Theme → Consumer behaviour
Behavioural Design for consumer behaviour

96% of purchase decisions are automatic. If you only target the rational brain, you miss 96%.

Customers say one thing and do another, mostly because the vast majority of purchase decisions run automatically through System 1: fast, intuitive and context-dependent, rather than out of unwillingness. You design consumer behaviour by changing the choice environment: the defaults, the social proof and the framing of the choice. That's what you learn with Behavioural Design.

View trainings → Individually or with your team
10,000+
trained
9.3/10
rating
EQAC
accredited
€690
from, ex VAT
Team working on designing consumer behaviour during the Behavioural Design training at SUE Amsterdam
Familiar in consumer behaviour challenges

"We have the best price-quality ratio. Customers still pick the competitor."

10,000+ professionals trained, including people from

ING Heineken KPN ANWB Randstad Achmea Eneco Centraal Beheer ING Heineken KPN ANWB Randstad Achmea Eneco Centraal Beheer
The forces behind buying behaviour

Seven forces that shape consumer behaviour

They are documented by Kahneman, Cialdini and Thaler. They apply to your customers in the shop, on the website and on the phone. And they are all designable. As long as you leave them untouched, every sales argument loses to the brain on autopilot.

01 - The rationality illusion

Customers reason after the fact, not before it

Ask a customer why they bought something and they'll give you a logical story. That story is constructed after the fact. The real decision was already made, automatically, before the rational brain had an opinion.

02 - The say-do gap

What customers say differs from what they buy

In research, 80% say quality matters most. At the checkout, the lowest price or easiest option often wins. Intentions and behaviour run through different systems in the brain.

03 - Choice stress

More options lead to fewer choices

Too many variants, features or price points don't help customers choose better, they make customers drop out. Every extra option demands cognitive energy most people are unwilling to spend.

04 - Defaults

The default wins almost every time

Whoever designs the default subscription, the default packaging or the default delivery slot effectively designs the behaviour of 80% of customers. Most people don't deviate from what's pre-set.

05 - Social proof

The behaviour of others drives their own

"Thousands of customers already did this" convinces faster than a product argument. Uncertain customers look at what others do, not at what's objectively best.

06 - Framing

How you say it decides what people choose

"95% fat free" sells better than "5% fat", even though it's the same message. The packaging of information drives choice just as hard as its content.

07 - System 1

96% of purchase decisions are automatic

Most sales arguments address the conscious, rational mind. But buying behaviour largely runs on autopilot. Rational arguments never reach it.

Read the full article: what is framing? Meaning and examples → Decoy effect at work: three options beat two →
Behavioural Design is the missing layer.

Consumer behaviour is a choice environment. And a choice environment is designable.

Designing consumer behaviour is the process by which an organisation shapes the choice environment so that the desired purchase decision becomes the easy, obvious choice. Not by convincing customers with more arguments, features or discounts, but by designing the defaults, social proof and the framing of the choice so that the desired behaviour becomes the path of least resistance.

1
Diagnose the behaviour, not the motivation. With the SUE Influence Framework you map the pains, gains, comforts and anxieties that hold the current buying behaviour in place.
2
Design the choice environment. With the SUE Influence Framework you design interventions that make the desired choice easier than the old one.
3
Prove the effect. You test the interventions and measure whether behaviour actually shifts, so the new approach is not an assumption but a demonstrable result.
Read more about the Behavioural Design Method →
What professionals say after the training

From Blauw Research to ABN AMRO: they now see why customers really choose.

The consumer behaviour and marketing professionals among our 10,000+ alumni have one thing in common.

This course is great. As a researcher, I keep up-to-date on the field of consumer behaviour. In this way, I can help my clients with the right insights. But now, I also learned (and practised) how to make new steps with this framework to create practical solutions. I was searching for this for a while now.

Bram Jonkheer
Bram Jonkheer
Former partner - Blauw Research
★★★★★

At the Academy you learn a lot about behavioural change and how to apply it in a short period of time. The training flew by and was very well put together. Amazing how complicated material comes to life in a fun and interactive course. I am definitely going to apply it in my work.

Alina Chakh
Alina Chakh
Change & Transformation Consultant - ABN AMRO
★★★★★

The programme with SUE taught me the importance of thinking about the human behind the client, because a client will not act from expected rational thinking patterns. As an organisation it is important that we start thinking outside-in at the right moments to create that much needed added value.

Koen Lauwers
Koen Lauwers
Team CDO - City of Antwerp
★★★★★
The best first step

Learn to design for the brain that actually decides.

The Deep Dive Behavioural Marketing Foundations teaches you in one day to translate the principles behind consumer behaviour into campaigns that genuinely move people. Follow it online at your own pace, or as a Masterclass with your team.

Behavioural Marketing Foundations training on consumer behaviour
Built for marketing
9.3/10
rating
EQAC
accredited
1 day
Deep Dive
SUE Academy Deep Dive

Behavioural Marketing Foundations

Most campaigns reach people but don't move them, because they speak to the rational brain while purchase decisions are made by the automatic one. You learn the framework to diagnose that decision and design your marketing around it.

