By Lyndall Spooner, Founder and CEO, 5D
We all know buyers don’t behave the same way when choosing a mortgage as they do when choosing a breakfast cereal. But traditional marketing theory has lacked a framework to explain why buyers undertake different decision processes from one category to the next and what we can do to increase the precision of our marketing strategy.
To understand what drives the path to purchase and purchase behaviours, we need to take a step back and look at how people mentally categorise the choices they are about to make.
Every choice a person makes is a problem to be solved. We don’t solve problems with a blank piece of paper. We start by framing the choice and understanding the nature of the problem. Choice framing breaks down the heuristics people use to understand the choices they make and how they will go about solving problems, including if they will be driven more by rational or emotional buying behaviours.
Unlike traditional marketing theory that asks, “How do we get noticed?”, this framework starts with what drives the customer’s actual buying behaviour: “How do people really make choices in your category?”.
Most critically, choice framing explains why people don’t behave the same way in every buying situation– and why technology and AI are reshaping these decision-making processes and purchase pathways in ways traditional marketing theories never anticipated.
The choice framing effect
We use choice framing heuristics to instinctively frame the nature of the choice, based on the expected relationship we will have with the choice, creating distinct behavioural patterns.
1. Motivation – Is the choice delivering to a basic life need or a want?
2. Commitment – How long is the commitment to the choice?
3. Ambition – Will the choice help achieve a personal ambition?
4. Identity – Will the choice contribute to the buyer’s identity?
5. Principles – Will the buyer be proud of the choice?
The strategic advantage
When you map the choice framing heuristics to your category, something powerful emerges: different combinations reveal entirely different customer strategies.
Rational, high-involvement choices (long-term, tied to needs, goals, identity)
• Buyers actively seek new brands and offers
• Use tech, AI and other inputs to decide
• Success depends on being findable in the purchase journey and winning when considered
Emotional, low-involvement choices (short-term, wants)
• Buyers stick to familiar brands
• Rarely seek help or use tech to compare
• Success depends on mental availability, preference, and increasing purchase frequency
Choice framing questions how we have typically grouped categories together to optimise marketing strategies.
For services categories such as financial services, customers make highly involved decisions – researching extensively, comparing options methodically and making deliberate choices. For brands, it’s typically a win or lose outcome.
In contrast, FMCG categories are driven by convenience, habit and variety-seeking with quick decisions and multiple opportunities for a brand to be chosen. Then there’s luxury goods, which sits somewhere in between, combining the deliberation of services with the emotional pull of FMCG, requiring a distinct marketing approach.
The services marketing opportunity
Choice framing is particularly powerful for services companies, an area where traditional marketing theory falls short. When customers research superannuation or choose a bank, they don’t rely on memory or distinctive brand assets. They engage in involved decision processes, comparing features, seeking recommendations and making rational evaluations.
The fact that buyers in service categories undertake an involved decision process is not the fault of weak marketing; it’s an inevitability. Buyers are emotionally driven to seek out alternatives if not just to confirm their existing brand preferences. To say that you need to build stronger emotional ties to prevent these disruptive behaviours is unrealistic. Brands need to accept that a buyer will seek to expand their knowledge of the category and they will need to counter the offer of niche brands that have smaller marketing budgets but often more compelling offers.
When the brand funnel idea first surfaced in 1898 (yes, 127 years ago), people were choosing from brands they knew. Not anymore. Today educating ourselves on which options best meet our needs is not just emotionally rewarding; we feel guilty if we don’t explore our options and in turn fail to build a commitment to our brand choice because we have not mentally validated it.
When choosing a services provider:
• 84% of consumers believe they need to research brands because it is important get the choice of provider right
• 70% say it is very easy to undertake this research
• 80% say they deliberately look to find out about brands and offers they didn’t know about
Services companies are faced with not only a win or lose situation but higher levels of competition. Using this approach, the focus shifts to modelling brand choice rather than brand preference (which is better suited to brands that seek to drive frequency of consumption), leading to strategies that drive measurable increases in customer acquisition and retention.
Why this matters to the bottom line
The one-size-fits-all brand tracking and standard brand metrics are sabotaging growth: using the same brand metrics across all categories forces companies to think identically about marketing strategy, which won’t maximise growth for your brand. Even standardised brand tracking with AI integration is ineffective when it ignores category-specific buying behaviours.
Choice framing directly links the buyer’s mental expectations and buying behaviours with your marketing strategy. The result?
• Precision over spray-and-pray: Instead of generic marketing campaigns, you can create strategies that align with actual customer behaviour in your category, including how customers now use technology and AI in their decision-making process
• Metrics that matter: Track what truly predicts growth, not vanity metrics
• Resource optimisation: Stop wasting budget on marketing tactics that don’t match how your customers actually make decisions
• Competitive differentiation: While competitors apply outdated universal frameworks and misleading evaluations of their competitive strength, you will be building more compelling brands that deliver value and achieve true customer loyalty
Choice framing provides marketers with a deeper understanding of what drives choice and the nature of the relationship they can build between the buyer and the brand.
Applying yesterday’s universal solutions to today’s diverse customer behaviours is not a recipe for success. Choice framing represents a fundamental shift from marketer-centric to customer-centric strategy development, providing executives with the tools to build more effective, profitable customer relationships in their specific market context.