The buyer on the hook: a recipe for the formation of dependence
Thread hooks do not let us. In the last review, we looked at the book Emotional Flexibility by Susan Davis and talked about the dangers that lie in the “hooks” - well-established patterns of behavior and learned reactions. Just a few weeks later, we came across work from another field and from another author who approaches the problem more pragmatically: if a person is a slave to habits, how can this circumstance be used in business?
The book by Nir Eyal “The Buyer on the Hook” offers a scientific approach to consumer manipulation - in fact, this is a step-by-step guide to the formation of product dependence. She caused a stormy response in the English-speaking community and received insignia on resources like Goodreads, which is not surprising - you should get acquainted with it at least in order to once again feel like a supervillain. Below we provide a summary of the secret formula with graphs, examples and explanations. Use this information for good.
Cognitive psychologists define habit as “automatic behavior caused by situational cues” - in other words, what we do almost (or completely) without thinking. Today, those products that manage to change our everyday behavior and become part of the routine are winning over the market. For the user's attention every minute so many irritants compete that only building the interaction into the habit can be considered the key to the survival of the application.
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How to achieve this? “Habit” and “addictiveness” are not accidentally single-root words. In order for the consumer to return to the product again and again, it is necessary to induce irrational cravings in him, akin to dependence. This is the state the author of the book implies, using the expression "on the hook."
There is no ready-made working pattern for developing habits; however, by tracking patterns and referring to works on psychology, it is possible to recreate in general terms the scheme that companies use to engage users in involuntary consumption.
The hook model looks like this:
The process is the same way. contains four stages: trigger - action - variable remuneration - investment .
Consider each of them in detail.
A trigger is a signal to the user to perform an action. There are two types of triggers:
External triggers are sensory stimuli in the outside world.
Under the internal triggers are understood emotional experiences and impulses that push to action due to the association fixed in the memory. Or, to put it simply ...
Is it boring Opened Youtube. Bursting with joyful news? Posted status on Facebook. Alone? Checked out whatsapp or email.
The ability to associate such things with your product is aerobatics. Such a relationship is already a step above the established habit, and if it was possible to build it, there is no need for external triggers.
To establish communication with the internal trigger, it is necessary to think in advance about what experience we will use. The ultimate goal of the developer can be formulated as follows: to save the buyer from a certain kind of pain / discomfort, creating with him the feeling that the source of relief is this product. To do this, it is necessary to deeply investigate the consumer's motives, his emotional state and desires in the context of the application.
How to do it? Very simple: ask yourself the question "why?", Until you reach the emotion underlying desire. Usually, five “why” are enough for this.
Why does a user start an Instagram account?
To instantly post photos from your phone.
Why does he want this?
To share short-term impressions.
Why is this so important?
So he gets a response from other people, attracts their attention.
Why does he need a response?
He wants to confirm that he has a bright, interesting life.
Why does he need it?
To increase self-esteem.
Naturally, this chain can be “unwound” in another direction - then we will make a different portrait and enter a different segment of the audience. The main thing here is to find a pain point that actually exists in some group of people.
By acting we mean the simplest type of behavior aimed at receiving a reward. The less effort it takes, the more likely it will be. The habit is easiest to include those actions that a person does not think about.
According to Fogg's theory, three components are required to initiate an action:
Motivation is the desire to perform an action, the energy for an action. According to Fogg, there are three universal motivators that work without failures:
Accordingly, the motivation in each specific case will be determined by how far the action brings us or moves us away from these goals. At the same time, for different segments of the audience the same situations will be interpreted differently (for example, registration in social networks in a student environment - approved, expected behavior, while older people with an account on Tumblr may not meet with understanding in their communication circle) .
There are a number of proven heuristic mechanisms that allow you to increase motivation at the cost of minimal effort:
Speaking about the possibility , the author implies not only the feasibility of action, but its maximum simplicity. If you eliminate the maximum obstacles from the user's path, the chances of the desired behavior increase.
