The behavioral science secrets behind 17 of the world's best brands

By MichaelAaron Flicker and Richard Shotton

All marketers aim to learn from the best in their sector. But that’s easier said than done. Because every brand applies hundreds of tactics to grow. How can we tell which are responsible for their success?

Those with the backing of behavioral science are the best place to start — we can predict what will work because there’s evidence behind them. Here, we look through the lens of behavioral science to identify approaches that played a part in taking brands to the top.

Brands can be mystifyingly successful. Customers are happy to pay premium prices for things that should be free – like water; things that should be cheap – like milk; and things that would do the same job at half the price, like vacuum cleaners. Why?

Looking at 17 of the world’s best brands, Hacking The Human Mind unpacks the mystery, so you can learn from the winners.

MichaelAaron is the founder and president of XenoPsi Ventures, a brand incubator firm providing financial, marketing and intellectual capital to a growing portfolio of companies. MichaelAaron has worked with many of the country's leading brands including Nike, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Chubb, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, ACE Insurance and Evan Williams Bourbon. As a thought leader at the intersection of business consulting, advertising, and technology, MichaelAaron is a thought leader regularly writing and speaking at industry events and is regularly featured in publications such as Advertising Age, MediaPost, VentureBeat, and Chief Marketer.

Richard began his career in marketing twenty-one years ago before setting up his own company, Astroten. Astroten help clients such as Google, Facebook, Sky, BrewDog and Mondelez apply findings from behavioural science to their marketing.

Richard is the author of The Choice Factory which explains how behavioural science can solve business challenges. The Choice Factory was voted best sales and marketing book of the year at the Business Book Awards. It was a #1 bestseller on Amazon and is now available in 12 languages.

In 2021 Richard was made an honorary lifetime fellow of the IPA and an associate of the Moller Institute, Churchill College, Cambridge University.

He tweets about the latest social psychology findings from the handle @rshotton.