behavioral-strategy

Skill: Behavioral Strategy

Applies behavioral science to communications strategy — moving beyond what audiences say they want to understand how they actually decide. Integrates three complementary frameworks: Kahneman's cognitive architecture (System 1/2), Sutherland's psycho-logic, and Sharp's mental availability model.

When to use proactively: Any time the brief assumes audiences process messages rationally. Any time a campaign isn't landing and the team can't explain why. Any time the insight feels true but the strategy isn't converting it into behaviour change.

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The Strategic Premise

Most communications strategy is built on a faulty model of the consumer: a rational agent who reads messages, processes information, weighs options, and makes considered decisions.

The evidence from behavioral science says otherwise:

"95% of buying decisions occur subconsciously." — Harvard/Zaltman
"A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points." — Sutherland
"We are blind to our own blindness." — Kahneman

The implication for strategy: you are not competing for rational minds. You are competing for mental shortcuts.

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Framework 1: Kahneman — The Two Systems

Reference: Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
Full bias library: see references/kahneman-biases.md

System 1 vs System 2

	System 1	System 2
Speed	Fast, automatic	Slow, deliberate
Effort	Effortless	Effortful
Type	Intuitive, associative	Analytical, logical
Emotion	Emotion-driven	Reason-driven
Control	Involuntary	Voluntary
Scope	Always active	Lazy — avoids effort
Role in decisions	Generates 80–95% of decisions	Rationalises decisions after System 1

Strategic implication: Most comms tries to win System 2 (features, proofs, rational arguments). But System 2 is lazy and rarely engaged. Effective comms wins System 1 first, then gives System 2 something to rationalise.

The 8 Biases Most Relevant to Comms

Bias	What it means	Strategic application
Cognitive ease	Familiar, fluent things feel true and trustworthy	Use simple language, familiar formats, repeated exposure
Anchoring	The first number/claim sets the reference point	Always frame price in context; lead with the generous offer
Framing	Same information, different framing = different decision	Lead with gains for aspirational messages; losses for risk messages
Loss aversion	Losses hurt ~2× more than equivalent gains feel good	Reframe as "don't miss" or "protect what you have" for high-stakes decisions
Availability	What is easily recalled feels more common and real	Repeat key messages; make the brand top-of-mind at category entry points
Halo effect	One strong positive attribute elevates all others	Lead with the single most credible proof point — let the rest follow
Peak-end rule	Experiences are judged by the peak moment + the ending	Design the campaign's most emotionally intense moment, and its final impression
WYSIATI	"What You See Is All There Is" — people judge on what's present	Never assume the audience knows the context. State the obvious.

Cognitive Ease Checklist

Before signing off any message or campaign:

• Is the core message legible in under 3 seconds?
• Does the headline work without the body copy?
• Are we using their vocabulary, not our vocabulary?
• Does this feel familiar in format, even if the content is new?
• Could someone remember this tomorrow without notes?

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Framework 2: Sutherland — Psycho-Logic

Reference: Alchemy, Rory Sutherland
Full principles: see references/sutherland-psychologic.md

The Core Insight

"The fatal issue with most business thinking is that it treats all problems as if they were maths problems, when many are actually psychology problems."

Logic optimises for what can be measured. Psycho-logic optimises for what people actually feel. The two are not the same.

A GPS knows everything about roads. It knows nothing about the driver. Effective strategy must know both.

The Four S's

1. Signalling People infer quality, trust and intent from signals — not from facts. A signal must be costly to be credible (cheap signals are ignored or disbelieved).

Principle	Application
Costly signalling = trust	High production values, physical materials, long-term presence signal commitment
Signal before you argue	Trust must be established before rational arguments are processed
Price as quality signal	Lowering price can lower perceived quality — even while improving value

2. Subconscious Hacking Many of the most powerful communications act on what we don't notice we're noticing: packaging weight, ambient music, warm vs. cool colours, the texture of a printed document, the sound a car door makes.