Two ways to follow it
Online self-paced, individually, at your own pace As a Masterclass, in-company for your whole team
View the Deep Dive → €690 See start dates

Prefer to learn the full method first? View the Fundamentals Course →

Already know the basics? Also check out Behavioural Marketing Advanced → €690

Want to tackle it with your whole team or organisation? See the in-company formats ↓

Consumer behaviour for teams and organisations

Tackle consumer behaviour with your whole team

Three in-company formats, depending on how deep you want to go and how long you want to build. Always applied to your own customer or sales challenge.

Behavioural Design Masterclass consumer behaviour
1 day

Behavioural Design Masterclass

An intensive day in which your team learns the method and applies it straight away to your own consumer behaviour challenge. From behavioural diagnosis to the first intervention designs.

  • ✓In-company, at your location or in Amsterdam
  • ✓Max 16 participants
  • ✓€7,990 ex VAT
More about the Masterclass →
Behavioural Design Sprint team training consumer behaviour
Most popular
2 training days + interviews

Behavioural Design Sprint

Two intensive training days with interviews and prototype tests between the sessions. Your team learns the method while applying it to a real consumer behaviour challenge from your organisation.

  • ✓Interviews between the sessions included
  • ✓Up to 8 or up to 20 participants
  • ✓€11,900 (up to 8) or €17,900 (up to 20) ex VAT
More about the Sprint →
Behavioural Design Learning Journey consumer behaviour
A to Z programme

Learning Journey

An organisation-wide programme from A to Z, facilitated by a senior SUE facilitator. For organisations that want to embed customer-centred thinking structurally in the way they work.

  • ✓Interviews, prototypes and effect measurement included
  • ✓Senior SUE facilitator throughout the programme
  • ✓Tailored, price on request
View Learning Journeys →
Why the SUE Behavioural Design Method

Behavioural science made applicable for people who want to design consumer behaviour.

Most behavioural science knowledge sits locked in academic papers. SUE built the Influence Framework, a practical step-by-step method that any marketer, CX professional or sales professional can apply without a scientific background.

SUE Influence Framework: the forces that shape consumer behaviour
No academic theory, you work on your own consumer behaviour challenge during the training and go home with a worked-out plan
Built on Kahneman, Cialdini and Thaler, scientifically grounded but accessible for practitioners
A method of our own, the Influence Framework can't be learned anywhere else, described in the #1 management bestseller
16 years of experience, from ING and KPN to central government: the method is proven on the biggest behaviour and customer challenges

“ SUE Behavioural Design was a real experience that led me to look differently at behaviour. They take you along a very pragmatic way under challenging themes. I think the Influence Framework will solve many problems in the world. It is more than just a method, it is a fundamentally different way of thinking.

Eline Grouwels
Eline Grouwels
Founding partner - Umital
★★★★★
Springest
9.3/10
★★★★★
Google Reviews
4.8/5
★★★★★
accredited
EQAC accredited
Trusted by
ING Heineken KPN Randstad Achmea
In-depth articles

Consumer behaviour explained

In-depth articles on the behavioural science behind purchase decisions, written from SUE's practice.

Behavioural economics

Decoy effect at work: three options beat two

How a third, less attractive option steers the choice between the other two, and why that works exactly the same in pricing tables and packages.

Read article →
Behavioural economics

What is framing? Definition and framing effect explained

Same message, different packaging, different behaviour. Why how you say something matters just as much as what you say.

Read article →
Choice architecture

What is choice architecture? Definition and examples

The order, the defaults and the presentation of options decide what customers choose, before they've read a single argument.

Read article →
Behavioural economics

Sunk cost fallacy at work: why we keep dead projects alive

Why customers (and organisations) keep sticking to a choice already made, even when it's no longer the best one.

Read article →
See all articles on behavioural economics →
Frequently asked questions

One more thing

Because they address the wrong brain. System 2, the rational and analytical brain, is slow and lazy. It only kicks in with high involvement or uncertainty, and then tires quickly. Most purchase decisions are made by System 1: based on ease, habits and social cues. If you only communicate rationally, you miss 96% of the decision moments.

The say-do gap is the difference between what customers say matters to them and what they actually buy. In research, quality often scores highest, at the checkout the lowest price or the easiest option often wins. The difference is not dishonesty but context: intentions and behaviour run through different systems in the brain.

We use three proven behavioural principles: defaults, which make the desired option the standard, social proof, which makes visible that other customers already choose what you want to show, and framing, which presents the same information so the desired choice feels logical. No extra arguments, just smart design of the choice environment.

Yes. Most organisations choose an in-company programme, where we apply the Behavioural Design method on site to your own customer or sales challenge. That can be a one-day Masterclass for a team, a multi-day Sprint, or an organisation-wide Learning Journey. Your team works on the behaviour that is actually stuck in your organisation, not a case study from a book.

It depends on the format. An individual Deep Dive starts from €690 and the two-day Fundamentals Course from €1,190. For teams and organisation-wide programmes, we design an in-company Masterclass (€7,990), a Sprint or a Learning Journey. In a no-obligation call we look together at which format fits your challenge and scale.

Ready to start?

Designing the choice environment instead of convincing is the skill that makes the difference between looking and buying.

From sales argument to choice architecture. The Behavioural Design Method gives you the framework to design it.

View the Fundamentals Course → Learning Journey for your team →