“I went to school on Tom’s ideas!”
Jeff Taylor, Founder, Monster.com
A Clear Eye.
On customers, brands and marketplace success
by Tom Asacker
“I went to school on Tom’s ideas!”
Jeff Taylor, Founder, Monster.com
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I just finished reading "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness," a book about how behavior can be greatly influenced by small changes in the context in which people make decisions. For example, the design of a water bottle can have a major effect on brand selection. Duh?
There's nothing earth shatteringly new here. The subject matter has been exhaustively covered by cognitive psychologists, behavioral economists, and a whole bunch of bloggers. However, I have become somewhat obsessed with a term used by the authors to describe people whose job it is to exercise said influence; namely, "choice architects." Here's how they describe the term in a recent L.A. Times article:
"Those who design supermarkets and school cafeterias are engaged in what we call "choice architecture": the organization of the context in which people make decisions. Choice architects are everywhere. If you design the ballot that voters use to choose candidates, you are a choice architect. If you are a doctor and must describe the alternative treatments available to a patient, you are a choice architect. If you design the form that new employees fill out to enroll in the company healthcare plan, you are a choice architect. If you are a parent, describing possible educational options to your son or daughter, you are a choice architect. If you are a salesperson, you are a choice architect (but you already knew that)."
So here's what I think: I think everyone who works in the fields of branding, marketing, advertising, identity design, naming, digital experience design, social media consulting, et al. should start referring to themselves as "choice architects." Perhaps then they'll be cognizant that their advice and actions are designed to influence customer choice. Not awareness. Not recall. Not sentiment. Not viralness. Choice. And once choice architecture becomes the new standard, businesses will begin making decisions based on what will strategically best influence . . . choice.
Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that cause and effect can be precisely determined in a rapidly changing marketplace for products, media, technology, et al. There are so many factors that influence choice that the variables win against any attempt to isolate them; we really can't say what one specific thing "caused" a particular choice (The exception may be offers exclusively promoted and fulfilled through the mail.) But considering the rapidly increasing level of "noise" regarding the aforementioned professions, I think it's a good place to start. Don't you?
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I like the concept of “choice architects” because it reminds me that we need to plan and design with the end in mind and not just build to build. Imagine if all the choices we created were manifested as physical buildings. Our world would be replete with building after building that would stand to choke our sense of natural beauty and wonder.
George Costanza: “You know I’ve always wanted to pretend I was [a choice] architect!”
Posted by: Bill Gammell | April 15, 2008 at 12:43 PM