[INTERVIEW] Make Choice Rewarding: Behavioral Insights in Marketing with Matthew Willcox

Welcome to our series of episodes on Marketing and Employee Engagement. We'll be sharing insights into how to apply behavioral science in business. And we’ve started the series off with award-winning marketer, Matthew Willcox. He understands the fundamental importance of using behavioral insights to help organizations align with how people choose. He is one of the pioneers of applying behavioral science in marketing. In this episode, Tim and Kurt speak to Matthew about his book The Business of Choice – Marketing to Consumers Instincts (https://amzn.to/3qSYB0q). It was named the "Marketing Book Of The Year” and is the winner of the American Marketing Association’s prestigious Berry Book Prize. This book is full of practical tips for marketers. But what we truly love about Matthew’s work is that it lays out some fundamental insights into human behavior.  Matthew is also the Behavioral Insights Lead at The Curious Company, which focuses on social impact and uses anthropology, behavioral economics and human centered design to make beneficial behaviors easy and natural. And over the years, Matthew has worked with Levi Strauss, Electronic Arts, Unilever, Nestlé, Shell and GlaxoSmithKline to help them craft their brand strategies. He has also acted as an expert on behavior change for the US Food and Drug Administration anti-smoking programs.  “Make the behavior you need people to adopt an easy, natural and rewarding choice.” Our discussion with Matthew explores the idea of why marketing is more about choice, than consumption. Matthew describes the LENS model (Loss, Ease, Now, Social) that he uses as a framework to understand the behavior of choices. And a subject close to our heart; why context matters! And we learn more about Matthew through the list of music that he would take to a desert island. As we continue to adapt our podcast to our listeners' choices, we are publishing our interviews as a separate episode to our Grooving Session where we discuss how you can apply insights from our guest. Please tune in to the accompanying episode of Behavioral Grooves to listen to the practical applications of Matthew’s work. Topics we Discuss with Matthew Willcox (3:35) Welcome and speed round questions (9:05) When do we actually read product reviews; before or after a purchase? (11:19) Why marketing is about choice, not consumption (19:14) The LENS Model (28:52) Why context matters  (33:30) What music would Matthew take to a desert island? © 2021 Behavioral Grooves Links The Business of Choice https://thebusinessofchoice.com/  The Business of Choice – Marketing to Consumers Instincts https://amzn.to/3qSYB0q José Mourinho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mourinho  Sandpiper bird https://www.birds-of-north-america.net/sandpipers.html  Availability Heuristic https://behavioralgrooves.com/behavioral-science-glossary-of-terms/  Dos Equis Mexican Beer https://dosequis.com/  Laphroaig https://www.laphroaig.com/en/  Vlad Griskevicius https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/faculty/vlad-griskevicius  BBC Desert Island Discs - Daniel Kahneman  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0381l2v  Musical Links Bach, Cantata 37  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im1ZVQdB-TY  Neil Diamond “Sweet Caroline” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vhFnTjia_I  Carolan “Fanny Power” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRv3rLNP8pE  Gary Moore “Parisienne Walkways” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkUpfw4Hf3w  Rita Ora “Anywhere” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksdAs4LBRq8  Baby Rexha “I’m Going To Show You Crazy” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEDZZin4_eM  Bach “Goldberg Variations” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ezpwCHtJs  Bach “The Art of Fugue” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9OUfBDIGhw  Beethoven “The Emperor Concerto”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDXWK3W477w