The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy Paperback – 12 Feb. 2018

Brilliant and a pleasure to read! As a professional who's worked in the business of understanding consumer behaviour for over 30 years - working for some of the best global advertising agencies in the business - I've read a great number of books written on behavioural science. Both The Choice Factory and The Illusion of Choice by Richard Shotton are amongst some of the best there is. Praised by well-respected professionals in the industry, a multitude of recommendations for the two books can't be wrong. And they aren’t! Insightful, Informative, Entertaining, Concise, Full of real-world examples, Easy to read, Easy to understand, and Easy to remember. Pick them both up while you can. For the value they hold within, they’re a bargain! I come back to them, again, and again.

This is a great little book, full of interesting nuggets of information and practical suggestions for putting theories into practice.There are 25 short chapters, each describing a bias exhibited in human behaviour and how they might be exploited in order to create a more effective marketing campaign. Much reference is made to notable advertising campaigns and space is given to leading industry figures to weigh in with their opinions.This book is also an excellent primer on behavioural science. I had heard of many of the biases before but having them all presented together is really helpful and helps the reader compare and contrast quite readily. While other books go into much more depth on some of the ideas, this conveys essential concepts quickly - ideal if this is your first foray into behavioural science. (If you don't work in marketing, however, you will find it interesting but large chunks may be less relevant)I've worked in advertising analytics for a decade and I know Richard to be one of the foremost thinkers and practioners in the field. This is apparent throughout because he is able to draw on first-hand experience running experiments, gathering data and planning campaigns. It's also worth following him on Twitter - @rshotton - to benefit from a near-constant stream of ideas or concepts that have crossed his desk. Some people hoard their learning - Richard is extremely generous with his.(Extremely) Minor quibbles:As the book progresses, the author describes how each bias might occur in the course of a single day. I found some of these to be slightly contrived in places. Also, because the chapters are self-contained, there can be superfluous repetition, e.g., one industry figure was introduced in almost the same way in two chapters very close to each other.A slightly larger quibble relates to a well-known study referenced uncritically in a chapter. Given that another study is ruthlessly (and correctly) dissected in the book, I'd have liked to have seen similar analysis across the board.However, the book entirely succeeds in its aims and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone working in marketing who wishes to understand more about the strange ways that we all behave when it comes to making purchases.

An excellent book on human behaviour and biases . Great book for all marketing managers and advertising managers to learn from

I've read a couple of the classic books on behavioural economics ('Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman & 'Nudge' by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein), and whilst I found elements of those books interesting and they have clearly had a big influence, they were pretty dry and hard-going to read at times.'The Choice Factory' is the perfect antidote-it's very accessible, easy-to-read and a real page-turner. I can't remember how I first stumbled across Richard Shotton but I have been following him on Twitter for a couple of months and he consistently tweets interesting and educational things which inspired me to purchase this book as soon as it was published.Within the first five pages I knew the book was special because it's incredibly well-written, it consolidates and simplifies a lot of the experiments I've read about in various books over the years and it taught me some new things. It's also very funny in places-I laughed out loud on more than one occasion.If you work in advertising/marketing then this book is clearly an essential purchase for you but even if you don't (as I don't), I would recommend this book to anyone as we are all consumers so we can all learn a thing or two from reading this book. If you've never read any books on behavioural economics before then is a great introduction to the subject and I can't wait to work my way through some of the books suggested in the 'Further reading' section at the end of 'The Choice Factory.'

Great book if you have an interest in Marketing, or curious behind the psychology of how and why we make the choices we do when buyingBroken down into 25 easy and quick chapters to read, each one is fully researched and has case studies backing up what is taught. Its easy to read and explain in an entertaining manner. If you want a more in depth understanding there are other books on the subject. However as an introduction to the subject, it can't be beat.