Social Proof is summarised best by the old adage, ‘Monkey see, monkey do.’ All cognitive biases are created and used to ease the mental load of making decisions. Social proof takes the strain by copying the behaviour of those around us, in order to do what we believe is right. It stems from the majority of people wanting to fit in with the crowd.
In behavioural marketing, social proof is very commonly used; anything that falls under phrases such as ‘join our 3000 other customers’, or ‘500+ great reviews’, or that references a lot of people doing the same (usually desired) action are all examples of social proof.
Social proof falls under the category of conformity in psychology. Conformity has been studied for many years, but a great experiment comes from Solomon Asch, a renowned Gestalt psychologist. In a 1962 Candid Camera episode (an American hidden camera tv show) titled ‘Face the Rear’, he recorded people entering a lift. Multiple actors were planted in the lift and asked to stand facing away from the door which is thought of as the wrong way round. The experiment showed that more often than not, members of the public who entered the lift would turn to face the same direction as the actors.
As mentioned above, explaining how others have already done something to persuade newcomers to do the same thing is a literal and direct way of implementing social proof. However, there is a more lateral method – increasing brand visibility. A phenomenal example of this was when Apple introduced their white earphones. In a sea of black wired earphones, the crisp white wires stood out. The key takeaway here is that they were noticeable. Over time, more and more people started wearing their Apple earphones which increased the abundance of the Apple brand. More people were persuaded to get a pair of Apple earphones themselves because they were going out and seeing what felt like everyone else wearing them and they would stand out because they didn’t have them.
Aperol did a very similar thing. Not only did they own the bright orange colour across the entirety of their brand, including their drink, they also owned the specific type of glass. You can walk into a bar and immediately recognise everyone drinking Aperol and even once the drink is finished, the distinctive glass does the same job of standing out on a table of regular branded glasses. This simple act of standing out and looking like you’re the popular choice will increase sale rates as more people want in.
Social proof is a great cognitive bias to implement in marketing, as the more people buy-in, the more it works. Social proof leverages multiple psychological factors when it comes to making a decision. For example, knowing other people have already made a choice takes the pressure off us getting it wrong. Also, never underestimate the power of FOMO. If it looks like a thousand people are using your product and benefiting from it, potential customers won’t want to miss out on what is clearly such a great product.
Celebrity endorsements also enable social proof by using an influential figure who people trust to review your product. However, this is usually one of the more expensive methods of using social proof and high-levels of risk can be involved. For example, if there is a scandal associated with the chosen celebrity, or they review a different product that was faulty, these will get associated with your brand.
With social proof, it is important to emphasise your brand’s popularity to help drive more customers to use your product or service. Make your brand look like it’s everywhere by standing out, shout about how many customers you have and how highly they rate you, build a belief in the popularity of your brand and that perception will become reality.