"Changing Behavior" is an enticing thing to say. Our clients say it. We say it. Everyone in our industry says it with extreme confidence. We say it because it sounds so profound yet so attainable. How many presentations have you attended where the phrase, "what we need to do here is change behavior..." appeared somewhere in the introduction?
But consumers like things the way they like things. And oftentimes this stems from childhood. Consider...:
The NPD Group just released its annual "Eating Patterns in America" report. Part of that report studied breakfasts served to children under six for the past 20 years. I got a kick out of the findings...
In the two-year period from March 2005 to February 2007, the top 5 breakfast foods served were:
1 Cold cereal
2 Glass of milk
3 Fruit juice
4 Eggs
5 Fruit
In the two-year period 20 years ago, from March 1985 to February 1987, they were:
1 Cold cereal
2 Glass of milk
3 Fruit juice
4 Toast
5 Eggs
The decline of toast and the rise of fruit is not what grabbed my attention. What grabbed my attention was what Harry Balzer, VP of NPD Group said about his survey: "Most of the foods eaten in this country are introduced to us by the age of five, and we spend the rest of our lives looking for variations of them." He went on to say: "It proves that the driving force in our lives, more than anything else, is our past."
To me, this is a cautionary tale for anyone trying to steal share from another category. Take breakfast... Getting moms and children to switch from eating Life Cereal with a side of toast to drinking Nestlé Instant Breakfast may be a fool's errand. If you're not used to drinking a glass of milk in the morning, the best ad in the world probably isn't going to change your mind.
But as cereal eaters age, moving from Rice Krispies to Wheaties to Shredded Wheat to oatmeal is doable. At each stage we're choosing brands that reinforce our lifestyles, but we're not changing our core behavior. We either like cereal, or we don't. We take the time to cook in the morning, or we don't. It's that simple.
The numbers always look amazing from across the canyon: marketers will say, "if we can just make everyone who does X realize that changing their behavior to Y will be better for them then we can increase sales exponentially!" That's a rational argument. When making our decisions rational is only half of the equation. Changing behavior is difficult. Refining our brand choices to reinforce our current lifestyle is where success lies.