Creativity or Effectiveness? How to Develop High-Impact Marketing Messages with Behavioral Science

The Australian KFC office ran a seasonal “$1 fries” promotion for several years. The promotional offer worked well enough on its own, of course, but it wasn’t producing much of an effect anymore, since people had gotten used to it.

How do you dramatically change the situation when you can’t change the product, can’t change the price and terms, and can only influence how people perceive the message?

First, the agency identified several key principles that strengthen a buyer’s motivation. These aren’t a secret, and many of you already know them:

1. Loss aversion.

We are 2.5 times more sensitive to a loss than to a gain of the same size.

2. Reciprocity.

When people do something for us, we tend to respond by meeting them halfway.

3. Anchoring.

By offering the customer a particular number, you program them to shift their intentions.

4. Value payoff.

This is actually an interesting point. A lowered price often raises reasonable suspicions of lower quality (this is too good to be true), and you need to make sure to offer the customer an acceptable justification for the discount.

For instance, customers justify low-cost airlines’ low prices by the absence of free food on board, though this is certainly not the whole story.

5. Social norming.

If most people prefer a certain product or service, then it must be a good choice.

As a result, several dozen messages were generated, from which 5 were selected:

1. “$1.00 french fries won’t be around forever.” — Loss aversion. Note that the headline doesn’t state an exact end date, so as not to create a sense of freedom in decision-making — I’ll still have time to buy it.

2. “You wanted free french fries, but we’ll meet you halfway with our french fries for $1.” — Reciprocity. As if you had haggled at the market down to a pleasant price.

3. “$1.00 french fries — pickup only.” — Value payoff. It’s not that our fries got worse — the pickup terms became stricter, so the product itself is just fine.

4. “A deal is so good you can only buy four.” — Anchoring. Placing a quantity anchor at the center of the message, instead of tucking it into the fine print.

5. “Everyone’s enjoying our french fries for $1, why not you?” — Social norming. Emphasizing the offer’s popularity.

The 5 selected messages, plus one control message, were tested in Facebook posts, tracking their response rate. The Anchoring and Reciprocity messages showed the highest effectiveness compared to the control message. Notably, the Anchoring message pushed consumers’ questions into a new, productive direction: what if I stand in line twice, can I get 8? So the decision was made to launch with that particular wording.

What Takeaways Can You Tie a Knot Around After Getting to Know This Interesting Case?

Treat every campaign as marketing research. Don’t force it through with pure creativity — instead, try to understand what your customer is more sensitive to. A deeper understanding of your consumers becomes a bonus on top of the sales themselves.

Don’t be afraid to use theory as a starting point for creative work. Concepts may seem complex, but they contain a working kernel that will point your creative work toward a shortcut.

Be ready for irrational decisions. As Rory Sutherland says about Dyson, “Who would have thought that consumers needed the most expensive good-looking vacuum cleaner?”