By
James Nieman | 12/23/2017 | in
The year 2017 was the year of behavior change marketing. Here is our list of marketers who changed our behaviors for good, for bad, and maybe forever. If there are any brands you think deserve to be added to the list, tweet us here and let us know!
Amazon
For changing the way we read, shop and watch…
Casper
From almost never going to a mattress store to never going to a mattress store – all in one brilliant brand experience.
Duolingo
For merging innovative technology with behavioral design to reinvent the way we learn languages.
Per unire tecnologia innovativa e design comportamentale per reinventare il modo in cui apprendiamo le lingue.
Para fusionar tecnología innovadora con diseño de comportamiento para reinventar la forma en que aprendemos idiomas.
Kakushintekina gijutsu to kōdō dezain o yūgō shite, gengo o manabu hōhō o kaikaku suru tame.
Google Translate
For making it easy for people who don’t even have time for Duolingo to do what we just did above.
Airbnb
For making travelers feel more at home, regardless of where they are.
23andMe
For taking the genome revolution to the people, allowing us to access our own DNA, find our DNA relatives, and empower us to lead healthier lives.
Nobel Prize Committee
For bringing the beneficent insights of behavioral economics into the international spotlight.
Ellevest
For closing the gender-investment gap by giving women the tools, place and voice to invest for themselves.
Bombas
For making the most personal of clothing decisions – what socks to buy – the most pro-social, by giving a pair of socks to a homeless person for every pair we buy.
Cards Against Humanity
For showing that a silly, politically incorrect game can take a serious political stance, and win big.
GoFundMe
For building a platform that makes humans helping humans more possible than ever.
Headspace
For showing that your guru can be an app. And, for introducing the life-changing effects of meditation to millions, ten minutes at a time.
Uber
First, for changing the way tens of millions of us get from here to there. Then, for exploiting their monopoly in greedy and insensitive ways and driving millions of us to Lyft and other options.
Facebook
From the Russian election hack to the #MeToo movement, Facebook has had an outsized effect on all aspects of our society, changing our behavior in good, bad… and still unclear ways.
McKesson
For allegedly over-delivering hydrocodone, and perpetuating the opioid epidemic, which currently ends 144 American lives each day.
HelloFresh / SunBasket
For turning the average joe into an iron chef, all without going to the grocery store.
Tinder
For simplifying and streamlining the dating process with one swipe of a finger.
Venmo
For forever ending the headache of splitting a bill and making the act of going to an ATM a behavior of the past.
Resy / OpenTable
For removing human interaction from the reservation-making process.
Slack
For changing the way we manage our email inbox.
Spotify
For using complex algorithms to change the way we discover music.
Netflix
For changing the way television shows are produced and consumed.
Betterment
For making managing your wealth as easy as scrolling through your phone.
StitchFix
For making online shopping more personal.
Acorns
For showing us that there is no such thing as spare change.
Audible
For making listening the new reading.
MasterClass
For turning our heroes into our teachers.
We’ve loved watching these brands change our behaviors, and change the world. We can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store!
By
James Nieman | 08/22/2017 | in
Sallie Krawcheck had an inspiring idea:
Create a robo-advising platform specifically designed for women.
Like most inspiring ideas, it came from true aspiration — and few things mobilize and stimulate humans more than true human aspirations.
That aspiration? To help close the investment gender gap. But to truly understand the roots of Krawcheck’s aspirations, you must first understand her background.
As the former CEO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, and the CFO of Citigroup prior to that, Krawcheck spent much of her career being the only woman in the room. Finance is a “for men, by men” industry, and few people in the world have been as exposed to — or as outspoken about — that disparity as much as Krawcheck.
In regards to Wall Street’s unofficial mascot, Krawcheck asks Forbes, “Does it get any more male than that? Maybe a snake.”
The quantitative research is staggering. Just 16 percent of the nation’s 311,000 financial advisors are female. Due to this imbalance, investing is tailored towards men’s interests, leading women to put their money in the bank rather than invest it. Seventy-one percent of all assets controlled by women are held as uninvested cash.
To Krawcheck, this translates to “us boss ladies missing out on major market-gain opportunities and losing out on inflation.”
The reality is that the financial industry does not favor women. It doesn’t speak to their unique financial needs, or address their goals, or speak their language. Women aren’t as interested as men in “beating the market.” Instead, they prefer to think of their investments in terms of goals, like buying a home, starting a business, or paying off a student loan. And as a result, far too many women are sitting on the sidelines instead of making their money work harder for their dreams.
Frustrated and determined to make a difference, Krawcheck had her insight: Make investing seem like a game worth playing by making it appear less like a game.
In 2014, she put that insight to action by launching Ellevest, a female-focused robo-advising platform.
Unlike other robo-advising platforms, Elllevest puts women first. Krawcheck and her team spent over 100 hours interviewing women to ensure that the entire user experience was geared toward the way women think about their money. It connects with the female investor on a deeper, more psychographic level by putting a hyper focus on the realities of being a woman — for example, the greater likelihood of women taking time out of the workforce. Or the fact that their salaries, in general, tend be lower over the course of their careers despite peaking earlier than men’s. It considers the five extra years of a woman’s lifespan when planning for retirement. All of these factors should have a strong influence on investing strategies, and yet Ellevest is the only company making an active effort to recognize them.
And it’s working. This past March, Ellevest had over 3,000 accounts with $18 million in assets.
Krawcheck has created a brand that allows women to inspire action in themselves. She has given her consumers a self-actualizing experience, and nothing is more valuable to a consumer today. Opening an account with Ellevest means investing in yourself. It’s a company on an inspiring mission to close the investment gender gap, and women want to be a part of that story.
That’s why Ellevest is our Inspiring Action Brand of the Month!
