In 2015, Google studied the search behavior of Internet users and published an interesting article called “4 New Moments – Every Marketer Should Know”. The article categorizes the search behavior of today’s consumers into 4 major buckets and holds cues to possibly what the users intended to do when they started their search on Google.
Source: 4-new-moments-every-marketer-should-know/
These 4 Key moments are so basic that every product relies on at least one of them to drive the users to their platform or service be it 1st time or the nth time.
Next, let me tell you about another interesting book that came out in 2014, called “The Power of Habit” written by renowned business journalist Charles Duhigg. Duhigg builds on a framework that was discovered by MIT Researchers when they were trying to decipher, “what are the building blocks of a Habit?”
More on Charles Duhigg and The Power of Habit
This loop which is called the Habit Loop, holds many answers for why some products become a part of users’ habits and others don’t.
Now let’s look at these 2 concepts together and try to decipher how some of the best products and startups have leveraged these core psychological concepts and built a foundation-level product market engine that drives users back to these platforms – again and again, and again.
Part 1 – Cue – The need for the Product arises here
Some of the best brands understand the need of the customer very clearly. There is little that can be done to generate the need, but there is a lot possible to do to position yourself as someone who can fulfill those needs.
Part 2 – Routine – The first step to get the need fulfilled
There is a fundamental divide that happens in this step. Let’s assume you are in the business of selling car insurance, now the user who is in the moment – “I want to BUY car insurance” will start their journey in
- Either Google Search
- Or your Platform
Let us make the question more specific – the user in this case is someone who has purchased car insurance from you in the past. Now if you were to ask the question again, what would the answer be? Google or your Platform.
There are 3 things that you can do to help improve your chances such that the customer who bought car insurance from you today, would still come to your platform to start the action next time when “I want to BUY car insurance” arises.
- Positioning – Positioning yourself as the No.1 destination for that “one specific thing you stand to solve” is critical. All too often, platforms try to stand for too many things, but unless you are the best person/platform to solve my specific query, I would rather start my action on “the best all-rounder in the world” i.e GOOGLE Search. Some examples of no. 1s in what they do in India
- Amazon for general shopping
- Myntra for buying clothes
- OYO for hotel bookings under a budget
- Makemytrip for Flights
- Zomato for Food ordering
- FirstCry for baby-specific shopping
- UBER for rides in Metros
- Hooks – Hooks are bridges you build with the users. Bridges are pathways for communication between you and the users. Some examples of Hooks you can utilize to increase the number of touchpoints or bridges to the users.
- Your App is Installed on the user’s phone
- Contextual/environment hooks – Using google maps to find the destination time, Uber / Ola shows up within google maps to allow booking within google maps.
- B2B Contextual Hook Example – Zoom provides APIs that let users set up a zoom call within google calendar/slack.
- A user subscribing to your NewsletterA user submitting the contact details (with consent that you can contact them)
- A user saves your site in the bookmark
- A user saving your Contact Details in their phone
- A user subscribing to your Whatsapp Notifications
- A user subscribes to your Youtube Channel or any other Social Media you lead with.
- Nudges – If Hooks are the bridges, then nudges are the actual travelers that go to and fro on that bridge. Nudges are critical as users may not always have your brand or offering on top of their mind. Some good principles when using nudges
- Keep it contextual – in that example of car insurance, nudge before expiry to renew
- Regular Communication on Use cases – Users love to read stories that help them solve their problems, either immediately or in the future.
- An offer or two once in a while – Everyone loves discounts (especially in India we call it – “THEEK SE LAGANA”). Most savvy users remember that you offered them a discount for being a regular, and keep coming back.
- Don’t overdo it – Whatever your communication strategy, draw a line, ultimately users are not going to buy something from you just because you can send them notifications 10 times a day. But they can very well, burn the bridges if you continue to nudge them beyond reasonable limits.
