My previous blog post, '
Behavioural economics vs data analytics', introduced the
topic of behavioural economics and explained how it differs from
analytics. Both allow you a greater understanding of the
motivations and inclinations of a customer, but each relies on a
different approach, necessitated by the transition from
interpreting content towards interpreting context. A little
knowledge, however, can be considered a dangerous thing.
Suppose you sell a product which expires after a particular term
and discover that asking customers whether they wish to "opt
in?" or "opt out?" of an auto-renewal mechanism
produces significantly different take-up rates. Which of the two
questions would you decide to ask? It's certainly not as easy
as saying "whichever produces the most sales". By
changing the question, are you actively playing on behavioural
biases of certain customers, at the expense of what might be termed
"a free and fair choice"? Are you creating a sales
