Marketing as a Game of Incentives, Not Messages
Stop writing copy; start designing reward structures. Effective systems function through the alignment of human incentives.
Education teaches that marketing is about "messaging." However, the skeleton is Incentive Design. To change behavior, one doesn't change what they hear; one changes what they gain.
Message - Based vs.Incentive - Based Systems
Message - based systems try to persuade.Incentive - based systems try to align.When a brand struggles, it is because incentives are misaligned with reality.Asking for maximum investment while providing minimum utility creates structural failure.
In game theory, actors respond to the payoff matrix.If the payoff is low, rational actors defect.The payoff must be re - engineered.
"Marketing is the engineering of outcomes through incentives. The creative is just the interface."
The Architecture of the Incentive Stack
Design must address a hierarchy of rewards:
- Cognitive Incentives: Reducing mental effort.
- Social Incentives: Creating status rewards.
- Economic Incentives: Optimizing value-for-money.
Designing for Alignment
The role of the architect is to find "Incentive Symmetry." The system's growth must result from the user's success.By shifting focus to "what they get," systems are built that solve for the user's self-interest.