2. DECISION DYNAMICS
2
DECISION DYNAMICS
Some decisions are easy. Some are painstakingly hard. The rest
fall somewhere in between. Where does your category and
brand fit in? And how can you influence a decision in your
favor?
Halverson Group can help you find out.
3. DECISION DYNAMICS
3
How much EFFORT is put in?
Are you operating with the HEAD or the HEART?
How COMPLEX is the decision?
Is it a RISK to get it wrong?
Do you want to stay in or get out of your COMFORT ZONE?
Do you get ENJOYMENT out of it?
We identified six factors that drive every decision.
4. DECISION DYNAMICS
4
High
Effor
t
Low
Effor
t
was a habitual
purchase
tried all my
options
did not explore many
options
made a quick
decision
Put very little effort
into it
paid a lot of
attention
more about thinking than
doing
a highly considered
purchase
tried no other
options
more about doing than
thinking
explored many
options
put a lot of effort into the
choice
did not pay
attention
Complex
Simple
was an easy choice
was a simple choice
was a difficult choice
was the most
convenient option
got all the options I wanted
was a complicated choice
was the least
convenient
option
compromised between attributes
Open to
Change
Routine
went with
the
most
familiar
stayed in my comfort
zone
made an expected
choiceplayed it
safe
had a lot of info
to support best
option
tried something
new
went outside my comfort
zone
made an unexpected
choicetook a
risk
took a guess
at
which was
best
Low
Risk
High
Risk considered the
long-term
consequences
If chose the wrong brand, no big
deal
not much to lose if
not
a good choice
did not consider the long-term
consequences
if I chose wrong
brand,
it could be a big
deal
had a lot to lose if not a good
choice
High
Reward
Low
Reward
not an enjoyable
decision
had a lot of
fun
got very little
out
of the
experience
did not have
fun
was an enjoyable
decision
got a lot out of the
experience
HeartHead went with my
head
used logic and
reasoning
more about thinking than
feeling
more about doing than
thinking
went with my
heart
used instincts and
intuition
more about feeling than
thinking
more about feeling than
doing
These charts show how people organize decisions in our minds.
The map on the right shows how these dynamics play out
across categories. High
Effor
t
Low
Effor
t
Open to
Change
Routin
e
High
Rewar
d
Low
Rewar
d
HeartHead
Low
Risk
High
Risk
Complex
Simple
Televisions
Cable TV Services
Car Insurance
Vacations
Streaming/Digital Music Services
Jeans
Make-up
Movie Tickets
Chewing Gum
Beer
Ground Coffee
Facial Tissue
Glass/Window Cleaner
Then we mapped the decision-making process.
5. DECISION DYNAMICS
5
High
Effor
t
Low
Effor
t
Open to
Change
Routin
e
High
Rewar
d
Low
Rewar
d
HeartHead
Low
Risk
High
Risk
Complex
Simple
Televisions
Cable TV Services
Car Insurance
Vacations
Streaming/Digital Music Services
Jeans
Make-up
Movie Tickets
Chewing Gum
Beer
Ground Coffee
Facial Tissue
Glass/Window Cleaner
Decision Dynamics define how people are feeling…
“I’m going to
give this a
try—if it
doesn’t work
out, no big
deal!”
“This is so
exciting. I
have to
discuss this
with my
friends!”
“The stakes
are high. I
don’t want to
screw this up.”
“I’m fine with
doing what I
always do—
not going to
overthink
this.”
6. DECISION DYNAMICS
6
High
Effor
t
Low
Effor
t
Open to
Change
Routin
e
High
Rewar
d
Low
Rewar
d
HeartHead
Low
Risk
High
Risk
Complex
Simple
Televisions
Cable TV Services
Car Insurance
Vacations
Streaming/Digital Music Services
Jeans
Make-up
Movie Tickets
Chewing Gum
Beer
Ground Coffee
Facial Tissue
Glass/Window Cleaner
High heart +
low-effort =
more likely to
tell a friend
than post to
social
High effort +
high heart =
more social
media posts
post-purchase
High effort +
high head =
actively
seeking
expert advice
online
Low effort +
low head =
might be
swayed by a
coupon
Understanding these moods and emotions
is key to developing the right messaging.
And how people feel predicts touch-point engagement.
9. 9
DECISION DYNAMICSDECISION DYNAMICS
What this means for your brand…
Decision Dynamics provide our partners with insight
into what makes their category tick – and what makes
their customer journey different.
• Organizing principles that define how decision are made in a category
• Predictive touch-points
• Benchmarks and adjacencies
• An understand of the roles brands and channels play across the journey
• Cross-category learnings that enhance touch-point engagement and effectiveness
The last piece then, the why, makes the approach extremely powerful. So, we spent a lot of time pulling from a variety of resources, whether it be our own experience, psychological literature, previous work that we had done, and we had sort of synthesized and generated a list of 120 discrete motives.
And we ran that through an analysis that let us see the relationship between those 6 dimensions. When you build it out this way, you’ve got high effort categories versus low effort categories on the up and down. Left to right then you have categories (and we’ll show you the categories in a minute) that are more about your head, more about thinking than feeling, more about doing than thinking even, and then the right hand side is more about your heart, so I went with my heart, I went with my feelings, instincts, and intuition. And the interesting thing happened on the off axis, so if you’re a category that takes a lot, you have to put a lot of effort in, but you enjoy it, or it’s more about feeling, there’s a lot of reward in that, and that’s actually where people are more open to change, because they are putting so much effort in and they enjoy the category, so they’re exploring and probably tripping upon things that they might not otherwise have found. Opposite of that, you have categories where you’re putting zero effort in and it’s all very rational and logical, so you get very little reward out of that, and that’s where most categories that are routine fall down there. It’s just purely habit almost. The other side on the lower right, which is a low effort category, but still a fun and engaging category to experience, not a lot of risk, it’s an easy choice, not a big deal if I get something wrong, but it’s sort of fun and you get a lot of trial and variety seeking over there. And then opposite of that in the upper left, you have categories that are very high effort and very rational and logical and those are the really complex, high-risk categories that you don’t really want to spend a lot of time with, but you have to because of the complexity and the risk involved.
