Behavioral Sciences
Overview
We use behavioral science to inform consumer understanding, drawing on neuroscience, cognitive psychology, emotional priming and behavioral economics. Using the latest thinking and methods, we can enhance other data and analysis to create nuanced insights and a deep understanding of buying behavior and behavior change.
Key features
Deep human insight
Using behavioral science techniques, we capture explicit and implicit responses for a full picture of behavior.
Understand the gap between intention and action
Our approach uncovers emotions and thoughts that are rarely articulated, revealing hidden processing.
More predictive outcomes
Our decision-making model recognizes the complexity of humans, capturing both Type 1 and Type 2 processing.
Behavioral science is embedded in everything we do at Kantar. We apply it across the qualitative, quantitative and consulting work we do, with projective techniques in NeedScope, cognitive interviewing in qualitative research, facial coding in ad testing, and intuitive associations to measure brand performance. It is built into our methods, solutions and toolkits to enhance the insights they bring.
Central to our approach is a proprietary model of decision-making that acknowledges that humans don’t make decisions in a vacuum. Providing a real-world perspective, it considers not only memory and habits, but also context, accounting for motivational, situational and cognitive factors. Our model features a unique ‘feeling of rightness’ element - a mental calibration of the fitness of a product or service to the moment. Backed by the latest neuroscience, our decision-making model captures a more complete picture of human processing.
Our behavior change toolkit complements our decision-making model. It provides a structured understanding of how to nudge choices and influence behavior, and can be applied to everything from communications to product development. Drawing on a range of factors from psychological to physiological needs, from social influences to cultural contexts, our toolkit helps you minimize vulnerabilities, break down barriers, optimize strengths and create opportunities, to maximize success.
We examine patterns of consumer behavior to reveal the underlying mechanisms and dynamics, so you can more effectively activate the opportunities we uncover. Through the lens of the customer journey, we identify ‘twitch’ moments of jeopardy and opportunity and ‘stick’ moments of loyalty and risk, where you can focus efforts. Combining the latest in cognitive psychology with real world consumer understanding, we breakdown the difficult task of understanding where and how to sway opinion and shift behavior.
Heuristics and cognitive biases guide consumer decisions every day. Our behavior change toolkit incorporates an understanding of behavioral economics at each stage of the customer journey.
We understand how advertising primes and frames perceptions and influences subsequent choices. We understand how habitual purchases are predisposed by familiarity, loss aversion and brand fluency. We understand how anchoring, social proof and scarcity can encourage people to change their minds. And we understand how the experience of a product or service itself reinforces or undermines subsequent choice. Employing the latest thinking, we benefit from the power of implicit nudges and levers to enact change.