Secret revealed: Vengence, Reciprocation & Marketing

“(Hu)Man is a social animal”

Have you ever thought what makes everyone in a society work in a cooperative way? I am sure; most of you would have not. So let’s understand it from the lens of Behavioral Science.

Vengeance and Reciprocity (gratitude) are the 2 key emotions in our behavior which forms the pillars on the basis of which cooperative relationship in the animal kingdom was born. 

• In a colony of bats, if on a given day one of them goes hungry, he will borrow food (blood) from that particular bat to which he had earlier shared his extra food. Now if the latter doesn’t reciprocate, vengeance will follow and he will be boycotted.

Vengeance & reciprocity helped ensure a fair play in which no one loses and everyone stands to gain (remember the Game Theory of zero sum game). 

• Archaeologist Richard Leaky says “We are humans because our ancestors learned to share their food and their skills in an honored network of obligation”.

• The process of evolution tell us what helps a species to survive gets passed on genetically (and socially too through culture)

• i.e. as kids, if we go to any kids birthday party, we were taught to invite them to our birthday party. Remember how bad we felt if were not invited to a kids birthday party who had attended ours? 

• We humans have a much evolved sense of fairness and it’s got imprinted in our subconscious mind. We view our world from this lens.

Gratitude & Reciprocity: When we receive something from someone, we develop a feeling of gratitude and our sub conscious mind makes us act to return that obligation (reciprocity).

Vengeance: Just as we reciprocate a favor (good behavior or act), we also payback for bad ones (tit for tat) going down to the extent where it can cost us or we stand to gain zero benefits. (i.e. “Hum to doobenge sanam tumko bhi le doobenge)

Let’s understand this concept better from a few real life examples: 

• Last Saturday, I went with my wife for a late night drive at Marine Drive (Mumbai).  Unfortunately there are no public toilets around so I suggested her to visit the Oberoi across the road. Hesitantly she agreed and ended up ordering a cup of coffee at their coffee shop (Gratitude and reciprocity at work).

• Last year, I was in my car stuck at a 3 min long traffic signal when an ISKON devotee approached me and gifted a copy of Gita. A little later during our conversation, he subtly asked if I would like to make some donation for the charity. Guess what? I couldn’t refuse and offered him a donation.

• In a behavioral science experiment (published in the journal of Applied Psychology)-  at a restaurant, when customers were offered just 1 mint along with the bill, the amount of tip received by the waiter was say x. To other set of customers, 2 mints were offered instead of 1. This time tip received by waiter was more than X. (People reciprocate unconsciously)

• In 2015 my dad had a heart attack and I had to fly him to Mumbai for a by-pass surgery. Expected surgery cost was Rs. 5 lac and while had a 3 lac insurance cover, I needed to borrow Rs. 2 lac. The SBI branch manager whom I had met for the first time, when he got to know why I am taking the loan, gave me Rs. 5 lac loan and said, “Sir I suggest you to carry extra money, return it after a week if you don’t require it.” Today if that manager asks me to make my investments through SBI, I cannot say no to him. (I will reciprocate).

Now let’s understand how marketers exploit this Behavioral Bias:

• Car workshops offer service checkup camps with free car wash. Post you having availed of the free service, they introduce you about car servicing they can offer, you are more likely to get your car’s next sub servicing done there (your sub conscious mind makes you reciprocate).

• Reciprocal concession – When you bargain with the shop keeper on MRP, at first he relents and then ask you how much are you willing to pay? He then offers to reduce the price just for you.  You feel obligated and are more likely to buy the product.

• Oblige through Knowledge: Content marketing is an excellent way of sharing relevant knowledge to people for engaging and developing positive disposition towards the brand.

• Emotional Reciprocation: Purposeful Brands connect with you at an emotional level and you reciprocate by buying their products i.e. share the load campaign was based on the insight that modern women believe that men should also contribute in the household work. When the brand talked about it, the target audience felt obligated that someone is talking about them. Hence they are likely to buy that brand of washing power

3 step simple framework on how to apply this knowledge to your marketing initiatives

1. Who is the target audience (Behavioral Segment?)
2. What is their need state and mindset? 
3. How can we oblige them? 

• Give them knowledge if that is what they are looking for? (i.e. customer is in their product buying journey)
• Give them perceived value (Monitory or non-monetary i.e. status, exclusiveness) if that is what they want?
• Show that you believe in their cause (brands supporting LGBT) or their belief (share the load) if that is what they want

Key learning: “Brands oblige the customer and the customers reciprocate”.

1. When a customer is repeatedly obligated by a brand, it leads to development of emotions for the brand.
2. These emotions translates into development of neural pathway (choice shortcut or imprints the brand choice in the sub conscious mind)
3. Makes your brand the first choice for the customer (Apple, Amazon are classic examples)