Part 3 – Reward – The final step – Deliver what you promised in the Positioning
Once you have cracked the code for getting the routine started on your platform, then this last step will ensure that you keep the users hooked onto the platform for your particular use case. Let’s look at it graphically
So setting a default behavior for the users is a matter of delivering a great experience and staying true to the initial value proposition.
5 Key Tips for hacking the Reward Step
- Stay consistent with the positioning at every step. If you are selling car insurance, everything you say and do should carry that message consistently.
- Keep it Enviously Simple – The flow for the user to just go ahead and experience your most important value proposition should be so smooth, that users are left positively amazed at the simplicity and speed. Some examples
- OYO’s 2-step hotel bookings introduced in 2014 (Select Hotel, Confirm and it’s done)
- UBER’s 2 step cab bookings (Enter destination, Confirm and it’s done)
- Zomato’s 4-step food delivery (Select restaurant, Select items to order, Make Payment and it’s done)
- Deliver an amazing experience – The experience needs to be ideally 10x better than the current options.
- Always ask for feedback – Know where you stand, rather than guessing it. Users love brands that are looking to improve vs having no place to vent out. Savvy customers take to Social Media more often for a bad experience, you are better off hearing it directly and taking action.
- Do something special, when things don’t go as planned – Life is unpredictable, and at times in spite of the best intentions, you may not be able to deliver what you stand for. Standing up for your consumers, and taking ownership of the failure, speaks volumes about the culture, and more often will lead to second chances later on.
Case Studies
Now let’s look at some of the Indian Startup case studies to understand this point in more detail.
ZOMATO for Food Delivery
vs
The key differences between the 2 loops lie in the fact that the Zomato loop is much faster with a lesser number of steps and offers higher predictability on the entire experience. Even if the user starts their initial journey on Google, they will not switch back to Google once they have experienced the Zomato loop.
OYO for Hotel Bookings
vs
The key differences between the 2 loops lie in the fact that the OYO loop is much faster with a lesser number of steps and offers higher predictability on the entire experience. Even if the user starts their initial journey on Google, they will not switch back to Google once they have experienced the OYO loop.
Amazon for buying Shoes (or anything for that matter)
vs
The key differences between the 2 loops lie in the fact that the Amazon loop is much faster with a lesser number of steps and offers higher predictability on the entire experience. Even if the user starts their initial journey on Google, they will not switch back to Google once they have experienced the Amazon loop – Reason
- Larger inventory and choice than visiting individual sites.
- Direct Purchase option versus non-e-commerce sites
- Saves time entering shipping, and payment details every time
- Predictable delivery and returns experience, you are confident your money is safe
How the “Routine” Step will evolve in general for a 10x better Product (10xP)
How this works
- Initially, users don’t know if a 10X better product exists (let’s call it 10xP henceforth), so Google Search is the go-to place for them (Routine) when the need arises (Cue)
- Post google search, some users discover 10xP, for them over the next iteration, “Routine” shifts to 10xP (and not Google)
- The cycle repeats with more users discovering 10xP either directly or WoM etc. resulting in an increased share of “Routine” in favor of 10xP.
- Some users remain with Google forever. (either they are new and hence unaware of 10xP or they are not yet committed to one product)
Summary
All products and brands rely on the 4 Key Moments where the user actually begins thinking about what they WANT. However great products build Habit Loops or Positive reinforcement loops to increasingly get the users to start their journeys on their platforms vs Google.
Great products offer a significantly better experience in much lesser steps and take away the usual anxieties associated with a free flow on Google Search.
Products that fail to impress, lose their potential repeats to Google Search. For there is little competition in the world to Google for “broad range searches”. And therefore users continue to devour google results for finding the right answers. Eventually one of the products creates a lasting impression on the user and the subsequent journey is more likely on this platform and not Google.
References / Resources for Further Reading
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/search/consumer-needs-and-behavior/
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/search/consumer-needs-and-behavior/
https://future.com/the-future-of-search-is-boutique/