This session with Phil Barden explored a question many marketers and founders are wrestling with in the cost of living crisis.
If customers are more cautious with their money, how do brands avoid racing to the bottom, and instead show value in a way the brain actually recognises?
Drawing on 25 years of client-side marketing and a decade of decision science, Phil showed how people really perceive value, why the brain processes reward and pain in surprising ways, and what marketers can do to make their brands feel worth choosing.
The notes below summarise the main lessons and examples from the session, written with the help of AI (so any tiny errors are on us).
Table of Contents
- 1. Why value feels different in a cost of living crisis
- 2. The science behind how the brain judges value for money
- 3. Pain: how price, design and cognitive effort shape decisions
- 4. Reward: how brands create real psychological value
- 5. Why goals matter more than features
- 6. The role of context and framing
- 7. Nudges that change behaviour
- 8. What this means for brands today
- 9. Where to start
1. Why value feels different in a cost of living crisis
People have tightened their spending, but Phil showed this does not automatically mean “cut price”. Across studies run during and after COVID, consumers said they still cared about:
- value for money
- quality
- reliability
- convenience
- enjoyment
Lowest price came last.
People still want value, but value is broader and more emotional than “cheap”.
2. The science behind how the brain judges value for money
Phil shared a foundational experiment from Stanford: participants lay in an fMRI scanner, saw a product, then saw a price, then made a buy/no-buy decision.
Two systems lit up:
- Reward system when looking at the product
- Pain system when seeing the price
The brain makes value judgements as:
expected reward minus expected pain.
This happens fast, automatically, before we consciously justify it.
A €1 gelato and a £6,000 Louis Vuitton bag run through the same mechanism. Only the expectations change.
This forms the basis of Phil’s value opportunities wheel.
3. Pain: how price, design and cognitive effort shape decisions
Price pain isn’t just about money. It’s also:
- the time something takes
- the cognitive load required
- small frustrations along the way
A few insights:
Currency symbols increase pain.
Removing “£” or “€” reduced resistance and increased spending. Carlsberg saw an 11 percent revenue lift simply by removing currency symbols on menus.
Physical spacing of prices changes perceived discount.
A wider gap between “was £7” and “now £5” feels like a bigger saving.
Numbers that are easier for the brain to process increase purchase intent.
“8 → 5.99” performs better than “£8 reduced to £5.99”.
Typography impacts pain.
LUSH discovered that writing all signage in capitals dramatically increased cognitive load. Beautiful in Figma. Painful in real life.
Behavioural cost matters.
Removing minor friction (auto-play, defaults, clearer UX, resealable packaging) often moves behaviour more than adding incentives.
4. Reward: how brands create real psychological value
Reward sits in the brain’s frontal lobe and is built through learned associations.
The brain asks two simultaneous questions:
- What is it?
- What does it mean to me?
Meaning matters more than the object itself.
This is why someone chooses a bagel over a donut at the school gate. Not because of hunger. Because of identity, judgement, care, and the social goal they are trying to meet.
Strong brands create fast, effortless meaning, which becomes a shortcut.
In fMRI studies, favourite brands lit up less of the brain because they require no effort.
System one chooses them automatically.
5. Why goals matter more than features
Phil explained that human behaviour is goal-directed.
Every behaviour aims to satisfy:
- functional goals (refreshment, mobility, coverage)
- social goals (belonging, status, signalling)
- emotional goals (relief, excitement, control, safety)
Features matter, but only as a means to a goal.
Decode uses a six-field psychological goal map, including:
- security
- enjoyment
- excitement
- autonomy
- adventure
- discipline
Brands sit at different points.
Volvo signals safety. Red Bull signals adventure. Rolex signals autonomy.
These associations drive willingness to pay.
6. The role of context and framing
Context changes behaviour instantly.
A banana, apple and donut are all “food”.
If the goal is “healthy food”, the choice narrows.
If the goal is “healthy food while driving”, the choice narrows again.
Framing also changes perceived reward:
- “90 percent fat free” feels healthier and more valuable than “10 percent fat”, even though they’re identical.
- Identical coffee tastes more “premium” under a premium brand frame.
Framing is perception. Perception becomes value.
7. Nudges that change behaviour
Phil shared several heuristics that shape fast decisions:
Anchoring
“Buy 18 for your freezer” doubled Snickers ice cream sales without a discount.
Scarcity
Limited editions increase desire because the brain over-weights scarce resources.
Social proof
If others like me have chosen it, risk feels lower.
Authority
Marco Pierre White cooking with Knorr. Enough said.
Endowment
Personalisation (names on Coca Cola bottles).
The IKEA effect (we value what we assemble).
Rituals (KitKat snap, lime in Corona) increase willingness to pay.
Process endowment
A loyalty card pre-stamped with two stamps dramatically increases completion.
8. What this means for brands today
Crisis periods disrupt habits.
Phil shared research showing that when routines break, people become more open to behaviour change.
That is a window for brands.
Value is not “price versus price”.
It is:
- reward
- meaning
- context
- goals
- reduced friction
- better framing
- psychological shortcuts
Brands win when they become the no brainer in System One.
9. Where to start
Phil suggested using the value opportunities wheel to identify three things you can improve:
- one way to reduce pain
- one way to increase reward
- one reframing or nudge to test
You don’t need a perfect model on day one.
You need communication, shared language, and a clear sense of what value looks like in your customer’s world.
Phil’s book Decoded (second edition) includes many of the case studies mentioned, including new examples from Carlsberg and global FMCG brands.