The degree of simplicity is determined by such factors as:
The focus should be on saving one of these resources - the one that is most limited to the user in the context of the use of the product.
Note : For IT products, the opportunity to prioritize motivation, first of all, should work on it. As practice shows, application users do not read instructions and tend to perform several tasks simultaneously. Accordingly, intuitiveness, a small amount of effort expended becomes the determining factor for them.
The action is followed by a reward, which plays a key role in the formation of the desired positive associations. It must be changeable because over time the reaction to any repetitive stimulus becomes dull.
Lack of volatility is dangerous because it eliminates the effect of surprise and thereby weakens motivation. Naturally, for platforms where content is generated by the users themselves, this problem is less acute than for products with a given menu developer, so the latter should be well aware of and compensate for these limitations.
Basic reward types include:
1. Tribal remuneration, that is, social reinforcement
Example : any platform where likes, comments, points, subscribers appear, in short, community in any form
2. Mining remuneration - various resources, as a rule, informational
Example : Google, from which you can request an answer to your question, Pinterest, which gives a collection of photos on a given topic
3. Internal remuneration - satisfaction from achieving the goal (desire to finish the job, a sense of one’s own competence)
Example : video games, all sorts of products where gamification is applied.
It is possible and necessary to combine different types of rewards in one product and even for one action. For example, checking emails people:
First , it gets confirmation of its social connections, maintains relationships, strengthens dating (social reward)
Secondly , it learns some news, discovers additional opportunities for itself, receives information in various forms (production reward)
Thirdly , it reduces the number of unread letters to zero, feels productive, and also satisfies curiosity - what if something interesting has come? (a sense of competence from the completed case + variability = internal reward)
Note : Another feature of human psychology that must be kept in mind is called reactive resistance. It lies in the desire for freedom of choice, unwillingness to cooperate when our independence is at risk. For this reason, it is always more profitable to appeal to the wishes of the user, rather than trying to artificially create a sense of necessity.
For a one-time impulse to action, the three stages we considered are sufficient: a trigger — an action — a reward. Their collection is the standard feedback loop. However, when the goal is to introduce an action into the habit, to push the user to re-execute it, the fourth and final stage, the investment, becomes critical.
In order to enter an action into a habit, a combination of two factors is required: it must (1) be repeated frequently and (2) produce a result that the performer perceives as valuable. Small investments are a great way to change the attitude in the right direction, make a person value his experience, and therefore come back time after time.
The effectiveness of the investment method is due to three trends in our thinking:
We define action as an investment based on two criteria: it brings returns only in the long term, not immediately and requires some targeted application of force from the user.
Note : The fundamental principle of usability is the simplicity of interaction, but the emphasis on it must be done at stages prior to remuneration. After that, you just need to offer the user a little work. The complexity of operations while it is better to increase gradually.
Software as a type of product has a huge advantage - it allows you to accumulate value. Content that the user saves in the “Favorite” or creates himself, platform elements that he customizes to his tastes, the information added in the profile gradually increasingly binds it to the application.
Huge weight are those forms of stored value, which somehow involved social approval: subscribers, comments, reputation. The latter is especially important, as it can be transformed into other types of resources. For example, on eBay, a reliable, respectable seller with high ratings will be able to sell their goods faster and more profitably.
Investments are also attractive because time and effort spent over time return to the user in the form of skills. In other words, the longer you work with the service, the easier it seems. On the one hand, simplicity stimulates further use (see Fogg's theory — the standard action is performed more readily than the unusual), on the other, it signs our sense of competence as an additional internal reward.
Note : The investment prepares the way for the user to return, but does not restart the cycle - this requires the introduction of another external trigger, at least at first. After some number of repetitions, internal triggers will start to work, and then the user can be considered "hooked."
