EAST framework – Part 2: salience, framing, loss aversion, identity.
Summary:
A few weeks ago I downloaded the EAST framework, developed by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT). It maps four conditions that make a behaviour more likely: Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely. I decided to write four articles about the principles within each letter.
The whole point is that if you want to encourage a behaviour (yes, with your marketing strategy), make it easy, attractive, social and timely (EAST).
This is Part 2 and it covers: salience, framing, loss aversion, and identity.
This series is a lens, not a formula. Context always matters, and no single principle works in every situation. But as a way of asking better questions about why people do or don’t respond to your marketing, it’s worth knowing.
[Part 1: Easy] | [Part 2: Attractive] | [Part 3: Social] | [Part 4: Timely]
Salience: specific lands
The NHS used to send appointment reminders that said something like: “Please remember your appointment.” Clear and polite, but not particularly effective. BIT tested an alternative: “A missed appointment costs the NHS £160,” and no-show rates dropped by 25%.
The number did something: it made the consequence feel real and concrete. This is salience: the quality that makes information register rather than slide past. Novel is salient. Specific is salient. Personally relevant is salient. The opposite (general, familiar, expected) tends to disappear, without enough weight to be considered.
Framing: how you say it
Meat eaters are more likely to choose a vegetarian option when it’s described as a “field grown breakfast” than when it’s described as “meat-free.” Weird, right?
Framing works because people don’t respond to information in isolation. They respond to what it suggests or evokes. “Meat-free” is defined by what’s absent. “Field grown” is defined by something that sounds appealing. The brain reads them differently even though the product is identical. Every piece of marketing frames something. The question is whether the frame was chosen deliberately or just ended up that way.
Loss aversion
One of the most replicated findings in behavioural science: the pain of a loss is roughly twice as powerful as the pleasure of an equivalent gain. Most marketing is built on what someone will get: better results, more clients, stronger campaigns. A loss frame asks a different question: what is not acting costing?
Worth noting that a loss frame can create anxiety instead of motivation in some contexts. Like everything in this series, behavioural science is a lens, and context changes how it lands.
Identity: people buy versions of themselves
Opera-goers were more likely to donate when clicking “I’ve already donated” rather than “No thank you.” The connection between action and identity is strong: when something feels consistent with who someone is, or who they want to be, it becomes easier to say yes to.
In marketing, this means it’s not only “here’s what we offer.” It’s also “here’s who does this kind of thing,” to give people a version of themselves they can say yes to. When the identity signal is there, the decision becomes slightly lighter.
What we’ve learned
Making a marketing strategy attractive isn’t the same as making it look good. Salience, framing, loss aversion, and identity are all levers, and apparently most of them are underused. Maybe next time we approach a marketing strategy, we can take a closer look at what’s already being said and whether it’s being said in the way most likely to connect.
Part 3 covers the S – Social. Why what other people do matters more than we like to admit, how reciprocity works, and the norm that backfires when you use it wrong.
