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The world’s best marketer – P&amp;G launched a brand called Febreze in the US in 1996 as a spray that could remove bad smells from almost any fabric. The spray had been created when one of the P&amp;G scientists was working with a substance called hydroxypropyl beta cyclodextrin (HPBCD). Apparently he was a smoker and one day when he got back from work his wife asked, “Did you quit smoking?” “No”, he said looking suspiciously. “You don’t smell like smoke”, she said. 
 
P&amp;G sensing a big opportunity spent millions perfecting the formula, producing colorless, odorless liquid that could make any stinky couch or jacket scentless. The marketing team decided that they should position Febreze as something that would allow people to rid themselves of embarrassing smells. 
 
They created two television commercials. The first showed a woman talking about how her jacket smell of cigarettes when she eats in the smoking section of a restaurant and the other, had a woman speak about her furniture smelling like her dog. In both cases Febreze eliminated the bad smells. 
 
Febreze bombed. 
P&amp;G hired behavioural experts to help them figure out the problem and the new solution. When they visited a woman’s home, they observed that though her house was clean and organized, it stinked of her nine cats. The smell was overpowering but the woman couldn’t notice any smell. They figured that even the strongest scent fades with constant exposure. People who needed Febreze the most simply couldn’t detect bad smells in the first place! 
 
They met hundreds of consumers looking for clues how to make Febreze a regular part of their lives. One day they met a woman, who used Febreze everyday. She used to spray Febreze whenever she would finish cleaning a room. Like in the bedroom, she vacuumed, made the bed, plumped the pillows, tightened the bed sheet’s corners, smiled with a sense of accomplishment and then took a Febreze bottle and sprayed it as a final touch. They saw the same pattern across thousands of hours of videotapes of people cleaning their homes. 
 
That was it. The team decided to make Febreze a fun part of cleaning, at the end of the cleaning routine. They added more perfume, so that instead of merely neutralizing odors, Febreze had its own distinct smell. Febreze was repositioned as the nice smell that occurs at the end of the cleaning routine. Instead of eliminating scents, it became an air freshener, used as the finishing touch. Febreze was re-launched in 1998. 
 
Housewives started craving the Febreze scent and the desire to make everything smell as nice as it looked. Within two months sales doubled. Now Febreze sales are more than $1 billion per year and products include candles, laundry detergents, kitchen spays, etc. P&amp;G learned the lesson – no one craves scentlessness. 
 
(Anand Damani is partner of communication and behavioural design firm, Briefcase. <a href="http://www.brief-case.co/">www.brief-case.co</a>)

How the world's best marketer got it wrong, but eventually got it right

A seemingly small design intervention can make a huge difference in behaviour change. 
 
Experiment 
British psychologists Paschal Sheeran and Sheina Orbell conducted an experiment in two of Scotland’s busiest orthopaedic hospitals. The participants were elderly patients from low and middle class households, who had undergone hip or knee replacement surgeries. 
 
Recovering from a hip or knee surgery is incredibly arduous. While recovering the smallest movements can be excruciating. But it is essential that patients begin exercising almost as soon as they wake from surgery, even before the muscles and skin have healed, or the tissues will clog the joint, destroying its flexibility. But exercising is so painful that many patients skip out on rehab sessions, especially the elderly ones. 
 
Behavioural Design 
So the patients were each given a booklet after their surgeries that detailed their rehab schedule, and in the back were thirteen additional pages – one for each week – with instructions: My goals for this week are _________________? Write down exactly what you are going to do. For example, if you are going to walk this week, write down where and when you are going to walk. 
 
Results 
Three months passed. The patients who had written exact plans in their booklets had started walking twice as fast as the ones who had not, as well as, getting in and out of their chairs, putting on their shoes, doing laundry, all of it much faster, than the ones who had not written anything in the booklet. 
 
Why did it work? 
The psychologists examined the booklets of those who had filled it and found it filled with specific detailed plans about the most mundane aspects of recovery. Like one patient wrote that he would walk to the bus stop on a particular day to meet his wife coming back from work at 3:30pm and the time he would leave, the route he would walk, what he would wear and which pills he would take if the pain became too much. Someone else who would exercise each time she would go to the bathroom, wrote that she would automatically take the first step right away after standing up from the couch, so that she wouldn’t be tempted to sit down again. 
 
Implementation plan 
All focused on how they would handle a specific moment of anticipated pain. They built plans around inflection points when they knew their pain – and their temptation to quit – would be strongest. 
 
Patients who didn’t write out any plans were at a significant disadvantage, because they never thought ahead about how to deal with pain. They didn’t deliberately design their habits. So their resolve abandoned them when they confronted the first few steps. 
 
So if you want something to happen, write all the steps down. 
 
(Anand Damani is partner of communication and behavioural design firm, Briefcase.<a href="http://www.brief-case.co/"> www.brief-case.co</a>) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

If you want something to happen, write it down

In the preface to his 1960 book ‘Psycho-cybernetics’, Dr Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon turned psychologist wrote: 
‘It usually requires a minimum of about 21 days to effect any perceptible change in a mental image. Following plastic surgery it takes about 21 days for the average patient to get used to his new face. When an arm or leg is amputated the “phantom limb” persists for about 21 days. 
 
