From us to you and yours – top 5 favourites of 2023

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'Tis the season for behavioural brilliance!

As we wrap up the year, we're thrilled to unwrap our top 5 December favourites - a curated blend of insights, humour, and impactful applications. Drumroll, please:

?? Favourite Ad: Here’s an ad campaign that made us laugh and reflect over here at Terragni

Why it’s brilliant: the fear of unknown often leads to misconceptions and biases. Cadbury 5 Star is asking us to embrace it. How? By demonstrating the possibilities that it holds. By getting us to imagine that maybe, things won’t be all that bad. And what’s more, it does so with humour.

?? Favourite Behaviour Heuristic: The mind-bending marvel of the Doorman Fallacy

More Indians have a taste for luxury now than ever before. We can see it all around us, in products, services and brands. (P.S. we covered this in the 11th issue of the SHIFT!)

But the feeling of luxury is incomplete without the human touch. When someone makes you feel special. By paying attention, remembering just what you like and how you like it.

With every new project, we new and interesting behaviour heuristics. Case in point: while working with one of India’s top banks.

From our insighting methodology, we found that customers felt emotional quotient (feeling special) was lacking.

So what was going on?

The Doorman Fallacy was at play - It's the belief that a doorman only opens doors. But that's not all he does. Instead, he ensures that visitors' hospitality, security, and standards are met. You can expect luxury and service from him as your first indication of where you'll stay.

Why it’s brilliant: In a bank, a relationship manager plays this role. He doesn’t simply follow up on your service requests, he pays attention, he knows. He gives advice. And he checks up on how your daughter’s badminton match went last week!

?? Favourite Article: A healthy dose of self-serving bias is a good thing, right?

Our favourite article is this one from the Financial Express that brilliantly summarises our EAS 2.0 report.

We’ve delivered some kickass insights for Banking, Insurance, Retail and E-commerce. Whether you’re a professional looking to improve customer experience or just a someone who’s curious about what fellow customers think about some of India’s largest brands, check it out here.

Why it’s brilliant: We got up close and personal with 2,500 customers across India to see how easy they find Indian brands. What we found was some pretty interesting things about how much effort Indian consumers experience. And for one last time this year, we’d like to say: when it comes to friction – less is more.

?? Favourite Usage of Behaviour Science: A potential game-changer

Google Maps made a big change to encourage eco-friendly driving. They now default to an environmentally conscious route, using a smart model that considers factors like road incline and traffic to save fuel. If the green route's arrival time matches the fastest route, it's automatically the default. Even when it's not the quickest, users can easily compare fuel savings and time differences.

Why it’s brilliant: This change aims to address biases like inertia (sticking to habits), present bias (preferring short-term benefits), and a lack of awareness about eco-friendly options, often influenced by past experiences.

Since its U.S. and Canada launch, this intervention has annually reduced over 1 million metric tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to eliminating the impact of 200,000 fuel-powered cars. And we hope to see this in India soon!

?? Favourite Meme:

Why it’s brilliant: Because we’ve already been there.

We wish you another year of insights, growth, and laughs. Here's to more behavioural brilliance in the year ahead!