Advertisers boycott News of the World, but readers can’t get enough of it’s final edition. Can Behavioural Economics help explain why?
After relentless revelations about its own alleged bad behaviour, Rupert Murdoch’s son and News International heir apparent James announced the closure of arguably its most treasured print asset News of the World. The public at large, and most significantly NOTW’s advertisers, reacted as one. They had finally had enough of the phone-hacking scandals that continue […]
After relentless revelations about its own alleged bad behaviour, Rupert Murdoch’s son and News International heir apparent James announced the closure of arguably its most treasured print asset News of the World.
The public at large, and most significantly NOTW’s advertisers, reacted as one.
They had finally had enough of the phone-hacking scandals that continue to consume the paper’s newsroom – even if its current crop of reporters continued to plead their own innocence.
Despite the widespread outrage at the the paper’s actions, its final edition went on to sell a record four million papers on Sunday, a ten-year high.
But why is this? And how can Behavioural Economics help explain it?
One factor at work here is the scarcity bias. This is where things become more desirable as they become less obtainable. This has helped make the last edition all the more desirable – incredibly last editions are selling on eBay for £30 each!
A second factor is that being the last one made it socially acceptable to buy it again – having been socially unacceptable all week. Knowing our behaviour is within the social norm (however unconsciously) is vital to us acting in a certain way.
Thirdly, the NOTW effectively maximised one of its existing drivers of purchase – the fact that people do not want to miss out on something juicy. This is why apparently AB readers regularly buy NOTW alongside a quality newspaper.
Finally, being, for once, the thing in the headlines rather than making them also gave it a huge amount of salience also helping to drive sales.
All these factors influenced people to but and remind them about the paper’s 168-year history and what was loved about the brand.
And anyway, if News International had intended to close the newspaper someday, this turns out to be a clever way to do it.
We just hope that the charities who suddenly found themselves able to advertise for free in such a mass market tabloid reap the benefits of getting their message out to a wider audience.
If you would like to know more, then please give us a call or send us an email.
Monkey See is a new market research agency with a particular interest in applying some of the theories and learnings from Behavioural Economics to brand and communications research.
