Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
February 12, 2019 — Week 5
According to new research, Americans check their phones nearly 150 times each day. Perhaps more startling, our technology usage has swiftly evolved into full-fledged addictions. Despite the likely impulse to check a new message notification or scroll through a Twitter feed for several minutes, we guiltily catch ourselves still thumbing through insignificant content an hour later. Cognitive psychologists interpret such behavior as habits, actions with minimal conscious thought, which unfortunately consume a sizable portion of our day triggered by tempting social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even YouTube.
CONCISE SYNOPSIS
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, authored by Nir Eyal, investigates the truth behind persuasive products and the critical factors capitalized by shrewd companies that remain relevant in the consumer’s mind. Additionally, this book details the struggle for companies to recognize the increasing desires of target demographics while providing the essential hook to satisfy their need and return again. Nir Eyal provides a deeper understanding for how certain products affect our behavior and decision-making process along with developing personal preferences.
Habit-forming products stem from the simplest behaviors with minimal conscious thought. For example, nail biting is a common behavior invoked by a lingering hangnail or acts as a solution during stressful situations. Regardless, the action of biting your nails has emerged into an automatic response from internal or external triggers, like the fear of large crowds or a complex exam question. During these various experiences, our brains naturally depend on familiar, impulsive habits as a proven solution.
With these behaviors guiding our everyday actions, companies have masterfully paired habit with unprompted user engagement. After identifying a distinct societal demand and supplying the fulfilling product, companies effectively lure users to engage in a repetitive habit — where an entire target demographic is automatically triggered to use the product during routine events like waking up in the morning or painfully waiting in line.
Knowledgeable companies have secured the attention of the user through engineered habit which overshadows potentially better products from a budding start-up company. When it comes to shaking consumers’ old habits, new entrepreneurs are commonly neglected since the majority of users have already adopted a familiar, habitual product.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
This intriguing book has provided five pivotal takeaways which have already manifested in my daily life:
- Humans are simplistic creatures who despise task difficulty. Amazon, for example, boasts an uncomplicated business structure with clear website navigation, minimal time mandatory to purchase a product and unmatched prices with no required physical labor. Ultimately, Amazon has matured into the leading e-commerce company by requesting the least amount of work and delivering the highest quality products.
- We, as consumers, are driven into an escalation of commitment toward desired products. Under this notion, companies such as IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, have altered the customary in-store experience. While competitors sell preassembled merchandise, IKEA’s customers assemble their own furniture hence adopting an deepr attachment with the product. Research details that companies boost profit margins and customer loyalty when the consumers play a tangible role in the process.
- Avoiding cognitive dissonance enables consumers to modify their perceptions regarding a previously despised brand or product and amplify personal preferences. As a result, companies can eventually cater toward greater target audiences.
- Successful companies transpire from a rich user experience and stored value. If each experience with a product or service deepens the consumer’s investment, then an intimate bond is cultivated which resonates with the customer’s appeal to value.
- Technology, particularly social media, is frantically seeking our attention. With constant distractions, we are frequently tempted to check our phones and divert our priorities from more significant tasks. While utilizing the benefits of the internet, users must remain wary of wasted time.
PERSONAL OPINION
I genuinely benefitted from reading Nir Eyal’s renowned, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.
This eye-opening book delved into a variety of strategies for comprehending how products accumulate, and sustain, popularity. I was immediately hooked by the title of the book and interested in the rationale behind Eyal’s enthusiasm for successful brand products.
Eyal effectively exhibited a myriad of relevant case studies and company surveys to support his claims for maximizing user engagement and target demographics. Ranging from start-up companies to prominent corporations, Eyal offers straightforward examples for his numerous theories and definitions. The book also displays helpful visual aids such as charts and graphs to clearly conceptualize the multitude of porposed viewpoints. Moreover, Eyal bypasses any use of communication or business jargon by relying on a handful of similar subject matter experts to explain new concepts. Helpful definitions were readily disclosed whenever unfamiliar topics were introduced within a particular chapter.
More conveniently, chapter summaries were added to highlight essential parts of the text as well as several activities concluding each chapter to encourage daily application toward respective topics. Finally, I valued Eyal’s thorough analysis of many social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. This specific chapter was my favorite section of the book because of the relevance in today’s social media-centered society as well as a useful guide for determining which platform is appropriate for certain situations.
Although the majority of Eyal’s content was applicable to my daily life, two main setbacks existed throughout the book which reduced overall clarity and comprehension. First, while many of the theories and models presented by Eyal were useful, a significant amount seemed irrelevant and difficult to understand in the context of communication. Such a consistent struggle to understand the key purpose of these theories and models only served to distract the reader from grasping Eyal’s intended point.
Secondly, it was complicated to connect many of the chapters together and visualize the collective messages endorsed by Eyal. Many of the chapters contained numerous subchapters which expanded a particular point or instigated an entirely new conversation without clearly apprising the reader. This inability to effectively fuse the chapters and topics generated recurrent confusion and excessive reading to apprehend the necessary meaning.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to any communications, business or psychology majors who are curious about the essence of habit-forming products. It is not mere coincidence that people behave in certain ways or are attracted toward various technologies. Furthermore, there are reasons people prefer Twitter over Facebook or choose to scroll through social media content when they wake up and after finishing dinner. If companies distinguish these signs of habit, then revolutionary or even simple products that satisfy a societal need can rise within the competitive market.
