Procrastination bias
We place higher value on reaping immediate rewards than we do on those that might be earned in the future.
What is the Procrastination bias?
Scientists refer to this dilemma as a battle between your Present Self and your Future Self.
The key difference between the two is that the Future Self is able to set targets and have goals, but the Present Self is the one that makes things happen.
What this means is that when it’s time to make a decision, people aren’t making a choice for their Future Self, they are in the present. The analogy is this: while the Future Self wants to be fit and healthy, the Present Self wants a Greggs pasty.
To get round the fact we procrastinate, marketers need to understand this behaviour and offer compelling reasons to buy, or make it super easy for customers to make a decision.
The evidence it works
In their 2015 study, Liam Delaney and Leonhard Lades at the University of Stirling investigated the present bias among 144 students and staff.
Participants were given a hypothetical purchase scenario, where they were asked to decide between making an immediate smaller payment (£9-15), or a larger future payment (£16).
The researchers discovered that rather than pay £13 immediately, 60% chose to pay £16 in one month’s time.
This equates to a 23% monthly interest rate or an APR of 1099%.
How it builds brand memorability
One of the key drivers of brand memorability is ‘Ease’.
If you make your brand easy to access, deal with and buy from, you’re going to build strong, positive connections that lead to memorability.
At the point of purchase, or during the journey to purchase, customer’s decision-making can be made easier by leveraging behavioural biases. And METRIC is our tool for harnessing the power of these biases - snap judgements that help the brain make quick decisions in context - for clients.
METRIC organises the biases into six categories - because these are the key ‘resources’ we always have to spend when make decisions. They are Money, Effort, Time, Risk, Individuality, and Conscious thought. Which handily spells METRIC.
So presenting choices in one of these six frames can tip the balance in comms.
Great examples of Procrastination bias in marketing
To get round the fact we procrastinate, marketers need to understand this behaviour and offer compelling reasons to buy, or make it super easy for customers to make a decision. Examples of how this can be done include:
Free delivery and 50% off your first order – fabletics.com does this really well.
Risk free, 100 day free trial – Eve mattresses get this right
100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back – Premier Inn’s good night’s sleep guarantee
Free, no-hassle returns – ASOS continue to deliver this
‘One click’ to buy – Amazon pioneered this
Likewise, it’s possible to take advantage of the fact customer default behaviour is to procrastinate and marketers need to take the decision-making away from them. Examples of this are:
Auto renewing annual subscriptions – all car insurance companies do this to great effect.
A free trial period, that rolls into a full subscription with “no need to do anything” – Amazon Prime has used this approach since its inception
Put up barriers to exit (eg call the helpline to cancel, opt-out after a certain date) – Again, fabletics.com does this really well.
Find out more about about behavioural marketing in our new report – Applying behavioural economics to marketing – 7 cognitive biases you can leverage today.
