-rational behavioural quirks:
1. Framing
2. Loss Aversion
3. Social norms

1. Framing, or 1. What’s the problem?
The framing effect says that how data are presented can significantly change people’s behaviour. Global ad agency JWT have already made a film dramatising the fact that the equivalent of 7 jumbo jets full of children die of malaria everyday. A perfect frame because the ‘plane crash’ implication takes advantage of our zero-risk bias which sees us fear small catastrophic risk – like a plane crash – over a larger reduction in a more likely risk.

(This is why more Americans drove instead of flew after 9/11 – to remove the tiny risk of hijack. US road deaths increased during this period.)

2. Loss Aversion, or 2. What we do about it
We feel the pain of loss twice as much as the pleasure of a gain of equal size (- losing a tenner hurts more than finding a tenner). Because of this we talk about how you waste money with other charities.

We do this overtly, ‘…other charities you waste some of your donation on costs…’, and covertly ‘…every penny of your donation we buy…’.

3. Social norms, or 3. What people say about us
No one wants to be the weirdo in a group – so most of us follow others’ actions. So we showed visitors that it’s normal and popular to donate here with rolling quotations and number references: The more you can create the impression that everyone is donating, the more people will start donating. It’s a positive spiral. Or a social norm…

For more on this, or any other project, call us on 0844 357 9072, or email us at info@thehuntingdynasty.com

Strategy & Planning | (on-going)

We have defined the preliminary strategy, and built a project model for Justin Hall’s global charity and exploring project. It incorporates all three behaviour-change types – purchase, lifestyle, and purchase-leading-to-lifestyle behaviour change.

Justin ‘Runningman’ Hall is a new breed of explorer and adventurer – a pioneer of Interactive exploration and “the ‘Naked Chef’ of the environmental shows” according to the Daily Mail. His 10 films for the Discovery Channel received the highest ratings in the ‘travel & adventure’ genre.

It is an ongoing project with a level of confidentiality, but now we’ve worked out the model we can direct the manufacture of all the digital (web, social media, commerce) and real-world functional components (explorations, negotiations, sponsorships, etc), and work out the communication approach for them using behavioural economics theory, primary research, and all our existing experience.

“It’s clear you and your team have been quick to absorb the complexity of this diverse and demanding new media proposition and in doing so made a concerted effort above and beyond our expectations. The resulting documentation is clear, concise and revealing at the same time as being sensitive to the projects core values our team shared with you…” Justin Hall

With this center of gravity established it’s clear where efforts need to be focused to develop this 2 year+ project involving exploration, social media, and charitable donation.

“…we now have a road map charting a new course and direction, one that highlights the all important action points along the road to success. Again very impressive work. “ Justin Hall

For more on this, or any other project, call us on 0844 357 9072, or email us at info@thehuntingdynasty.com

Creative development | 12 days

In 2007 Unilever delivered the world’s first Rainforest Alliance Certified™ tea. By 2010 all of Unilever’s Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips brands will be fully certified in Europe – the only tea manufacturer to do so.

The Hunting Dynasty was commissioned by Tribal DDB in Paris to promote this to the over 50’s. As a purchase-behaviour change this is close to ‘marketing as usual’ – and it doesn’t qualify as an ostentatious display either – so is closer in a marketing sense to a low-energy light bulb than it is to a Toyota Prius.

We developed communications ideas that executed in a variety of media: Press, digital ads, stunts, events, in-store, and pack.

For more on this, or any other project, call us on 0844 357 9072, or email us at info@thehuntingdynasty.com

Strategy | Creative Direction | (Ongoing)

The Hunting Dynasty is working with the head of sustainability to position LSE as a global leader in sustainability amongst the world’s top businesses.

There are little or no transactions involved with presenting and measuring the success of positioning an academic institution, so we’re working in lifestyle-behaviour change leaning heavily on framing techniques to help us develop a measureable idea. And with Lord Stern holding a Chair, and awards for a sustainable campus, there’s a great foundation to work with.

We look forward to publishing our solution as soon as it’s public.

For more on this, or any other project, call us on 0844 357 9072, or email us at info@thehuntingdynasty.com