Three behaviour science models to supercharge your PR

Leigh Greenwood, Evergreen PR
Opinion Worldwide

The goal of effective public relations is to earn understanding and support, and to influence opinion and behaviour. Changing behaviour is often thought of as the holy grail because it is, ultimately, the only way we can deliver measurable impact for the organisations we support or represent.

So how do we do it?

Well, this week is the 80th birthday of a certain Dr Robert Cialdini, a psychologist and creator of the ‘six principles of influence’, which popularised behaviour science techniques in marketing and communications.

His model has stood the test of time and has been credited with winning elections and saving the NHS money. To mark the occasion, here are 3 behaviour science-based models - including Cialdini’s - that can be used to increase the impact of PR campaigns and communications.

Cialdini’s six principles of influence

Informed by a combination of academic studies and real world observations, Cialdini’s six principles of influence model is something of a pick-and-mix of techniques and tactics for persuasion. They are:

  • Social proof - we follow the behaviour of others who we perceive as similar to us, which is why case studies, user reviews and influencers can be so powerful. We used this technique in a campaign with the Royal College of GPs, whose goal was to persuade busy GP practice teams to sign up for Veteran Friendly Accreditation. By sharing the stories of staff including GPs, nurses and practice managers alongside a striking creative and persuasive narrative, we provided social proof, contributing to an 800% uptick in accreditations and the campaign won a PRCA DARE Award last year.
  • Authority - we follow the lead of credible, knowledgeable experts, which is why thought leadership is such a big PR focus, particularly in my sector of healthcare
  • Liking - relationships are so important in PR and Cialdini’s theory states that we’re more likely to give back to people we like and who are familiar and cooperative
  • Reciprocity - we give back to others when we have received something first, which is the principle informing many product giveaways and free downloads
  • Scarcity - the fact that we want things that are in short supply explains why many journalists love an ‘exclusive’, and why booking sites often tell us how many rooms or seats are left
  • Commitment and consistency - the greater the show of commitment, the more likely a person is to remain committed. This helps explain the power and loyalty of brand advocates.

This is a great model. Being the MD of a healthcare PR agency, one of my favourite examples is Cialdini’s work with the NHS, where he tackled the issue of patients not showing up for appointments by implementing signs stating that “95% of people DO attend” (social proof) - contributing to a 31.4% reduction in the number of no shows[1].

COM-B

Favoured by the Government Communications Service (GCS), COM-B is an evidence-based behaviour change framework[2] built on the belief that there are three essential conditions that must be met in order for a person to adopt a behaviour:

  • Capability - a person must have the knowledge and skills to execute the behaviour
  • Opportunity - it must be possible for the person to adopt the behaviour in principle i.e. they must have the financial resources, tools and time
  • Motivation - the person must have sufficient motivation to execute the behaviour

I think this is a particularly helpful and interesting framework. You can look at it through multiple lenses e.g. place in the marketing funnel, rational/emotional sides of the brain or audience segmentation.

The motivation barrier is the one that PR professionals often get most excited about trying to overcome. It’s the one where we get to think about how to inspire, excite and energise the message recipient. It’s the place for expansive creative thinking and the ‘big idea’. The goal when addressing the motivation barrier should be to make people feel like they WANT to change, or that they SHOULD change. Last year we worked with The Sleep Charity who wanted to make the Government aware of the significant impact of poor sleep on physical and mental health. The ‘Dreaming of change’ campaign brought to life the scale of the issue by highlighting how the normalisation of poor sleep has created a society where people often wait years before seeking support and many never seek a diagnosis, despite the impact their problem could be having on their health. The story generated extensive national BBC coverage and two ministers agreed to take the issue to the Health Secretary. This campaign has been shortlisted for a PRCA DARE Award this year.

However, motivation should not be the only consideration as, if someone wants to change, but doesn’t know how, they will still ultimately fail. That’s why also addressing capability barriers is so important. There are two main routes to this in my view, enhancing the knowledge and skills of the people whose behaviour we want to change e.g. through education or support, and simultaneously making it easier for them to adopt the behaviour e.g. by improving the user journey.

If a person doesn’t have the opportunity to adopt the behaviour e.g. because they cannot afford to, then, as the GCS argues[3], they should not be the focus for the campaign. Instead we might shift the target, for example, to a Local Authority to request funding for that group. That’s why, from a PR perspective, we should always start by identifying the priority audience/s and then work out how to ensure they are motivated and capable of making the change we want to see.

EAST Framework

Developed by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), the EAST Framework aims to distill a range of behavioural science evidence into what it calls ‘four intuitive principles’[4]. Those principles are:

  • Make it easy - we must make it easy to understand and to carry out, which is why messaging and user journeys are so important. When we launched a call for people to share their data with a Tinnitus Biobank for Tinnitus UK, we earned 172 media placements including BBC Breakfast and The Times, but, just as important to the campaign’s success, was a simple landing page that included an educational video, an FAQ and an easy to use sign-up form. The target was for 1,000 people to sign up in 3 months - we hit that target by 3pm on the first day and had 3,500 by the end of the first week! The campaign won 6 PRCA DARE Awards in 2024.
  • Make it attractive - we want novel ideas that win our attention, personalised for our interests and with clear benefits. This is another proof point for brilliant creative ideas and having a high value call to action.
  • Make it social - similar to social proof, we want to know that others behave in this way, especially people we know or admire. The power of networks cannot be underestimated, which is why the PR professions’ skill in identifying and engaging with stakeholders including journalists, Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), social influencers, celebrities and others is so valuable.
  • Make it timely - we need to choose the right moment to communicate, to think about the whole behavioural journey and to help people to plan ahead. It’s why strategic planning is so central to long-term PR success, as it allows us to implement the right activity at the right time.

While Cialdini has been championing the value of behaviour science in marketing and communications for decades, for many, it is still not fully embedded in day-to-day PR practice.

However, if we are to succeed with our goals of maintaining goodwill and mutual understanding, and influencing opinion and behaviour, we need to understand people. Behaviour science provides us with frameworks to structure that understanding, giving us a foundation for campaigns and communications that change behaviours and, in turn, can achieve measurable outcomes and impact.

 

Leigh Greenwood Chart.PR is the managing director of Evergreen PR, a healthcare PR agency dedicated to ‘making health happen’ by achieving measurable outcomes for excellent health, health tech and medical organisations.

For more information, visit: https://evergreenpr.co.uk/

 

 

[1] https://www.influenceatwork.com/surprises-revealed-by-recent-research-for-the-nhs/

[2] https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-5908-6-42

[3] https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The_principles_of_behaviour_change_communications.pdf

[4] https://www.bi.team/publications/east-four-simple-ways-to-apply-behavioural-insights/