By Cassy van Eeden

Instead, inspired by a particular module in the postgraduate course they took at Red & Yellow, the two started their own agency: Gravity.

Spearheaded by lecturer Peta Broomberg and including Skype sessions with Ogilvy & Mather UK’s Rory Sutherland, the two were exposed to behavioural economics. And before long, they realised its potential to transform the local marketing industry. “We realised, wow, there’s business to be made here,” says Thompson.

So what is behavioural economics? Put simply, it is the “academic field that codifies human decision-making”, says Thompson. But, it’s not that simple.

Thompson explains: “It’s really about understanding human decision-making and all the sorts of biases and tendencies, the cognitive quirks that we all have.” Behavioural economics understands that these quirks and tendencies push us to make certain decisions. And that these decisions are further influenced by the environment or a context in which we make them.

So for example, marketing campaigns are based on consumer behaviour insights gained through specific market research. This market research is often in the form of surveys and focus groups that speak to the consumer directly. However, when these campaigns fail to yield the desired results, businesses become frustrated. This is where behavioural economics can change things.

This discipline advocates that in order to influence human behaviour, marketers need to think outside of traditional frameworks to understand human decision-making on a deeper level.

Perrot and Thompson break each project down into a four-step process. First, they work towards identifying the problem and understanding it. “Then we turn it into a behavioural objective where we look at the behaviour that we want to change,” says Perrot. This could be an increase in sales or a higher engagement with a product or service, he explains.

They will then go about conducting field research. But field research for Gravity isn’t your typical market research. They once even found themselves sitting on the side of the road observing people’s behaviour for hours. Why? Because studying people’s behaviour yields better insights than asking them about their behaviour.

“Understanding why and how people are making decisions allows you to design things better to get them [the consumer] to go to action quicker and fulfil the action,” explains Perrot.

The third step is to develop tactics – or ‘nudges’ as they call them – to adapt what already exists to suit the consumer’s thinking. The duo believe in keeping these nudges as low cost as possible by adapting what the client already has in place, rather than starting afresh.

Gravity then works with the client to implement these tactics. They measure, optimise and adapt until the path from intention to action is a smooth as possible. Perrot and Thompson agree that this process typically starts again almost immediately after clients see measureable results.

However, as invaluable as the practice of behavioural economics is, it is far from being used to its full potential in South Africa. “We’ve yet to really pioneer it as an industry and really start grappling with it,” says Thompson. And that’s where both guys want Gravity to go. Their long-term goal is to ensure that behavioural economics becomes a fundamental part of any strategy.

“We are completely changing people’s mind-sets in order for them to understand the value of it,” says Thompson. And changing mind-sets, especially in a corporate setting, is easier said than done. “It’s a slow process and it’s going to take time,” admits Thompson. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

When Perrot and Thompson graduated, they set out to change the local marketing industry. And they are doing just that through behavioural economics. Now it’s up to South Africa to join them.

For more information visit the Gravity website or follow them on Twitter.