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Technologies of persuasion

The design of new applications based on technological innovation depends on many factors. Among the most important, and with a growing presence in marketing techniques, is the power of persuasion, which delves into the psychology of the consumer looking for the elements that convince them to choose certain products and even ways to change their attitude if not their behavior. This set of techniques has been baptized “captology.”

XAVIER PUJOL GEBELLÍ | OCTOBER 19TH, 2010

The term captology was coined in the early nineties by B.J. Fogg, then a professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. There he launched the first academic laboratory for what he called Persuasive Technology in order to analyze a principle that seems obvious today but poorly studied: any consumer, whether an average person or a highly specialized expert, is seduced by some element before making the decision to buy a technology-based product. Fogg referred to this phenomenon as persuasive technology and applied it to any area of innovation that seeks to convince rather than coerce.

The origins of Fogg’s research, who is now considered one of the ten innovation gurus by Fortune magazine, can be summarized as the power of certain computer applications to change the behavior of a high number of users. Examples usually include the cases of Facebook or Google. Fogg’s question is extremely simple: how have both applications managed to persuade so many users that they are better than their competitors? The response could be that both succeeded with the mechanism of "incremental innovation," but a harder look reveals that the real reason is that both use a "design and architecture of contents that seduce, that convince the user."

Digital Marketing

The business section of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines persuasive technology as "the mechanism used by companies that merge technology with psychology as a method to influence brand choice, changing behaviors regarding it or changing collective attitudes.”

The set of techniques fits in a broader framework, according to the same authors, that is part of an increasingly consolidated discipline with growing influence: digital marketing.

The consumer spends more time interacting with screens than any other activity"We've become a culture obsessed with the screen," said Evan Schwartz, an expert from MIT in technology and business. "When we are awake we spend most of our time alternating the desktop with the laptop, now with tablet computers, our modern mobile phones or television screens," he said. "All are screens that bombard us with images."

According to data from the consulting firm Ipsos, the average consumer, at least in the United States, spends more time interacting with computing and communication systems (from the computer to the TV and the mobile phone) than any other activity, “including hours of work, study or sleep." And what is more important, according to the study, is that the average screen time has increased by “almost one hour” in just two years.

Much of the increase is due to the extension of multitasking practices. Among them, even though it may sound unusual, is to be on Facebook while watching TV or studying, especially among teenagers, or twitter from work or while having a conversation. The final effect is the compression of more than one task into the same period of time. Something similar to prolonging the day "up to 30 hours," says the Ipso study.

The change of scenery caused by the screen, Evans said, opens the door to what he calls a "new science," currently characterized by digital marketing. He said this new science looks to communicate, "to give messages,” through instruments that often go extinct soon after birth and for which there are key questions still unresolved. For example, how to reach an appropriate market or how to measure the return on advertising.

Seduce with credibility

According to Fogg, the parameters are changing, although not as much as it may seem. If traditionally a consumer trusted a brand for the quality and reliability of its products, in the world of information, particularly in the communications market, where the largest changes in attitudes towards consumption are being detected, something similar is happening. For this reason, and with the passing of time, Fogg has been collecting in his lab at Stanford something like a catalog of credibility that equates the seduction potential for a corporation that drive their image via the Web.

According to Fogg’s analysis, a “credible” website is one in which it is simple to verify the information provided, shows that there is a "authentic organization" behind it, demonstrates the company’s experience in offering the content and services and, above all, makes it easy for users to contact the company with questions or complaints. He also recommends clarity and usability, the avoidance of errors of all types, "including typographical ones,” that the design is "professional" and that there are some restrictions on the advertising that appears on the site. The sum of all these factors, Fogg says, creates "credibility," a concept that is an important part of persuasion technologies.
ALTERING BEHAVIOR

In the territory of online business, B.J. Fogg believes that there are thousands of example of innovations that cause behavioral changes. He highlights a very basic one that is earning extraordinary revenues: an interesting and innovative gadget used to help administer drugs. Created by Vitality, a start-up based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the electronic gadgets, similar to a small pills bottle, reminds users when they need to take their next dose by sound and light pulses that can be transformed into an e-mail sent to a mobile phone, a computer or even the pharmacy, family members and friends. The drug “reminder,” which has already sold thousands of units, increases the rate of adherence to drug regimens from the standard 60% to over 80%.

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