A return for podcast guest number 1, Richard Shotton, following the launch of his brand new book "The Illusion of Choice: 16½ psychological biases that influence what we buy".

"Every day, people make hundreds of choices.

Many of these are commercial: What shampoo to pick? How much to spend on a bottle of wine? Whether to renew a subscription?

These choices might appear to be freely made, but psychologists have shown that subtle changes in the way products are positioned, promoted and marketed can radically alter how customers behave.

The Illusion of Choice identifies the 16½ most important psychological biases that everyone in business needs to be aware of today – and shows how any business can take advantage of these to win customers, retain customers and sell more.

Richard Shotton, author of the acclaimed The Choice Factory, draws on academic research, previous ad campaigns and his own original field studies to create a fascinating and highly practical guide that focuses on the point where marketing meets the mind of the customer.

You’ll learn to take advantage of the peak end rule, the power of precision, the wisdom of wit – and much, much more."

What we covered in this episode:

• Why the podcast 4.9 star rating is the best one
• The meanest tweet Uncensored CMO ever had
• Social proof gives you wings
• Why the new book has 16 ½ chapters
• Feel free to ignore this chapter in the book
• Why biases affect professionals as well as consumers
• The Russian tank effect and how AI can be misled
• How AI design a better pair of Nike Trainers
• Recency, primacy and the peak end rule
• How behavioural science supports the laws of marketing
• Jon ranks the biases
• The Zuckerberg t-shirt principle (red sneaker effect)
• Why breaking convention is associated with higher status
• Always use concrete phrases not fluffy marketing nonsense
• The more visual the phrase the easier to remember
• Relatable stories beat cold hard statistics
• Telling one persons story well is better than trying to represent a group
• How well can experts predict a successful Super Bowl Ad
• Experts are trained to see novelty rather than broad appeal
• We are all rewarded based on sophistication and complexity rather than simplicity
• How thicker paper led to more charity donations
• Why marketer can’t predict how well their own advertising will do
• Professional forecasters are no better at predicting than the average person
• Why freedom of choice leads to much greater perceived value
• Why we would rather suffer a loss if we now someone else has done better
• Adverts aren’t trying to be funny anymore even though the funny ones work
• Why making a joke would increase your tips
• Making it easy is the best way to make someone do something
• We radically underestimate the impact of removing friction
• Removing friction beats customer benefits every time
• How to frame your pricing so people buy your preferred product
• What colonoscopies can tell us about the peak end rule
• Why ads with a peak end perform better overall

Links

• Follow Jon
• Follow Richard
• Watch UCMO on YouTube