People must live in a new house for about three weeks before it begins to “seem like home”. These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.’ 
 
Self-help authors of 21 days to this, that and everything, may have reasoned that, if self-image takes 21 days to change, and self-image changes lead to changes in habits, then habit formation must take 21 days. Although ‘21 days’ may perhaps apply to adjustment to plastic surgery, it is unfounded as a basis for habit formation. Here’s the proof: 
 
In an 84-day study by researchers at University College London, 96 participants were asked to choose an every day behavior that they wanted to turn into a habit. They all chose something they didn’t already do that could be repeated every day like eating a piece of fruit (behavior) with lunch (cue) or doing 50 sit-ups (behavior) after morning coffee (cue). 
 
So how long did it take to form a habit? On average it took 66 days until a habit was formed. And contrary to what’s commonly believed, missing a day or two didn’t much affect habit formation. 
 
But here is the relevant part. There was considerable variation in how long habits took to form depending on what people tried to do. People who resolved to drink a glass of water after breakfast were up to maximum automaticity after about 20 days, while those trying to eat a piece of fruit after lunch took at least twice as long to turn it into a habit. The exercise habit proves trickiest with 50 sit-ups after morning coffee, still not a habit after 84 days. 
 
Interestingly, there were quite large differences between individuals in how quickly automaticity reached its peak, although everyone repeated their chosen behavior daily: for one person it took just 18 days, and another did not get there in the 84 days, but was forecast to do so after as long as 254 days! 
 
So it’s unwise to attempt to assign a number to habit formation. The duration is likely to differ depending on who you are and what you are trying to do. As long as you continue doing your new healthy behavior consistently in a given situation, a habit will form. But you will probably have to persevere beyond January 21st if you are attempting a New Year’s resolution. 
 
(Anand Damani is partner of communication and behavioural design firm, Briefcase. <a href="http://www.brief-case.co/">www.brief-case.co</a>) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Does it really take 21 days to form habits?

Here’s a way that overcomes the dilemma of being seen as a show-off when you may be trying to establish your credentials. 
 
There is a certain real estate agency in the US, which has a sales and a rental division. Customers who would call the agency would typically first speak with a receptionist who, having identified which division they needed to speak with, would say, “Oh, rentals, you need to speak to Penny.” or “You need the sales division, you need to speak to Sheldon.” 
 
Simple Behavioural Design 
Upon the recommendation of a group of behavioural scientists – Robert Cialdini and colleagues – the receptionist started using a slightly tweaked approach. The receptionist would now say, “Oh, rentals, you need to speak to Penny, who has over fifteen years of experience renting properties in this neighborhood. Let me put you through now” or “I’m going to put you through to Sheldon, our head of sales. Sheldon has twenty years of experience in selling properties like yours.” 
 
Why it worked 
Everything that the receptionist spoke was true. But for Penny or Sheldon to say the same thing would have been have been at the risk of being liked less and seen as boastful and self-promoting and as a result, not as persuasive. The customers ignored the fact that this introduction came from someone who was connected to Penny and Sheldon and would benefit from this kind of introduction. Penny and Sheldon reported a significant rise in the number of appointments post this Behavioural Design nudge. Lastly, but most importantly, the intervention was costless to the company. 
 
Linkedin applying Behavioural Design 
No wonder, inspite of written recommendations being a prominent feature of LinkedIn, it has further introduced recommendation of skills, to enhance the user’s credibility as well as LinkedIn’s usability. 
 
(Anand Damani is partner of communication and behavioural design firm, Briefcase. <a href="http://www.brief-case.co/">www.brief-case.co</a>) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

How to show-off without being labelled as a show-off

There have been many well-known cases of brands touting their weaknesses and being liked for it. Avis car rental’s memorable slogan ‘We’re No.2. We try harder’ that meant when you’re not no.1, you have to try harder. Or 1950’s Volkswagen Beetle’s campaign that Beetle wouldn’t win any beauty contests, but its strengths were durability, fuel economy and price. Or Stella Artois’ ‘Reassuringly expensive’. In fact the third largest auto insurance company in the US, Progressive Auto Insurance is known for letting its customers know about its competitors rates too. Although Progressive clearly has better rates in many instances, it’s not always the case. Inspite of this Progressive has grown successfully. 
 
Behavioural science evidence 
Social scientists Valerie Trifts and Gerald Haubl also support Progressive’s practice. In their study participants looking to buy books online were more likely to shop from a moderately priced bookseller when that bookseller also provided its competitors prices, which were sometimes lower. 
 
Why does it work? 
Why does this strategy work? “Arguing against your self-interest,” says Robert Cialdini, “creates the perception of honesty and trustworthiness. This puts you in a position to be more persuasive when promoting your genuine strengths.” 
 
Behavioural science applied 
This persuasion technique could even be applied when selling your car. Volunteering negative information about the car, especially information that the prospect would be unlikely to discover by himself/herself should do some good for his or her trust in you and your vehicle. 
 
However, it’s important to keep in mind that this strategy can be effectively used only if your weakness is genuinely a minor one in comparison to your strengths. Like Francois, the 17th Century French writer and moralist, wrote, “We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.” 
 
(Anand Damani is partner of communication and behavioural design firm, Briefcase. <a href="http://www.brief-case.co/">www.brief-case.co</a>) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

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