Hooked (Nir Ayal)
Even before I had the terrible idea of starting a theater company I had an artistic problem: I couldn’t get people to see my work. Whether it was at university, at Station, or today I had tremendous difficulty getting people to come out even if those same people said they enjoyed it.
Back then it was an annoyance, today it is an existential threat to this company: if we can’t get people to see our shows we can’t get them to pay for our shows, and if we can’t get them to pay for our shows we won’t be able to do bigger projects.
As a company we have some notable weaknesses: we’re working in a niche genre that’s eschewed by the theatre class in Houston, we have shallow pockets and can’t compete for the best talent, we have an artistic director who is afraid of and loathes social media. Lots of problems.
So I picked up Nir Ayal’s Hooked which is about turning customers into habitual users of one’s product. While the book is primarily focused on the tech sector I hoped I’d be able to get some insights.
Let’s address one thing first: yes, this book is about changing people’s behavior, specifically into getting them to use your product habitually. While this can be seen negatively, and definitely has nefarious uses, the author defends the thesis by saying that as humans we want pleasant experiences, and this book is about refining experiences.
Right at the end of the book Mr. Ayal has some choice words about my field, entertainment, specifically saying: to turn entertainment into a viable business you need to work on creating a robust distribution network with lots of content moving through it. Pronoia isn’t there yet, it may never be there, but it’s a thing to think about.
The basics of the book are as follows: for a behavior to happen (seeing a show and buying a ticket,) a potential customer needs motivation (wants to see a show,) ability (free at the show time, disposable money) and a trigger (likely us telling them to come see a show.) The book is designed around how to turn that trigger from an external one (us advertising the show) to an internal one (“I want to see a show, what’s Pronoia doing tonight?)
Most of the tools suggested in the book are somewhat unavailable to us presently. To an extent the relevant information for our company could be: build a relationship with the audience and make sure you have content for them. Which we’ve tried, and failed, to do.
As much as I liked the book and as much valuable information is clearly present, I don’t have a roadmap to immediate implementation of it.
