Changing Consumer Behavior with Behavioral Messaging & Choice Architecture Audit

The Beginning

Transamerica, a leading provider of life insurance and retirement solutions, was shocked to find sales for a particular product plummeting after rolling out new messaging from one of the nation’s top marketing firms. The firm specialized in research and story-based messaging, so what do you do when messages that are supposed to be an improvement make customers run away? You audit your communication from the perspective of consumer behavior and decision science.

Project Type

Behavioral Communication Audit, Choice Architecture Audit, Consume Behavior Change

Sectors

Financial Services, Retirement

Skills

Behavioral & Cognitive Research, Market Research, Audits & Analysis, Behavior Change Messaging, Corporate Communication, Communication Skills Training

The
Strategy

Because Volume PR is the team behind the Behavioral Communication movement – a worldwide shift to base communication on the science of the mind – Transamerica retained Volume to audit their messages and marketing.

Volume performed a “Behavioral and Choice Architecture Audit,” considering their communication against the engagement preferences of the decision-making and bias-driven mind. By auditing their communication against not only the highest standards of professional communication but against psychology and behavior science quickly changed everything.

Volume’s audit mapped the messages, marketing, and website elements that silently told Transamerica’s audience not to engage. The non-conscious mind makes 95-99% of decisions, and Volume PR’s Behavioral Communication method is designed to create communication optimized to appeal to the mind’s emotion and decision-center.

Before the audit, the hero message was proudly declaring, “84% of Americans Are Not Saving Enough For Retirement”, which signals to the bias-driven decision-making mind that no one is saving for retirement, so you shouldn’t either.

After changing this message to one proven to appeal to the bias-driven mind and bringing the rest of the site and marketing in alignment with the audit findings, the positive response was immediate.

Immediately reversed the decline in sales

Triple-digit increase in conversions

Triple-digit increase in sales

Increased retirement savings among the U.S., 20-34-year-old demographic

Trained the Transamerica team on the Behavioral Communication framework so they could lead the re-messaging and content creation process

The
Results

Communication That Creates
Conversation & Increases Conversion

Volume PR is a celebrated strategic communication firm leading public relations, reputation management, and crisis communication for enterprise brands with a focus on B2B, technology, and complex consumer issues.