The hook model is useful both at the stage of grinding the concept and testing the hypothesis, and for analyzing the finished product in order to identify weak points. Just go through each stage asking yourself questions of this type:
To determine whether the interaction with the product entered the habit zone, calculate the interval at which the user should ideally return to your application (try to think really). Then refer to the statistics: if 5% or more of the user base reaches this bar, then you have coped with the task of "sitting down". If not - it is worth either to reconsider your target audience, or to significantly rework the project.
And finally, a note for the conscientious: if the prospect of manipulating people bothers you as unethical behavior - make applications to solve problems that affect you personally, create products that you would like to download. This is the best guarantee that they will improve the quality of life of the consumer, and not cause detrimental dependence for the sake of profit.
The book by Nir Eyal “The Buyer on the Hook” offers a scientific approach to consumer manipulation - in fact, this is a step-by-step guide to the formation of product dependence. She caused a stormy response in the English-speaking community and received insignia on resources like Goodreads, which is not surprising - you should get acquainted with it at least in order to once again feel like a supervillain. Below we provide a summary of the secret formula with graphs, examples and explanations. Use this information for good.
Cognitive psychologists define habit as “automatic behavior caused by situational cues” - in other words, what we do almost (or completely) without thinking. Today, those products that manage to change our everyday behavior and become part of the routine are winning over the market. For the user's attention every minute so many irritants compete that only building the interaction into the habit can be considered the key to the survival of the application.
')
How to achieve this? “Habit” and “addictiveness” are not accidentally single-root words. In order for the consumer to return to the product again and again, it is necessary to induce irrational cravings in him, akin to dependence. This is the state the author of the book implies, using the expression "on the hook."
There is no ready-made working pattern for developing habits; however, by tracking patterns and referring to works on psychology, it is possible to recreate in general terms the scheme that companies use to engage users in involuntary consumption.
The hook model looks like this:
The process is the same way. contains four stages: trigger - action - variable remuneration - investment .
Consider each of them in detail.
Triggers
A trigger is a signal to the user to perform an action. There are two types of triggers:
External triggers are sensory stimuli in the outside world.
- Paid Triggers. This group includes everything that we usually associate with advertising campaigns - banners, flyers, mailing lists. For the formation of habits, they are useless, and, accordingly, rely on them in the long term is not worth it.
- Free Triggers. This includes all mentions in the information space that arise without the participation of the company - positive reviews on blogs, reviews in the media. They are more efficient, but highly unpredictable and require a serious investment of resources (first of all, time).
- Relationship triggers, i.e. recommendations from the environment. This variety has a very high efficiency in terms of attracting new consumers. Some companies even resort to gray schemes in order to launch "word of mouth" (special offers with reservations in small print and other attractions of unheard of generosity). Alas, in such cases a sharp collapse usually follows the first wave of delight.
- Implemented triggers. These are alerts, mailings and even the application icon itself on the screen - in a word, all reminders of the existence of an application that the user enters into his life of his own accord. Such triggers are most useful for habit formation, but require a certain degree of involvement.
Under the internal triggers are understood emotional experiences and impulses that push to action due to the association fixed in the memory. Or, to put it simply ...
Is it boring Opened Youtube. Bursting with joyful news? Posted status on Facebook. Alone? Checked out whatsapp or email.
The ability to associate such things with your product is aerobatics. Such a relationship is already a step above the established habit, and if it was possible to build it, there is no need for external triggers.
To establish communication with the internal trigger, it is necessary to think in advance about what experience we will use. The ultimate goal of the developer can be formulated as follows: to save the buyer from a certain kind of pain / discomfort, creating with him the feeling that the source of relief is this product. To do this, it is necessary to deeply investigate the consumer's motives, his emotional state and desires in the context of the application.
How to do it? Very simple: ask yourself the question "why?", Until you reach the emotion underlying desire. Usually, five “why” are enough for this.
Why does a user start an Instagram account?
To instantly post photos from your phone.
