I spent $67,000 on a university marketing degree, but struggled in my first marketing job. Why? The strategies I’d learned in university just weren’t helpful in my first marketing role. Learning about the 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotion for those who skipped Marketing 101) was interesting. But, that information didn’t help me write a good subject line or landing page.
Fortunately, I discovered the world of consumer psychology, which explores why people make certain purchasing decisions. Understanding buying habits allowed me to directly improve my approach to marketing. And, I wanted to share what I learned with others.
Six years ago, I launched Nudge, my podcast on marketing psychology. Today, Nudge is the UK’s number one marketing podcast. Here are the five most important principles I’ve learned while running the show.
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How to Use Psychology in Marketing
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- Turn customers into fans.
- Understand Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.
- Understand how marketing can influence how people think, feel, and behave.
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5 Principles of Psychology and Marketing
1. Stand out.
Zappi analyzed over 2,000 American ads and found that those that stood out were more effective. In fact:
- Ads in the top 10% for effectiveness achieved a distinctiveness score of 4.03.
- The very best 1% had a distinctiveness score of 4.15.
- The poorest performers (the bottom 5%) lagged behind with a score of only 3.6.
That’s an important marketing lesson: being distinct boosts recall.
One study involving Heineken shows this neatly. They tested 11 different slogans with consumers. Stuff like:
- “Heineken. The others can’t compete.”
- “Heineken. Makes good times better.”
Unsurprisingly, those run-of-the-mill taglines were forgotten fast. But, one distinct and novel slogan stood out.
“Heineken. The beer that makes Milwaukee jealous” was recalled by 85% of people, more than any tagline variant.
So, if in doubt, try to stand out.
2. Showcase effort.
This 1989 study is a must-remember for every marketer.
The two researchers gave 214 participants information about a new shoe brand launching soon. Among other information, participants were told that the company had spent a certain amount to advertise the product launch.
This was the twist: Some were told the brand would spend $2 million, others were told $10 million, and another group was told $20 million.
Turns out, those who thought the brand was spending $20 million versus $2 million perceived the product as 14% higher quality. In other words, the more customers think you’ve spent on ads, the more they will like the product.
I don’t think you have to spend millions on ads to benefit from this bias. Instead, you just need to showcase your effort.
To prove this, I ran an experiment with a Reddit ad. Both ads contained the same image and linked to the same page. The ad on the left promoted my podcast normally. The other highlighted the effort I’d put in, stating, “I spent 480 minutes listening to marketing experts over the past year.”
Simply stating that I had spent 480 minutes working on the podcast increased the click-through rate by 45%.
Whether it’s millions on an ad campaign or hours in prep, showcasing effort makes customers value your work more.
3. Be precise.
A 2006 study by Schindler and Yalch looked at specificity in ads. They found ads that stated a fictitious deodorant lasted precisely 47% or 53% longer were deemed as more accurate. In fact, consumers related the claim as 10% more accurate compared to a generic "50% longer.”
Similarly, this 1994 study found that beggars get more donations if they ask for a specific amount.
The best brands apply this in their ads. They use specific numbers to build trust in their claims.
Heinz went through 57 varieties. Dyson tested 5,127 prototypes, and Forest Bike Hire gave customers 51,899,782 free hire minutes.
4. Be concrete.
As marketers, we’ve become immune to vague language. We’re familiar with reading about cutting-edge tech, AI-powered tools, and world-leading design. In fact, I used to assume that these terms made marketing copy more effective, but I was wrong.
In 2021, Richard Shotton showed participants a number of vague phrases, like “innovative quality,” and then some concrete phrases (e.g., “money in your pocket”). Shotton’s concrete phrases were 8.6 times more likely to be remembered.
He’d proved the concrete phrases' effect, a phenomenon first discovered by Begg in 1972.
The best brands apply this in their marketing.
Take Apple. They didn’t advertise the amount of memory in their original iPod. Instead, Apple highlighted how the iPod could fit 1,000 songs in your pocket.
5. Use scarcity.
Limiting the amount a customer can buy often encourages them to buy more.
Evidence for this was found in a famous study run by KFC in Australia. They had a great deal: “Chips for $1.” To promote the deal, the team came up with 90 different slogans and tested the six best-performing ones in a giant Facebook ad experiment.
The winner was “Chips for $1 (limited to 4 per customer).”
Next time you run a promotion, try adding a purchase limit. The limit can be much higher than what most customers usually buy.
For example, a U.S. grocery store once capped soup purchases at 12 cans per customer. No one had been buying anywhere near 12 cans before, but after introducing the limit, sales doubled per customer.
And if you’re out of stock, don’t say your product is “unavailable”.
In a 2019 study, researcher Robert Peterson showed 1,117 participants a product page on a website with a product labelled as:
- Sold out
- Out of stock
- Unavailable
The results revealed that using the label “Sold Out” triggered noticeably fewer negative reactions than the other two labels.
Participants reported feeling 8% less disappointed about the missing product compared to when it was described as “Out of Stock.” They were also 15% less disappointed with the entire website compared to when the product was labelled as “Unavailable.”
Psychology can help you drive sales.
Understanding customer psychology can help your team craft messages that resonate and ultimately lead to sales. These five tips took me a decade to uncover, but you can apply them in just a few hours. I hope they transform your career as much as they did mine.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
How to Use Psychology in Marketing
Access the guide to learn more about psychology.
- Turn customers into fans.
- Understand Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.
- Understand how marketing can influence how people think, feel, and behave.
Download Free
All fields are required.
Marketing Psychology