To unlock growth try a slice of TOAST

To grow your brand or business you need to get someone to change their behaviour. That could be choosing your brand in preference to others, consuming more or, perhaps, trying a new product or category for the first time. The problem is that consumers and customers can be very attached to the status quo.

The good news is that developments in behavioural economics and psychology are improving our understanding of the influences and biases that shape our decisions and actions.

The challenge, of course, is to translate considerable knowledge into something actionable. Something, for example, that helps a business leader see the behavioural barriers stopping people buying or using their new product or service.

Organising knowledge in a simple and structured way is the key to doing this. “TOAST” is my way – a simple framework for understanding the barriers and opportunities to facilitate behaviour change.  With this understanding we can develop a focused plan to to unlock growth.

TOAST pulls together behavioural learning (with detailed diagnostic questions) to explore five fundamental questions:

The next time you are developing a launch plan or reviewing the sales performance for a recent innovation why not try these questions? Perhaps just this small slice of TOAST will help you see opportunities to deliver the behaviour change needed for further growth.

For brands, businesses or categories with bigger growth ambitions or challenges a larger slice of TOAST will probably be appropriate as a foundation for effective growth planning. If that is the case, please do get in touch.