And we ran that through an analysis that let us see the relationship between those 6 dimensions. When you build it out this way, you’ve got high effort categories versus low effort categories on the up and down. Left to right then you have categories (and we’ll show you the categories in a minute) that are more about your head, more about thinking than feeling, more about doing than thinking even, and then the right hand side is more about your heart, so I went with my heart, I went with my feelings, instincts, and intuition. And the interesting thing happened on the off axis, so if you’re a category that takes a lot, you have to put a lot of effort in, but you enjoy it, or it’s more about feeling, there’s a lot of reward in that, and that’s actually where people are more open to change, because they are putting so much effort in and they enjoy the category, so they’re exploring and probably tripping upon things that they might not otherwise have found. Opposite of that, you have categories where you’re putting zero effort in and it’s all very rational and logical, so you get very little reward out of that, and that’s where most categories that are routine fall down there. It’s just purely habit almost. The other side on the lower right, which is a low effort category, but still a fun and engaging category to experience, not a lot of risk, it’s an easy choice, not a big deal if I get something wrong, but it’s sort of fun and you get a lot of trial and variety seeking over there. And then opposite of that in the upper left, you have categories that are very high effort and very rational and logical and those are the really complex, high-risk categories that you don’t really want to spend a lot of time with, but you have to because of the complexity and the risk involved.
And we ran that through an analysis that let us see the relationship between those 6 dimensions. When you build it out this way, you’ve got high effort categories versus low effort categories on the up and down. Left to right then you have categories (and we’ll show you the categories in a minute) that are more about your head, more about thinking than feeling, more about doing than thinking even, and then the right hand side is more about your heart, so I went with my heart, I went with my feelings, instincts, and intuition. And the interesting thing happened on the off axis, so if you’re a category that takes a lot, you have to put a lot of effort in, but you enjoy it, or it’s more about feeling, there’s a lot of reward in that, and that’s actually where people are more open to change, because they are putting so much effort in and they enjoy the category, so they’re exploring and probably tripping upon things that they might not otherwise have found. Opposite of that, you have categories where you’re putting zero effort in and it’s all very rational and logical, so you get very little reward out of that, and that’s where most categories that are routine fall down there. It’s just purely habit almost. The other side on the lower right, which is a low effort category, but still a fun and engaging category to experience, not a lot of risk, it’s an easy choice, not a big deal if I get something wrong, but it’s sort of fun and you get a lot of trial and variety seeking over there. And then opposite of that in the upper left, you have categories that are very high effort and very rational and logical and those are the really complex, high-risk categories that you don’t really want to spend a lot of time with, but you have to because of the complexity and the risk involved.
And we ran that through an analysis that let us see the relationship between those 6 dimensions. When you build it out this way, you’ve got high effort categories versus low effort categories on the up and down. Left to right then you have categories (and we’ll show you the categories in a minute) that are more about your head, more about thinking than feeling, more about doing than thinking even, and then the right hand side is more about your heart, so I went with my heart, I went with my feelings, instincts, and intuition. And the interesting thing happened on the off axis, so if you’re a category that takes a lot, you have to put a lot of effort in, but you enjoy it, or it’s more about feeling, there’s a lot of reward in that, and that’s actually where people are more open to change, because they are putting so much effort in and they enjoy the category, so they’re exploring and probably tripping upon things that they might not otherwise have found. Opposite of that, you have categories where you’re putting zero effort in and it’s all very rational and logical, so you get very little reward out of that, and that’s where most categories that are routine fall down there. It’s just purely habit almost. The other side on the lower right, which is a low effort category, but still a fun and engaging category to experience, not a lot of risk, it’s an easy choice, not a big deal if I get something wrong, but it’s sort of fun and you get a lot of trial and variety seeking over there. And then opposite of that in the upper left, you have categories that are very high effort and very rational and logical and those are the really complex, high-risk categories that you don’t really want to spend a lot of time with, but you have to because of the complexity and the risk involved.
And we ran that through an analysis that let us see the relationship between those 6 dimensions. When you build it out this way, you’ve got high effort categories versus low effort categories on the up and down. Left to right then you have categories (and we’ll show you the categories in a minute) that are more about your head, more about thinking than feeling, more about doing than thinking even, and then the right hand side is more about your heart, so I went with my heart, I went with my feelings, instincts, and intuition. And the interesting thing happened on the off axis, so if you’re a category that takes a lot, you have to put a lot of effort in, but you enjoy it, or it’s more about feeling, there’s a lot of reward in that, and that’s actually where people are more open to change, because they are putting so much effort in and they enjoy the category, so they’re exploring and probably tripping upon things that they might not otherwise have found. Opposite of that, you have categories where you’re putting zero effort in and it’s all very rational and logical, so you get very little reward out of that, and that’s where most categories that are routine fall down there. It’s just purely habit almost. The other side on the lower right, which is a low effort category, but still a fun and engaging category to experience, not a lot of risk, it’s an easy choice, not a big deal if I get something wrong, but it’s sort of fun and you get a lot of trial and variety seeking over there. And then opposite of that in the upper left, you have categories that are very high effort and very rational and logical and those are the really complex, high-risk categories that you don’t really want to spend a lot of time with, but you have to because of the complexity and the risk involved.
