Hook Model – A Simple Introduction In 2021

Introduction

A “hook” can be defined as a thing designed to catch people’s attention. A Hook Model Methodology is a business process developed by Nir Eyal, who is a behavioural economist, an entrepreneur and an author. 

1. What is the Hook Model?
2. History of Hook Model
3. Why is it important?

1. What is the Hook Model?

Hook Model is a business process with four phases. This model works on the basis of a loop formed by the four phases, namely, trigger, action, variable reward and investment.

The model is developed with the intent to create an interest or need of a product or a service in a customer’s mind, induce the customer to take action for knowing more about that product or service, offering rewards to keep the customer engaged even after he/she has found what they have been looking for, thus make the customer wanting to look for more of his need and choices, and then finally make him invest in the product by buying it or sharing about it with the friends or reviewing it.

Now let us understand about four phases of the hook model in detail:

1. Trigger: A trigger is something that creates interest in a product or a service. The triggers are of two types- External triggers and Internal triggers. External triggers include places, event, situation and people around you. Internal triggers include feelings, needs, emotions and choices. Businesses find it difficult to identify the internal trigger because it depends on the nature, choice and sentiment of the customer.

2. The Action: This phase involves the response of the customer towards the triggers. Businesses should try to motivate and make it easy for the customer to take action. If the customer who is browsing online only looks for the product and do not take further steps to know more about it or other similar products, the process is interrupted here because the business has not been able to motivate the customer to take action. 

3. The Variable Reward: It is the phase that provides the customer with what he was looking for and also wanting him to use more and more of this product. This phase is based on the anticipation of what the customer will want next after getting the product that he was looking for. The reward types as given in this model include rewards of the Tribe, rewards of the Hunt, reward of the Self.

4.  Investment: This is the phase at which the customer is finally willing to invest in the product, which can be in terms of time (frequently visiting the website), money (buying the product), data (giving review or feedback) or social capital (sharing the information about a product on social media through links etc.). The investment made by the customer in the product or service in any way is because of the reason that the customer is not only satisfied with the product at present but is also expecting to consume the same product in the future.

2. History of Hook Model

The hook model was introduced by Nir Eyal, an American author, in his book “Hooked”. The approach of this model was to create habit-forming products. This book explains how the hook model works in making the habits of consumers, and it also provides examples of companies that successfully implemented this model.

3. Why is it important?

The hook model helps to understand those factors, which contribute to forming the habits of the consumers and then create the products that customers use habitually. This model is important to give a competitive edge to the business in the market, as it helps in attracting customers and also keeping them hooked with the company for a long time.

In a fast-changing business environment, there is huge competition among the businesses to acquire maximum market share for which new products and services are introduced every other day to attract the customers, in such a situation hook model can be very important in keeping the consumer voluntarily engaged with your product instead of switching to the other company’s product. It is more beneficial to use this model in the development stage of a product so that it is produced with such features and qualities that the customer wants, and on consuming it once, he would not want to switch to other product, or in short, becomes habitual of it.

Conclusion

Hence the Hook Model works on the fundamental nature of human, which is if they become habitual of using a particular product, they are compelled to buy the same product time and again. This model works on the process of hooking customers by identifying what they actually want and providing them with matching rewards so that it forms a loop of a trigger, action, reward and investment. Hook Model helps the businesses to gain new customers and maintain the customers for the long term and acquire maximum market share. 

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