provide social proof Marketing is all about behaviour management – encouraging a target market to behave in a preferred manner – for the first or last time, more often, or less often. Persuasion is often central to managing consumer behaviour. This is the third of five thoughts addressing five of the many persuasion tools in […]

provide social proof Marketing is all about behaviour management – encouraging a target market to behave in a preferred manner – for the first or last time, more often, or less often. Persuasion is often central to managing consumer behaviour. This is the third of five thoughts addressing five of the many persuasion tools in the marketer’s toolkit. Some might be obvious, but none is easy to engage effectively. We all like to consider ourselves to be individual and unique. Research, however, suggests this may not be the case. This was demonstrated in a study conducted in an international hotel where guests were encouraged to recycle their towels. When asked to recycle in order to help the environment, some 30% recycled. When told that 80% of guests recycle their towels, some 70% actually did. In other words, when guests were told it was a social norm, recycling of towels improved…