Atomic Habits
James Clear’s Atomic Habits highlights four laws of habit formation:
MAKE IT OBVIOUS
MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE
MAKE IT EASY
MAKE IT SATISFYING
I started reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits as a way to become proactive, but found his observations about influence and behaviour applied to marketing.
For example on page 109, Clear explains how attaching good habits to your existing routine is effective - highlighting a campaign by the network ABC…
“…The brilliance of this strategy is that ABC was associating the thing they needed viewers to do (watch their shows) with activities their viewers already wanted to do (relax, drink wine, and eat popcorn).”
Chapter 9 is titled ‘The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits’. In it, he refers to a study showing that social proof influences the average person's decisions - even when against their better judgement.
Maybe it’s the aspiring digital marketer in me, but I saw marketing takeaways everywhere. I’ll be using the impact of habits and influence in my work moving forward.