"The conscious mind thinks it's the Oval Office, when in reality it's the Press Office."

Strategic implication: don't just brief what to say — brief what it should feel like. The sensory and experiential layer of communications is often more persuasive than the message itself.

3. Satisficing People don't optimise. They look for good enough. This means:

• Simplicity is a competitive advantage
• Reducing perceived risk matters more than maximising perceived value
• Brands are satisficing devices — they remove the cognitive load of choosing

"We buy brands to satisfice."

4. Psychophysics Human perception is relative, not absolute. We respond to changes and contrasts, not to absolute values (Weber-Fechner Law).

Implication	Application
Relative framing > absolute values	"Save 30%" > "Save €3" for small-price items
Reference points define value	Price your product next to something more expensive first
The map is not the territory	What the product looks like shapes what it tastes like

The "Real Why" Framework

Surface reasons and real reasons are rarely the same. Sutherland's diagnostic: ask why five times before accepting the first answer.

How to find the real why:

1. What does the audience say they want? → [Stated motivation]
2. Why do they want that? → [One level deeper]
3. What problem are they actually solving? → [Functional job-to-be-done]
4. What would embarrass them to admit? → [Social/identity motivation]
5. What are they afraid of? → [Fear-based driver]

Example:

Why do people really clean their teeth?
Not just dental health. For fear of social rejection. For confidence in social settings.
Implication: the real brief for a toothpaste brand is not clean teeth — it's confidence in proximity to other people.

Apply this framework to every audience insight before accepting it as the strategic foundation.

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Framework 3: Sharp — Mental Availability

Reference: How Brands Grow, Byron Sharp (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute)
Full model: see references/how-brands-grow.md

The Core Argument

Brand growth comes primarily from increasing the number of buyers (penetration), not from deepening loyalty among existing buyers. The tool for achieving this is mental availability — being easily thought of in the situations where people buy.

Mental vs Physical Availability

	Mental Availability	Physical Availability
Definition	How easily a brand comes to mind in a buying situation	How easy the brand is to find and buy
Driver	Category Entry Points (CEPs) + Distinctive Assets	Distribution + shelf/digital presence
Built by	Consistent advertising + reach	Sales, retail, DTC channels

Category Entry Points (CEPs)

CEPs are the situations, needs, or mental triggers that initiate a purchase decision. Effective comms must link the brand to the CEPs that matter most for category buyers.

How to identify CEPs:

• When do people reach for this category? (time of day, mood, occasion)
• What problem triggers the purchase? (functional, emotional, social)
• Who else is present in the decision? (self vs. others)
• What is the alternative they're choosing between? (not just competitive brands — sometimes the alternative is "not buying at all")

The strategic question: Is our brand easily recalled in these moments? Or are we only known by people already committed to us?

Distinctive Brand Assets

Distinctive assets are the brand codes — visual, verbal, sonic, tactile — that trigger brand recognition without requiring the brand name to be present. They must be:

• Distinctive (owned by you, not shared with category conventions)
• Consistent (same asset used repeatedly across campaigns)
• Linked (strongly associated with the brand in memory)

Asset type	Examples	Strategic role
Visual identity	Colour, shape, character	Instant recognition across channels
Verbal identity	Tagline, sonic logo, catchphrase	Recognition without sight
Brand character	Mascot, spokesperson, tone	Emotional familiarity
Contextual cues	Category, occasion, situation	Memory retrieval triggers

Warning: Many agencies rotate visual assets for novelty. From a memory-building perspective, this destroys accumulated mental availability. Resist the urge to refresh assets that are working.

Penetration vs Loyalty: The Reframe for Campaign Briefs

Conventional assumption	Sharp's evidence-based correction
"We should focus on our best customers"	Light buyers make up the majority of sales — all are worth reaching
"Loyalty programmes drive growth"	Loyalty programmes retain; they rarely grow
"We should deepen engagement"	Reach matters more than frequency for brand growth
"Targeting the right audience maximises efficiency"	Narrow targeting under-reaches the buyers who drive most growth

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Applying Behavioral Strategy: The Diagnostic Sequence

Use when a brief, insight, or campaign concept needs behavioral pressure-testing:

Step 1: System 1 Audit

Does this campaign win before the audience thinks about it?

