Brainsights

Leading brands & retailers have been incorporating shopper psychology for a competitive advantage on building a sustainable business.

The Bandwagon Effect is the tendency for the brain to conclude that something must be desirable because other people desire it.

10 ways to apply shopper and consumer psychology, category management and retail merchandising to your own lockdown home.

The secret of making shopping better for shoppers is in engaging with them in-store, not just bombarding them with special offers.

Shopper thoughts, beliefs, feelings and perceptions influence shoppers' decision-making and alter buying behaviour.

Retailers that can give shoppers the emotional experience they’re looking for will be the more preferred destinations.

Are you part of a £100 billion crime? If you run promotions as part of your trade marketing activity, then chances are, you are.

Emotion is massively important, when it comes to generating positive shopper and consumer engagement.

Want to know how to get more from your packaging? How to make it leap off the shelf into the hands, hearts and minds of passing shoppers?

Shopper habits are changing and brand loyalties are shifting - historical sales data may well come into question as we emerge from this pandemic.

Attentional bias is the inability to see all sides of a story. When you fail to consider the things you don't see, you are displaying Attentional Bias.

There's no better selling point than one person desiring what another person has.

Discover how to generate more stand out attention in today's cluttered stores and online.

The framing effect is a cognitive bias where people decide on options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations.

We’re all guilty of grabbing the odd chocolate bar, sweet treat or sticky bun whilst out shopping. But why is it so difficult to resist those tempting treats?

Although supermarkets bombard shoppers with offers, the fact is that they’re just giving money away – Pouring profit down the drain! Because in answer to the question: Which is the best offer? Surprisingly, it doesn’t really matter.

Ease. Simplicity. Convenience. In a world where the human population is becoming increasingly time-poor, speed and clarity are of the essence.

Is the in-store performance of your brand suffering because it isn’t aligned with the minds of shoppers?

Have you ever stopped to think about how psychologically effective your brand is?

The best defence against buying things you don't need is knowledge. This article will help you Recognise some of the sophisticated tactics used to persuade you to buy in-store

Zero-risk Bias is a tendency to prefer the complete elimination of a risk even when alternative options produce a greater reduction in risk (overall).

The third-person effect predicts that people tend to perceive that mass media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves.

Salience Bias is the cognitive bias that predisposes shoppers to focus on items that are more prominent or emotionally striking.

In prospect theory, the Pseudocertainty Effect is the tendency for people to perceive an outcome as certain while it is actually uncertain.

Present Bias is the tendency to rather settle for a smaller present reward than to wait for a larger future reward, in a trade-off situation.

Post purchase rationalisation, or choice-supportive cognitive bias, is the tendency to retroactively ascribe positive attributes to an option one has selected.

The negativity bias, is the notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things.

The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

Loss aversion is a cognitive bias that refers to a shopper's tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains.

The Less is Better Effect is a preference reversal that occurs when the lesser or smaller alternative is preferred when evaluated separately, but not together.

The Sunk Cost Fallacy is a human behaviour pattern in which a shopper facing increasingly negative outcomes from a decision, continues the behaviour regardless.

The Illusory Truth Effect is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure.

The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products that they partially created.

Hyperbolic discounting is a cognitive bias where people choose smaller, immediate rewards rather than larger, later rewards.

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people.

A cognitive bias relating to currency, suggesting people are less likely to spend larger currency denominations than their same value in smaller denominations.

The Focusing Effect is the tendency for the brain to rely too much on the first piece of information it received in relation to decisions made later on.

The endowment effect is an emotional bias that says that once we own something (or have a feeling of ownership) we irrationally overvalue it, regardless of any objective value.

Distinction Bias is the tendency to view two options as more different when evaluating them simultaneously than when evaluating them separately.

Confirmation bias is the tendency for the brain to value new information more if it supports existing ideas and beliefs.

Choice-supportive bias or post-purchase rationalisation is the tendency to retroactively ascribe positive attributes to an option one has selected and/or to demote the forgone options.

A phenomenon known as base rate fallacy illustrates how people can sometimes jump to inappropriate conclusions, with significant consequences.

Automation bias is the propensity for shoppers to favour suggestions from automated decision-making systems and to ignore contradictory information made without automation, even if it is correct.

There's a psychological phenomenon commonly known as the "Ben Franklin Effect" that explains why people like you more when they do you a favour.

Attribute substitution, also known as Substitution bias, is a psychological process that is behind several cognitive biases.

An anchoring effect is the tendency for the brain to rely too much on the first piece of information it received in relation to decisions made later on.

The ambiguity effect is a cognitive bias where decision making is biased by a lack of information (ambiguity).

Supermarket shopping is no longer any form of relaxing experience, it has become a stressful mission that must be completed with military precision.

As shoppers and consumers, we all suffer from systematic errors in thinking, known as cognitive biases, that affect purchasing decisions and brand judgment.

The availability heuristic - a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a shopper’s mind when evaluating a purchase decision.

Make practical improvements, marginal gains, to make it better and easier for shoppers to buy your brand.

Courtesy Response, a downfall of humankind - we're often so afraid of offending our listener that we hide away from speaking the truth.

Ask yourself, do you need more than 90 different pizzas to choose from, or 100+ coffees? Is it necessary to have a range of 200 cheeses in-store?

