When we re-launched as Behaviorally last month, we communicated our new brand promise to apply a digital-first approach, our decades of category experience and a unique behavioral framework to define and diagnose the consumer behaviors that drive shopper growth.
We thought it might be worth delving more deeply into our behavioral framework and explaining just how it is unique.
Behavioral science is not new. In fact, in a time of tremendous uncertainty, especially for brands trying to win in retail, we believe it is the one constant to understand how consumers shop the way they do. It is the foundation that has been proven to reveal those factors that influence shoppers to make the choices that can make or break your brand.
Many market research agencies over the last decade have jumped on the “BeSci” band wagon, quoting increasingly popular behavioral principles and trying to tie themselves to the slogans that have stood for the science. Ironically, most have continued to do the same kind of research they have always done.
And some agencies, in an attempt to appear serious have overcomplicated the basic truths about behavioral science with highly complicated “influencers” of behavior, while at the same time failing to tie behavioral research to actionable results. They may have a framework. They may talk about “heuristics”. They have lots of book lists and articles with interesting findings, most often focused on social experiments like smoking cessation and increasing recycling compliance. But when a consumer goods client has a marketing or retail channel challenge, these agencies are often hard pressed to tie all their “theoreticals” to recommendations that clients can use.
What we hear from clients is an interest in behavioral research but an urgent desire to harness it in order to define clear and direct paths to driving growth in retail.
Way back in the heritage of our brand (as the agency called Perception Research Services, or PRS), the anchor principles for our research were behavioral, even before the term became ubiquitous. So, we can genuinely claim behavioral science and category expertise as part of our DNA.
While most clients know this, we think it is important to underscore the authenticity of our claim to a unique framework, and to continue over time to validate how we apply it to drive better business outcomes.
When we re-branded as Behaviorally, we wrote initially about our unique behavioral framework .
We start from the conviction that human choices (none more so than in shopper) are driven predominantly by two things:
- A compelling benefit (e.g., motivation)
- A low barrier to act
Following this conviction, we developed our framework based on three very important components. It is:
- Simple but not simplistic
- Grounded in academic rigor
- Tied to recommendations wholly focused on driving shopper growth
In a series of posts that we will publish over the coming months, we will dig deeper into each of these to demonstrate why we believe we are worthy of being your trusted Behavioral Partner.
Our staff and many of our clients have pointed out an interesting artifact of our new name. It can actually be read as two words: “behavior” and “ally”. That has always been our intent. Now we have a name (and a framework) that lives up to it.
THE AUTHOR
Scott Brill leads the Market Development Team at Behaviorally as Chief Commercial Officer, focused on driving growth through new and innovative shopper research solutions. He has nearly 20 years of experience in market research, including his previous role as Chief Commercial Officer with PRS IN VIVO. He is a graduate of Muhlenberg College with degrees in Business Administration and Global Economics. He is passionate about applying behavioral science to understand the consumer decision making process across the digital and physical shopper journey … as well as golf, the beach, grilling and spending time with his wife, son and chocolate lab.
Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.