• What does a first-time viewer feel before they understand?
• Does the campaign look like what it's claiming to be?
• What associations does it prime at first contact?
• Is the brand easily recognised in 3 seconds?

Step 2: Psycho-Logic Audit

Does this campaign understand real motivations, not stated ones?

• Have we applied the Real Why framework to the audience insight?
• Are we using signalling (costly proof) or just claiming?
• Does the campaign remove risk or add complexity to the decision?
• Are we competing with logic when the audience is satisficing?

Step 3: Mental Availability Audit

Does this campaign build the brand's retrieval network?

• Which Category Entry Points does this campaign link the brand to?
• Are we using and reinforcing Distinctive Assets?
• Is reach broad enough to build penetration, or too narrow to grow?
• Will someone who has never bought from us still be reached?

Step 4: Framing Audit

Is the message framed for maximum impact?

Question	Guidance
Gain or loss frame?	Loss frame (+2× weight) for high-stakes, risk-aware audiences. Gain frame for aspiration, lifestyle, new behaviour.
Right anchor?	Is the price/value compared against the right reference point? (vs expensive competitor, not vs cheap alternative)
WYSIATI check?	Have we stated the context the audience needs — or assumed they have it?
Friction audit?	How many steps between message and action? Each step loses ~50% of intent.
Variance vs expected value?	Does the audience want the best average outcome — or the best worst-case scenario? (Sutherland's airport route insight)

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Behavioral Campaign Principle

After completing all 4 steps, distil into one sentence that governs the campaign's design:

BEHAVIORAL CAMPAIGN PRINCIPLE

"[This campaign works because we are exploiting/resolving/activating] [specific bias or mechanism]
[for an audience whose System 1 currently associates this category with] [current association]
[by making the brand] [desired System 1 association]."

Example:
"This campaign works because we are resolving cognitive dissonance for an audience whose
System 1 associates insurance with 'being tricked', by making Maif the brand that costs 
more and therefore feels safer — using costly signalling, not price competition."

This principle should be written before any brief is handed to creative. It is the behavioral rationale for the campaign concept.

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Output: Behavioral Strategy Brief

Produces a 1-page behavioral layer to accompany any strategic document.

Save to data/1-Projets/clients/[client]/behavioral-brief.md

# Behavioral Strategy Brief: [Campaign/Brand]

## Real Why (Sutherland)
Stated motivation: [What audiences say they want]
Real motivation: [What's actually driving the decision]
Fear driver: [What they're avoiding]

## System 1 Profile (Kahneman)
How audiences feel BEFORE they think about this category:
[Existing associations, automatic responses, emotional starting point]

Key biases in play:
- [Bias 1]: [How it's affecting perception / how to use it]
- [Bias 2]: ...

## Mental Availability Score (Sharp)
Category Entry Points we own: [List]
Category Entry Points we're missing: [List]
Distinctive assets — current strength: [High / Medium / Weak]

## Behavioral Campaign Principle
[One sentence: the behavioral insight that should govern this campaign's design]

## Red Flags
[Rational arguments we're relying on that won't work / System 2 assumptions in the brief that need challenging]

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Integration Points

• Feeds into: message-architecture (System 1 message testing), audience-intelligence (behavioral drivers), brief-analyzer (real why interrogation), campaign-strategy (distinctive asset brief)
• Triggered by: /comms:strategy, /comms:brief, /comms:campaign, /comms:audience
• Reference files:
  • references/kahneman-biases.md — Full cognitive bias library for comms
  • references/sutherland-psychologic.md — Psycho-logic principles and diagnostics
  • references/how-brands-grow.md — Sharp's mental availability model