In the spirit of 2019 goodwill, here are 5 straightforward insights that would definitely improve the fortunes of M&S. What’s more, each has already been proven elsewhere to make shopping better for shoppers, better for brands & better for retailers.

Learn about the mind of the consumer. A shiny NEW guide to discovering what consumers really want. Download your FREE copy now!

Currently, businesses are being drowned by data: From who bought what, to from where they bought, how often they bought and even what else they bought. But there is a vital data set being for the large part ignored...

Do you spend money on in-store communications? Are you aiming to communicate with shoppers? Have you ever wondered whether there is a formula to creating effective in-store communications? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this article is for you

Imagine that you are in your local supermarket and want to buy a box of chocolates. Which would be more appealing? A horizontal block of products or a vertical one?

When it comes to how we feel, although time of day isn't everything, it's much more important that you might think.

Every day, shoppers make choices, lots of them. In this article I’ll reveal how you can actively help shoppers to make better purchase decisions. Learn how to make it mentally easier for shoppers to buy your brand

Can just the way in which a product is visually depicted affect the extent to which shoppers imagine using the product? The answer is an unequivocal YES!

21st century supermarkets have become dull! Giant faceless warehouses lacking in any emotion. The majority of supermarkets are no longer retail outlets offering shoppers temptation in every aisle. As a result they've lost some of their ability to appeal and engage.

For many years now, leading supermarket chains have invested serious advertising spend to convince us shoppers that each of them is cheaper than the rest.

Given the enormous opportunity to create improved bricks and mortar retail and to offer a definitive alternative to the threat of online, brands and retailers should pursue emotional connections as a science based major strategy. But for most, building these connections is more haphazard guesswork than science

Here’s a radical suggestion based on solid science. It isn’t so much about the amount you charge shoppers for your product, but how you communicate the price that determines its appeal.

If you run promotions as part of your trade marketing activity, then chances are you are giving away much more than you need to

For more than 100 years, shoppers have hunted and gathered for all manner of stuff from bricks & mortar stores. Then all of a sudden along came the internet: And on-line shopping! Is on-line shopping actually shopping as we know it? There are no goods to touch, sniff, shake rattle or purloin.

Here’s a challenge for anyone serious about growing their share of market: Instead of only analysing the details of those who buy your brand and those already buying from the category it resides within, focus on those that don’t buy; those that aren't even in the aisle!

Here are 5 well-established 'facts' about shoppers and shopping. Unfortunately, they are more fiction than fact based. Fact 6 is that shoppers and consumers provide responses during different types of market research surveys that are not entirely truthful. Not due to any evil plan to mislead, but more to do with the make up of the human brain.

Brand growth opportunities from in-depth analysis of more than 100,000 grocery shoppers

It would appear that in grocery retailing, the word ‘Value’ has come to mean price, cheap price, low price, special price, etc. But, what about another form of value? What about the ‘Benefits’ of shopping at a particular chain of supermarket?

Britain’s supermarkets have axed deals on hundreds of products because customers say they waste food and drink after being encouraged to buy more than they need. But...

Retail is missing a major opportunity: Between distribution and consumption comes acquiring, or as some call it ‘Shopping’. If a product hasn't been shopped for or bought, it’s pretty hard to consume.

When it comes to trading successfully with today’s supermarkets, you have to really understand them. And to do that, you need to understand what their customers want and expect from them: The pressures shoppers like you and I put them under.

Understanding how shoppers buy offers an opportunity to influence what shoppers buy

Emotion Sells, Reason Justifies: How to reconnect with shoppers and improve sales, brand perceptions and customer satisfaction, instantly.

We're all missing a trick here! Healthy negotiations between retailers and their suppliers are all well and good, but they shouldn't be at the expense of meeting the needs of the millions of shoppers that visit supermarket aisles every day of the week.

In the 'old days' capturing attention was much easier than it is today. Shoppers and consumers had less choice and so decision making was easier. But if you look at how attention works from an evolutionary perspective, there are some really good opportunities out there.

When you use traditional market research methods, such as focus groups and in-depth interviews, and ask shoppers to tell you whether their purchase behaviour, they describe themselves as totally rational, objective shoppers and claim that their decisions are not affected by these influences.The problem with the shoppers’ self-perception of rationality is that their view is skewed by systematic bias.

Despite overwhelming evidence that shopping behaviour is driven toward positive emotions evoked by satisfying motivations, brands continue to focus advertising and promoting product features. They would be more successful if they shifted their perspective and looked at their products through the emotional mind of the shopper.

In marketing, the decoy effect is the phenomenon whereby shoppers and consumers will tend to have a specific change in preference between two options when also presented with a third option.

In a choice context, a default refers to that option which shoppers end up with if they do not make an active choice. For example, when online shoppers select an item, they’re offered a default delivery option;

Restraint bias is the tendency for shoppers to overestimate their ability to control impulsive behaviour. An inflated self-control belief may lead to greater exposure to temptation, and increased impulsiveness.

Grocery shopping has become boring! If the only thing I can compare is price, then guess what: I'll compare price! Nowadays supermarkets are less like retail emporia and more like faceless distribution warehouses with special offers. As a result they've lost some of their ability to persuade and sell.