Dr. Pradeep Salgaonkar speaks on why building brand habits are important for businesses
Armed with a double layered cotton mask and a bottle of sanitizer in my pocket, I set out for shopping at the friendly neighbourhood grocery store. I picked up all essential kitchen requirements like pulses, rice, atta, masalas etc. and lots of biscuits of different varieties. The consumption of biscuits of my family has increased hugely post lockdown and now it has become a routine to consume biscuits over an evening cup of tea.
Over the last few months, three prominent behavioural changes have taken place among consumers; and are transformed into habits now. One, the consumption of data and online content through various OTT platforms available; two, the consumption of home cooked food along with packaged foods and snacks like noodles and biscuits; and three, focus on health, fitness and boosting immunity and consumption of related products. These findings are based on empirical research conducted by us on the consumption habits of people during the pandemic.
The interesting thing is not the increase in consumption of these categories of products, but the fact that this consumption will become a habitual consumption. And it’s good news and a big input to the industry for strategy formulation. Agreed, the consumption is due to free time available at the disposal of people and the non-availability of certain categories of products, like ready- to-eat snacks, which normally came from nearby restaurants or fast food joints. However, the demand is real and here to stay. Continuous consumption of any product leads to habit formation and some of these behaviours (habits) will be continued in the future, as well as after the COVID times are normalized and the COVID scare is completely gone. Just as the people that once used desktops for all their computing work, have shifted to laptops and now to mobiles and onward to wearables, the routine usage of these mobile devices have shifted leading to newer habit formation. What do we do today when we are uncertain about a particular aspect? We Google the query on our mobile. It’s a strong habit. What do we do when we want some motivational stuff? We go to YouTube, and play the video of our choice. It’s a habit. It is an automatic behaviour in a particular context, formed over a period of time, with repeated usage, forming a routine.
Understanding how habits are formed
Strong habits are formed as a normal process in humans when an activity is repeated on continual basis, first knowingly and later unknowingly, over a period of time till it becomes almost automatic through associative learning.Within psychology, ‘habits’ are defined as those actions that are triggered almost automatically in response to certain contextual cues that are associated with them. For example, in COVID times most people have developed habit of using sanitizer after touching anything or wash hands often.
The act of going outside of home prompts many people to carry a bottle of sanitizer in their pocket besides the face mask, and sanitize their hands after every time they come in contact with something external. Thus a mere repetition of a simple action in a certain context, over a period of time, leads to habitual behaviour formation that is automatically repeated in that context in the future. According to research published in European Journal of Social Psychology it takes a minimum of 21 days to start forming habits and on an average about 66 days for habits to become automatic.
According to habit expert Charles Duhigg, habit formation goes through three stages – cue, routine and reward. A cue could be any stimulus that builds pressure or creates a craving and makes someone to take a particular action because there is a reward associated with the action. And when these actions are repeated often it leads to habit formation. Habitual behaviour could be triggered by any of the following cues – time, location, preceding event, an emotional state or other people. For example a craving could be triggered for a cup of coffee the moment it is 4 pm or a craving for a fruit or something sweet may be triggered post meals. Boredom may take you to Facebook or Instagram or just consuming online games and so on. It’s all habitual behaviour and consumption.
Habits are important for businesses
Marketers should strive to create ‘brand habit’ among its consumers.They should make consumers habitual buyers, going a step ahead from just loyal buyers. To achieve this, it is essential to understand the cues that can lead to habitual behaviour and the types of cravings that may crop up associated with their products. For example, Dairy Milk and Dark Fantasy biscuit advertisements promoted the products as something sweet post meal, is an attempt to inculcate habits in consumers. A toothpaste brand promoting brushing after dinner is trying to build a habit of brushing at night.
Another fine example which always strikes my mind is the brand habit creation attempt by Coke via their earlier advertisement campaign “Thanda matlab Coca Cola”. A series of advertisements released, created the impact of brand habit. Another impactful campaign was by American Express that said, ‘Don’t leave home without it.’ And today it’s a strong habit to carry debit/credit cards along. These slogans are a simple yet powerful everyday persuasions to consumers with a strong stimulus for habit formation.
Strong brand habits could be built by being customer centric. During COVID times, most people have developed newer patterns of consumption habits because of the changed circumstances. People are habituated to consuming more noodles and homemade snacks. Nestlé has witnessed a rise in its ‘in-home indulgence’ segment of products. Being customer centric and to seal these habits, Nestlé introduced new products under ‘MAGGI- Cooking Made Simple’ service. Google, for instance, continuously researches and innovates to give the latest and best experiences to its users. Thus customer engagement through customer centricity is essential for brand habit building. Building brand habit involves continued efforts on the part of the organization. Organizations must identify relevant cues, encourage creation of routine and offer a meaningful reward to the consumer in using the product. It helps to observe current behaviours and habits of consumers for developing new interfaces for better engagement in future. Use of creative taglines that are ‘habit’ focused will work better. For example, Nike’s tagline, ‘Just do it’ works well. Telling a compelling brand story gels well with the modern consumers.
Specifying the reward – the benefit or solution that the consumers will get by using the product, adds on. Offering higher value is a sure way to get better engagement. Habit marketing should be focused on changing product experience so that consumers are self-triggered to buy. Also, building a relationship with customers leads to a better brand habit building that ensures growth and profitability. Hence, persuade and engage consumers to build strong brand habits
The writer is Founder Director, Saldots Academy; corporate trainer and facilitator; past chairman of Goa Management Association. Email: pradeepsalgaonkar@gmail.com
