Home Podcasts Behavioral Science For Brands: Leveraging behavioral science in brand marketing.
Behavioral Science For Brands: Leveraging behavioral science in brand marketing.

Behavioral Science For Brands: Leveraging behavioral science in brand marketing.

Consumer Behavior Lab 120 Episodes Oct 14, 2026

The Consumer Behavior Lab teaches marketers across the United States how to apply behavioral science principles to their brand marketing. The podcast decodes the underlying motivations behind consumer decisions, aiming to create a better industry where both brands and agencies use proven science. Each episode explores practical applications of behavioral science in marketing.

Episodes

How Novartis used humor and NFL tight ends to tackle the embarrassment keeping men from prostate screening
How Novartis used humor and NFL tight ends to tackle the embarrassment keeping men from prostate screening Oct 14, 2026 2047 Richard and MichaelAaron unpack Novartis' campaign 'Relax Your Tight End', winner of the Pharma Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. They explore why present bias lets a moment of embarrassment outweigh long-term health, how humor sidesteps the ostrich effect where fear fails, and why a mix of messengers can beat one big celebrity.
Award-Winning Campaigns - How KitKat turned a stolen truckload of chocolate into a Cannes Grand Prix by making scarcity the story
Award-Winning Campaigns - How KitKat turned a stolen truckload of chocolate into a Cannes Grand Prix by making scarcity the story Oct 7, 2026 1820 After 12 tons of KitKat bars vanished the week before Easter, the brand turned a supply chain crisis into a Cannes Grand Prix winning campaign. MichaelAaron and Richard unpack the scarcity, Zeigarnik and IKEA effects behind it, and how brands can turn spectators into participants in a story.
Award-Winning Campaigns - How Wisła Kraków turned a legal requirement into a 42% attendance increase
Award-Winning Campaigns - How Wisła Kraków turned a legal requirement into a 42% attendance increase Sep 30, 2026 2181 Polish law requires every club to identify each fan entering the stadium. Wisła Kraków's Football Club turned that compliance database into the Lucky Fan Index, a metric for how much luck each supporter brings, and game attendance rose 42%. MichaelAaron and Richard dissect the superstition research behind it.
How William Poundstone's book Priceless turns anchoring, relativity and fairness into pricing power
How William Poundstone's book Priceless turns anchoring, relativity and fairness into pricing power Sep 23, 2026 2501 MichaelAaron and Richard revisit William Poundstone's Priceless to unpack why price feels relative, not absolute. They cover anchoring in courtroom and Williams-Sonoma pricing, why a $5 saving matters more on a $15 item than a $125 one, and how visible costs and higher prices signal quality and fairness to buyers.
Writing for Busy Readers: how Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink explain the curse of knowledge
Writing for Busy Readers: how Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink explain the curse of knowledge Sep 16, 2026 2731 MichaelAaron and Richard unpack Writing for Busy Readers by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink: six evidence-backed principles for readers who skim rather than read. Why a 49-word email beat a 127-word one, why subheadings doubled newsletter clicks, and why making a task easy beats making it exciting.
How Charles Spence's book Gastrophysics translates sound, shape and weight into pricing power
How Charles Spence's book Gastrophysics translates sound, shape and weight into pricing power Sep 9, 2026 2742 Charles Spence's book Gastrophysics argues that taste is built by every sense, not just the tongue. MichaelAaron and Richard work through the evidence: classical music lifting restaurant spend 10%, heavy cutlery raising willingness to pay 16%, rounder chocolate read as 50% creamier, and what brands should do with it.
Interview: Andy Nairn, author of Go Luck Yourself, on why brand archeology beats originality.
Interview: Andy Nairn, author of Go Luck Yourself, on why brand archeology beats originality. Sep 2, 2026 3480 Guinness made you wait, Avis was second, VW was small. Andy Nairn and Richard unpack why owning a flaw beats hiding one, and how the same instinct led Lucky Generals to raise its own size in pitches before a prospect could ever hold it against them. 
How charities can use anchoring, reciprocity, and overhead framing to boost donations
How charities can use anchoring, reciprocity, and overhead framing to boost donations Aug 26, 2026 3095 MichaelAaron and Richard explore why charity donations are especially resistant to typical marketing tactics. They unpack behavioral studies on anchoring, present preference bias, reciprocity, and overhead aversion that show small shifts in framing and timing can raise donations by double digits.
Interview: Rami Dudin, head of strategy at Courage, on why the most obvious message beats the most novel one
Interview: Rami Dudin, head of strategy at Courage, on why the most obvious message beats the most novel one Aug 19, 2026 3326 Courage strategist Rami Dudin joins MichaelAaron and Richard to discuss why distinctive often beats different, using SickKids' $1.3 billion fundraising turnaround, CIBC's no-fee campaign, and neobank scarcity tactics like Monzo's golden ticket to show why owning one idea can perform better than chasing novelty.
How small changes to choice design can help pharma brands drive better prescribing outcomes
How small changes to choice design can help pharma brands drive better prescribing outcomes Aug 12, 2026 2745 MichaelAaron and Richard explore why half of chronic-illness patients skip their medication, and why scaring them into compliance backfires. They cover a study on avoiding bad medical news, a simple diagram that cut medication errors in half, and two studies showing doctors are swayed by menu order and time of day when prescribing.
Interview: Michael Norton, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Ritual Effect, on how brands turn ordinary consumption into rituals that build emotional connection
Interview: Michael Norton, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Ritual Effect, on how brands turn ordinary consumption into rituals that build emotional connection Aug 5, 2026 3006 Harvard professor Michael Norton, author of The Ritual Effect, joins MichaelAaron and Richard to explore why identical actions feel meaningful to one person and trivial to another. They cover how Oreo, Stella Artois, and Guinness turn consumption into ritual, and what marketers should watch for when customers improvise their own rituals.
Why 95% of companies stall on AI, and the behavioral science that fixes it
Why 95% of companies stall on AI, and the behavioral science that fixes it Jul 29, 2026 2878 MichaelAaron and Richard unpack a new Behavioral Insights Team report on why most companies fail to get employees using AI, covering how social proof lifts adoption, why removing small points of friction beats motivational pitches, and why framing AI as something to lose outperforms framing it as a gain.

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