Why does he want this?
To share short-term impressions.
Why is this so important?
So he gets a response from other people, attracts their attention.
Why does he need a response?
He wants to confirm that he has a bright, interesting life.
Why does he need it?
To increase self-esteem.
Naturally, this chain can be “unwound” in another direction - then we will make a different portrait and enter a different segment of the audience. The main thing here is to find a pain point that actually exists in some group of people.
Act
By acting we mean the simplest type of behavior aimed at receiving a reward. The less effort it takes, the more likely it will be. The habit is easiest to include those actions that a person does not think about.
According to Fogg's theory, three components are required to initiate an action:
- Sufficient degree of motivation
- Ability to take action
- Trigger to activate
Motivation is the desire to perform an action, the energy for an action. According to Fogg, there are three universal motivators that work without failures:
- We want to have fun and avoid pain
- We want to have hope and avoid fear.
- We want to get social recognition and avoid rejection.
Accordingly, the motivation in each specific case will be determined by how far the action brings us or moves us away from these goals. At the same time, for different segments of the audience the same situations will be interpreted differently (for example, registration in social networks in a student environment - approved, expected behavior, while older people with an account on Tumblr may not meet with understanding in their communication circle) .
There are a number of proven heuristic mechanisms that allow you to increase motivation at the cost of minimal effort:
- The effect of scarcity. A limited amount of goods is subconsciously associated with high value. When we see the mark “3 copies left in the online store,” thoughts involuntarily come that the product was snapped up not by chance, and there is a desire to catch at least one of them.
- Framing effect. Context affects perception, even on the physical level. Our brains form fast judgments on associative connections: expensive or well-designed products, for example, are often perceived as “objectively” better.
- Anchoring effect. When making decisions, people often take into account only part of the information, and that which was presented to them first. Many, having seen the bright banner “Action: 3 for the price of 2!”, Will not calculate the benefit (and whether it is at all), but simply consider the promise “cheap” and will be guided by it.
- The effect of significant progress. We are more willing to accept action when we are told that the process of its implementation has already begun. For example, if points are awarded for the first purchase, we will be more eager to accomplish the next — after all, we have already begun to “save”.
Speaking about the possibility , the author implies not only the feasibility of action, but its maximum simplicity. If you eliminate the maximum obstacles from the user's path, the chances of the desired behavior increase.
The degree of simplicity is determined by such factors as:
- time costs
- material costs
- physical effort
- mental effort
- social continuity
- unusualness (i.e. measure of conformity with habitual behavior)
The focus should be on saving one of these resources - the one that is most limited to the user in the context of the use of the product.
Note : For IT products, the opportunity to prioritize motivation, first of all, should work on it. As practice shows, application users do not read instructions and tend to perform several tasks simultaneously. Accordingly, intuitiveness, a small amount of effort expended becomes the determining factor for them.
Reward
The action is followed by a reward, which plays a key role in the formation of the desired positive associations. It must be changeable because over time the reaction to any repetitive stimulus becomes dull.
Lack of volatility is dangerous because it eliminates the effect of surprise and thereby weakens motivation. Naturally, for platforms where content is generated by the users themselves, this problem is less acute than for products with a given menu developer, so the latter should be well aware of and compensate for these limitations.
Basic reward types include:
1. Tribal remuneration, that is, social reinforcement
Example : any platform where likes, comments, points, subscribers appear, in short, community in any form
2. Mining remuneration - various resources, as a rule, informational
Example : Google, from which you can request an answer to your question, Pinterest, which gives a collection of photos on a given topic
3. Internal remuneration - satisfaction from achieving the goal (desire to finish the job, a sense of one’s own competence)
Example : video games, all sorts of products where gamification is applied.
