Psychology Of Products : Evolving To A Psychology Dominant Logic
Who ever postulated the theory that man can make or break a habit in 21 days must be a comedian because that's a joke!
Don't try that with products!
During my University years, one of the most captivating articles for me was centered on a service dominant logic and co creation. They came from pondits like Prahalad, Ramaswamy, vargo, lush,etc.
The concept of cocreation takes its root from the popular IKEA EFFECT (You can look up my previous posts on medium where I shared more light on it). With recent understanding, it now becomes obvious that cocreation stems from behavioral psychological theories.
Now I love the strategies because they're still very much relevant in today's world, but I can take issues with the topic being the only point of reference in 2020.
Hence, it becomes imperative for me to see products from a broader perspective, ie, psychologically!
Who shouldn't?
LinkedIn prides itself as a Marketing leader of B2B social platforms, While Google remains a mountain of influence in the search engine industry.
By now we ought to know that Instagram was not the first photo app that ever existed (even when others are not really different in terms of functional and aesthetic appeal).
But what makes these brands tick and appear endearing? Why have they maintained relevance and increased in their reputation overtime?
I doubt it is cause by the beautiful and intelligent tech innovations, nor even the breakthrough of better codes for seamlesss cross platform experience.
What then is the answer?
Let me state it as Professor Cliff Mass will echo it in his classes at Stanford University,
" It is not technological triumph, it’s a design and psychology triumph!"
The disruptive brands of our time have a purview of how to engage with customers at every given stage of their already mapped customer journey.
By customer journey I mean the conventional journey involving need recognition, information search to use and habit formation.
Think of what you must do outside the product(before and after usage) and not just inside it (during usage).
In understanding psychology of products, let me work you down through 4 agendas
1. Engagement
2. Completing the action
3. Keep them coming back
4. Beyond the reward
Engagement
In this context, it can be said to be the degree of push to interaction between a target consumer and your product,service or platform. It gives the signal to start using a product.
It is like a queue or trigger.
We are not wrong to call it a nudge!
Nir Eyal's book on hooked gives a clear definition of the subject matter.
It could be ;
External: In form of notifications, icons, popups, emails, call to actions,etc that propel you to make the decision to use.
For your external trigger to work, it must be very clear, exciting, engaging,and done at the right time.or,
Internal: This describes the urge, emotions, signal to use. It is covert in nature since it is cultivated in the mind. Things like depression, hunger, boredom, fear, question, etc can make you have the urge to use the product or service.
The realization of the potency of the internal trigger,makes Facebook highly criticised for its emotional manipulation experiments
2. Completing the action
Who ever postulated the theory that man can make or break a habit in 21 days must be a comedian because that's a joke!
Don't make the same mistake with products!
In reality, we change behaviors slowly (never in 21days) and this process is really difficult.
Completing the action means ;
A.Clearly defining key action steps of engagement.
B. Making the action easy to find.
C. Make the action easy to do( by trying to remove steps and frictions as much as possible).
It takes a while lot of time. But eventually,they'll get stuck when the next agenda is initiated.
3. Keep them coming back
This is the position many brands would want to ride for a very long period.
What keeps us coming back? There must be a reward. The reward is what makes customers value their customer experience.
Atimes, these rewards may not be necessarily concrete. It could be anything that is variable, that involves surprise and delight. Social media feedbacks, reactions, achievements, and gamification can be a form of reward.
Since reward redemption increases reward seeking behavior, the rewards would create a system of routine in the minds of customers to keep them hooked or addicted.
4. Beyond the reward
Remember how I talked about the IKEA EFFECT and cocreation?
Well, it works perfectly here.
We tend to enjoy things we cocreate. The investment we put into anything we are addicted to makes us hooked for a long time.
You know how long it took you to build your social media profile? Let’s say your friends, followers or connections as well as your reputation you’ve worked hard to keep.
Those are investments that makes us always return.
It would take another relearning habit to keep away from your favourite product or service.
Ask yourself the following;
How can users be more invested in your product?
How can you step up to build an investment after the reward?
List the steps required for rewards and investment?
If you can answer the questions,you are on your way to remodelling your brand into a force to reckon with in your industry.
Although people are of the opinion that the top firms in the tech industry use a lot of psychological manipulations to get customers. The truth still remains that;
Psychology is not a bad tool if it truly studies how to persuade people into subscription and not using manipulations and deception as a basis to get attention.
This is my 11th entry for the CXL mini degree scholarship I am currently enrolled in. The cxl mini degree offers amazing professional courses in digital marketing. It houses the best of digital marketing tutors globally. I am. Currently runny a mini degree in digital psychology and persuation.
Stay safe.
