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# Marketing Psychology

Use this method to explain customer behavior and apply psychological principles ethically to marketing decisions. It produces a diagnosis and testable recommendations; it does not manipulate people, publish assets, or claim a commercial result.

Context and intake

Use supplied product, audience, offer, brand, approved-claim, customer-research, and compliance context before asking for more. Ask only for gaps that materially change the recommendation:

desired behavior and current blocker;
buyer or user, journey stage, and decision context;
asset being improved;
evidence about customer concerns or current performance; and
legal, accessibility, or policy constraints.

If key evidence is absent, state the uncertainty and keep alternative causes open rather than naming a bias as fact.

Workflow

1. **Define the behavior.** State the desired action and current blocker. 2. **Pick relevant models.** Choose three to six models, not an encyclopedia. 3. **Explain the mechanism.** Say why each model applies in plain language. 4. **Translate to marketing moves.** Give concrete edits, tests, prompts, page changes, or offer changes. 5. **Add ethics and risk.** Flag manipulative uses, false scarcity, unsupported claims, or dark patterns. 6. **Recommend a test.** State the hypothesis, variant, metric, and welfare guardrail. 7. **Propose learning capture.** If the recommendation changes messaging, an offer, a page, an ad, or a content plan, return a proposed experiment record for the host's owning measurement process.

Model map

| Challenge | Useful models | |---|---| | Low conversions | Hick's Law, activation energy, BJ Fogg, EAST, friction cost | | Price objections | Anchoring, contrast, mental accounting, loss aversion, good-better-best | | Weak trust | Authority, social proof, reciprocity, pratfall effect, familiarity | | No urgency | Loss aversion, Zeigarnik effect, genuine scarcity, present bias | | Decision paralysis | Paradox of choice, defaults, choice architecture, recommendation framing | | Poor onboarding | Goal-gradient effect, IKEA effect, commitment and consistency, quick wins | | Churn | Endowment effect, switching costs, status-quo bias, habit loops | | Growth stall | Theory of constraints, 80/20, local versus global optima, compounding |

Core models

- **Jobs to Be Done:** Identify the outcome a buyer is trying to achieve; do not invent a job without customer evidence. - **Curse of knowledge:** An expert may assume category, process, or product knowledge that a buyer does not have; test whether the message explains the unfamiliar concept before asking the reader to act. - **Status-quo bias:** Change feels risky even when the current process hurts; acknowledge current effort instead of portraying it as foolish. - **Confirmation bias and availability:** Familiar beliefs and vivid examples affect what people notice and trust; use representative evidence and do not suppress relevant counterevidence. - **Reciprocity:** Give useful value before asking; the value must not be a disguised obligation or condition for fair treatment. - **Commitment and consistency:** A small, meaningful step can make the next step easier when it remains genuinely optional and easy to reverse. - **Authority and social proof:** Credible expertise and similar others can lower perceived risk when proof is genuine, relevant, and not fabricated. - **Scarcity and loss aversion:** A real deadline or cost of delay can clarify a decision; never manufacture urgency or exploit fear. - **Anchoring and contrast:** Comparisons can make value easier to judge; make the comparison fair and do not use a deceptive reference price. - **Mental accounting and Rule of 100:** Price framing changes perception; compare like with like and use a percentage under $100 or a dollar amount above $100 only when the discount is real. - **Good-better-best:** Three options can guide a decision when tradeoffs are real and comparable; do not use a decoy to hide the reasonable choice. - **Paradox of choice and Hick's Law:** Too many options slow decisions; reduce cognitive load without concealing meaningful alternatives. - **Choice architecture, defaults, and recommendation framing:** A clear recommendation can reduce paralysis when the default is informed, reversible, and not more costly or risky for the buyer. - **BJ Fogg, EAST, activation energy, and friction cost:** Motivation, ability, a prompt, and the time, money, uncertainty, or effort of a task all affect action; remove unnecessary steps, not disclosures or safeguards. - **Pratfall effect and familiarity:** A credible limitation and repeated, consistent exposure can build trust; do not manufacture flaws or frequency. - **Zeigarnik effect and present bias:** An unfinished task and an immediate benefit can motivate follow-through; use opt-in reminders and real near-term value rather than anxiety. - **Goal-gradient, IKEA effect, and quick wins:** Visible progress, meaningful contribution, and early value can support onboarding; do not fake progress or create work merely to make people feel invested. - **Endowment effect, switching costs, and habit loops:** Retained value, migration effort, and reliable cues affect retention; make value visible and reduce exit friction rather than trapping a user. - **Theory of constraints and 80/20:** Improve the limiting step and the few factors most likely to change the outcome before adding more activity. - **Local versus global optima and compounding:** Avoid improving a convenient local metric at the expense of the whole journey; favor repeatable work whose benefit accumulates over time without ignoring downstream harm.

Output format

```markdown ## Behavior to Influence [desired action and blocker]

## Best-Fit Models 1. **[Model]** — [why it applies]

## Ethical Guardrails - [what not to do]

## Test Plan - Hypothesis: - Variant: - Metric: - Welfare guardrail: ```

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