Your next event attendee: Behavioural Science

Why do people buy a power drill? This question was famously asked by Harvard Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt to his students. The point he wanted to make was that no-one buys a drill because they want a drill. They don’t even want a hole in the wall. Or a hook in the hole. They want a picture on the wall. That’s their motivation to buy the drill. The question – and answer – led to the seminal HBR paper ‘Marketing Myopia’ (1960), in which Levitt challenged business leaders to be less product-orientated and more consumer-oriented; to be focused on what was really valuable for the consumer.

Fast forward to 2022 and we can ask the same question of events: why do attendees really turn-up? What do they really want? Where’s the value in most events?

Over the last couple of years we’ve all been forced to fundamentally re-assess a range of behaviours, many of which used to happen largely on auto-pilot (‘I did it last time, so I’ll do it again’). For events – and event attendees – this re-evaluation has been profound. Many now question the value in turning up when every piece of useful content can be watched – far more conveniently - on demand. This means that competitors are no longer the other stands in your conference; they are Netflix, YouTube and Disney+. In terms of UX, content delivery and convenience, these platforms set the bar for experience delivery.

What does this mean for the attendee experience design? The obvious answer is that we need to be more conscious than ever of how the needs of our attendees are met by the spaces we create for them and the way that we present our clients’ messages.

So, how do we make sure to deliver effective and relevant experiences for attendees with a new mindset? First, we need to look ahead and uncover and define the long-term objectives of the event. Then we must track these long-term objectives back to a series of concrete behaviours that can be influenced in and around the event itself.

Behavioural science – the evidence-based understanding of behaviour and the design of interventions to influence and change behaviour – can provide the structure and rigour to do this, helping create a more effective Attendee Experience Design. For example, want a product launch event to change how customers talk about your products vs your competitors? We can use behavioural science to propose changes that create ‘positive friction’[1] and cause your customers to momentarily question and re-evaluate their beliefs about the competition.

Or is it that you need to create an exhibition stand that attracts a new demographic? Behavioural science can be used to create moments that specifically connect your brand with how this new audience sees themselves and wants to be seen[2].

Whether it’s starting a behaviour, stopping a behaviour, or even maintaining a behaviour – behavioural science enables us to expose, understand and pull specific levers to effectively and efficiently deliver better outcomes for clients and more delightful experiences for attendees.

But it’s important to get the objective and intervention right!

A famous example of a ‘wrong’ intervention makes the point here. In 1952, the Boston Symphony Orchestra wanted to diversify its musician make-up to include more women. To address this, a novel intervention was introduced in the audition experience for new musicians – they made the auditions blind. Candidates not only performed behind the curtain, but were also told to take off their shoes, so no clues could be given as to their gender. This resulted in women being better represented in the orchestra. And it’s here, on a high note, that the case study often ends. However, within a year or so of being hired, most of the women had left. Why? Whilst the intervention successfully corrected a biased audition process, it didn’t manage to remove the underlying issues that led to this bias in the first place, namely a sexist culture. Put another way, the intervention led to the right output, but the wrong outcome.

Great interventions need to be able to flex (not be brittle), and can and should deliver long-term behaviour change. And behaviour change is what it’s all about. It’s the one thing all events have in common – they want to change behaviour. Events are behaviour change interventions and great interventions don’t have to be huge interventions. There’s a near-infinite array of potential small experience tweaks within any event that could lead to long-term behaviour change value – you just need behavioural scientists to know where to look.

There’s a popular quote within behavioural science circles: “there’s not an organisation on the planet that doesn’t want to change someone’s behaviour.” It’s worth remembering this when thinking about making events more valuable for all involved – behaviour change is valuable and long-term behaviour change more valuable still. In fact, rather than trying to remember it, maybe it’s better to print it out, frame it and hang it on the wall. Now you just need to find a drill…

[1] Positive friction describes creating a moment where an individual is challenged to process information more carefully, in order to potentially ‘jolt’ them out of a more casual and automatic thinking.

[2] Social Identity Theory explains how and why we bind to certain groups and how brands can credibly create these social groups.

To arrange a conversation with Guy or another member of the AXD unit click here.

Or, to find out more about WRG's Attendee Experience Design Unit head here.