Harnessing Behavioural Science in Travel Marketing

Enter, Monkey Lion Dog

At Reflect Digital, we like to challenge our thinking about human behaviour. We use behavioural science frameworks and tools such as the Monkey Lion Dog (MLD) to examine the different aspects of the human brain. This allows us to challenge our own biases about how people think, and look at people in three ways:

• The ‘monkey’ is the contextual part of our brain that cares about achieving status and recognition.
• The ‘lion’ is the rational and logical part of our brain that thinks about facts and statistics.
• The ‘dog’ is the emotional part of our brain that values belongingness and seeks meaningful connection with others.

In this article, we’ll demonstrate how we look into contextual, rational, and emotional motivations for travel using the MLD and demonstrate how we can apply this to create effective messages in travel marketing.

1) Making It Special

Wanting to stand out from others is a fundamental human need that is represented by the ‘Monkey’ in MLD. We derive value from how others perceive us, and we can go to great lengths to make others respect us. 

Travelling is a way we can change not just our own perceptions but other people’s perceptions, with our choices of locations signalling our wealth, status, and identity. With social media and the myriad of different content we can share about our lives, it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to broadcast our travel experiences with friends, family, and even strangers.

How can we apply this in marketing?

The behavioural principle of exclusivity bias, which refers to the natural desire for special treatment, can be leveraged to appeal to the status-seeking part of our brain. In the following Search Ad from Abercrombie & Kent, ‘tailor-made’ and ‘incomparable insider access’ are used to highlight the distinctness and exclusivity of the experience. 

Another behavioural experience that could be leveraged is the endowment effect, a behavioural principle that refers to how merely suggesting ownership can make people feel more favourable towards a product or service. By giving people a preview or a taste of a premium experience, they could be more engaged to try it. A good example of this is Fly Norse’s POV TikTok video of riding in premium class, which has garnered more than 80 million views.

2) Making It Practical

Meeting rational and practical considerations such as budget and convenience are important in our day-to-day decisions, which is represented by the ‘Lion’ in MLD. After destination choice, affordability is the second most important factor for British travellers when choosing holidays. This highlights the importance of framing travel as affordable, especially amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. 

How can we apply this in marketing?

Pricing strategies such as anchoring could be used to change perceptions without changing price points. In the example below, Cost Saver demonstrates anchoring by showing the original price of the trip and the discounted price. The original price becomes the anchor that makes the discounted price seem more appealing. By giving the audience something to compare with, the discounted price seems lower despite being high. 

Additionally, Cost Saver also uses a banner to highlight the amount of savings for the trip. The position and colour of the banner use the principle of visual salience, making it visually distinct from the rest of the visuals to draw the audience’s attention. Highlighting key information such as price is important to guide people’s decision-making especially when they have budget constraints.

3) Making it Authentic

Wanting to belong is another fundamental human need, and this is represented by the ‘Dog’ in MLD. As social beings, we want our emotions acknowledged and we want to build meaningful connections with other people. 

Planning and researching about travel does not exist in a vacuum. Oftentimes, we do extensive research about travelling and this involves looking at other people’s experiences. Studies have shown that seeing other people’s positive travel experiences on social media and knowing where other people are going greatly influence people’s travel destinations.

How can we apply this in marketing?

Authenticity is the heart of the messenger effect, a behavioural principle that highlights our tendency to evaluate messages based on the source. Testimonials about destinations from travellers may be perceived as more reliable than brands communicating about the experience as we can empathise with the messenger more. By using people like your audience to communicate your message, you’re able to communicate genuine experiences to customers. 

It also goes without saying that we are more easily compelled by the images we see and the emotions we feel. According to the picture superiority effect, visual images are processed 60,000 times faster than text. Images are cognitively easier to process and remember, and at the same time, they evoke more imagination and creative thinking in people. For travel marketing, this means visual images of travel destinations are more compelling than text.

First Light Travel demonstrates the use of the principles of the messenger effect and picture superiority effect by using first-person testimonials and images from their travel in their Meta Ads.

Key Takeaways

• The Monkey, Lion, Dog (MLD) is an effective tool for developing new ideas about familiar behaviours such as travelling by considering the contextual, rational, and emotional motivations
• Travelling appeals to different motivations of people:
  • Contextual: People visit destinations that give them status and something to talk about
  • Rational: People have practical considerations for travel, such as cost and convenience
  • Emotional: People make decisions based on the emotions and experiences of other people
• Behavioural principles can be mapped onto the three motivations to create effective travel messages:
  • Exclusivity Bias to tap into people’s need for distinct and special treatment and Endowment Effect to give them a taste of this experience
  • Anchoring and Visual Salience to highlight the affordability of tips
  • Messenger Effect to highlight authentic human experiences, and using images to make this more compelling

Are you curious to test the use of behavioural tools like the MLD and other behavioural principles in your travel marketing? Get in touch with us!