It is possible and necessary to combine different types of rewards in one product and even for one action. For example, checking emails people:
First , it gets confirmation of its social connections, maintains relationships, strengthens dating (social reward)
Secondly , it learns some news, discovers additional opportunities for itself, receives information in various forms (production reward)
Thirdly , it reduces the number of unread letters to zero, feels productive, and also satisfies curiosity - what if something interesting has come? (a sense of competence from the completed case + variability = internal reward)
Note : Another feature of human psychology that must be kept in mind is called reactive resistance. It lies in the desire for freedom of choice, unwillingness to cooperate when our independence is at risk. For this reason, it is always more profitable to appeal to the wishes of the user, rather than trying to artificially create a sense of necessity.
Investment
For a one-time impulse to action, the three stages we considered are sufficient: a trigger — an action — a reward. Their collection is the standard feedback loop. However, when the goal is to introduce an action into the habit, to push the user to re-execute it, the fourth and final stage, the investment, becomes critical.
In order to enter an action into a habit, a combination of two factors is required: it must (1) be repeated frequently and (2) produce a result that the performer perceives as valuable. Small investments are a great way to change the attitude in the right direction, make a person value his experience, and therefore come back time after time.
The effectiveness of the investment method is due to three trends in our thinking:
- The more we invest in something, the more its value increases in our eyes - simply because we really appreciate and even overestimate our efforts. Psychologists call this process an escalation of obligations.
- We tend to follow the course outlined by previous actions. In appearance, minor, minor actions can “pave the way” to large-scale decisions and serious changes in behavior.
- Cognitive dissonance causes us extreme discomfort, to the extent that we are ready to change our own perception in order to eliminate the conflict between the expected and the real.
We define action as an investment based on two criteria: it brings returns only in the long term, not immediately and requires some targeted application of force from the user.
Note : The fundamental principle of usability is the simplicity of interaction, but the emphasis on it must be done at stages prior to remuneration. After that, you just need to offer the user a little work. The complexity of operations while it is better to increase gradually.
Software as a type of product has a huge advantage - it allows you to accumulate value. Content that the user saves in the “Favorite” or creates himself, platform elements that he customizes to his tastes, the information added in the profile gradually increasingly binds it to the application.
Huge weight are those forms of stored value, which somehow involved social approval: subscribers, comments, reputation. The latter is especially important, as it can be transformed into other types of resources. For example, on eBay, a reliable, respectable seller with high ratings will be able to sell their goods faster and more profitably.
Investments are also attractive because time and effort spent over time return to the user in the form of skills. In other words, the longer you work with the service, the easier it seems. On the one hand, simplicity stimulates further use (see Fogg's theory — the standard action is performed more readily than the unusual), on the other, it signs our sense of competence as an additional internal reward.
Note : The investment prepares the way for the user to return, but does not restart the cycle - this requires the introduction of another external trigger, at least at first. After some number of repetitions, internal triggers will start to work, and then the user can be considered "hooked."
The hook model is useful both at the stage of grinding the concept and testing the hypothesis, and for analyzing the finished product in order to identify weak points. Just go through each stage asking yourself questions of this type:
- What triggers are used? At the right moment, are they introduced? Can we say that internal triggers encourage users to act?
- Is the interface ergonomic enough, is it easy to perform the necessary action?
- Are the users satisfied with the proposed reward? Is it commensurate with the effort expended, is it not boring?
- How do users invest time and effort in a product? Are you asking too much from them? What values ​​accumulate from session to session?
- Do users cycle again?
To determine whether the interaction with the product entered the habit zone, calculate the interval at which the user should ideally return to your application (try to think really). Then refer to the statistics: if 5% or more of the user base reaches this bar, then you have coped with the task of "sitting down". If not - it is worth either to reconsider your target audience, or to significantly rework the project.
And finally, a note for the conscientious: if the prospect of manipulating people bothers you as unethical behavior - make applications to solve problems that affect you personally, create products that you would like to download. This is the best guarantee that they will improve the quality of life of the consumer, and not cause detrimental dependence for the sake of profit.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/339808/
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