11 Psychology Tricks From the World’s Best Brands - Richard Shotton - #1053
episodePreviously titled “#1053 - Richard Shotton - 11 Psychology Tricks From the World’s Best Brands” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
Transcript
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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What did you learn from Five Guys?
So Five Guys is the opening chapter, and we talk about something that they did very powerfully, which is when they launched, they were relentless at focusing on just doing burger and chips. So people like McDonald's have got seduced by the fact that they could launch filet-o-fish and chicken burgers. But Five Guys relentlessly honed down on just doing burgers. Now, some of the benefit of that is an ability just to get better at cooking, better at producing your core product. But psychologists argue there's something else on top of it. So there's an idea called the gold dilution effect. And the first studies were done by Zhang and Fischbach back in 2007. And they did a very simple experiment. Recruit a group of people, randomize them into two subgroups, and the first set of people are told, if you eat tomatoes, it's very good for your heart health.
Here are the reasons. And that group are asked to say whether they think eating tomatoes is worth doing for their heart health. Second group of people, they see exactly the same text, exactly the same reasons and logic and facts about why tomato eating is so good for cardiovascular health. But they are also told if you eat tomatoes, it will improve your eye health. It will reduce degenerative diseases. Now, when that second group are asked to say how good eating tomatoes is for heart health, they come back with a 12% lower score. So even though they've seen the same facts, because in this second group there was an additional reason thrown in, it reduced, it diluted the believability in that core reason.
So there's a psychological as well as practical benefit about communicating that you do one thing well. People have a rule of thumb in their head that you can't be a jack of all trades. If you are, you'll be a master of none of them. So there's a sacrifice in credibility and believability if you claim to do multiple things.
What does that say about sort of underlying human psychology? Is it that we have a kind of a zero sum or a resource limitation on how much we think we should be able to distribute between the traits of a particular offer?
I think a lot of these biases that behavioral scientists identify, that psychologists identify, they're generally true. I mean, all things being equal, you tend to get better at a task if it is the sole focus of your attention. If you spend 40 hours a week being a cyclist, you're going to be a better cyclist than if I spent 10 hours a week. So people have a sensible rule of thumb in their head, but then the danger is they over-apply it in situations where it's not relevant. Like in the situation Zhang set up, people got the same facts about cardiovascular health, But because they threw in this second benefit, it seemed to detract from it. So I think it's often the misapplication of a generally sensible rule of thumb.
Is the rule or the lesson for brands here that you need to win one thing very well and be very cautious about trying to add additional offers and features and potential advantages that people can get by using it?
Yeah, that's a fair summary. It's essentially the argument that be very, very careful about adding extra reasons to believe because what they will gradually do is undermine believability in the core reason to buy your product.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:39
2
What are the psychological principles behind successful branding?
4:39–4:53
3
How did Five Guys achieve their success in the fast food industry?
4:53–8:09
4
What is the gold dilution effect and how does it apply to branding?
8:09–43:00
5
How does Red Bull leverage price relativity in their marketing?
43:00–1:34:36
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Modern Wisdom
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