032: Joe Gladstone on the ‘Pay What You Want’ Pricing Model and Using Big Data to Understand You Better

Joe Gladstone is an academic researcher and consultant based at the University of Cambridge, where he applies insights from behavioral economics and psychological research to better understand consumer behaviour.

Joe partners with some of the world’s largest corporations, such as Twitter, Bupa and Visa, as well as government departments, to tackle challenges that deal with behaviour change.

Joe’s views on consumer behaviour have been featured in the BBC, Forbes, The Huffington Post and other media outlets.

Joe is founder of BE-events and BE-Recruit.  He received his Masters from Oxford University and his Phd from Cambridge University, and has been awarded a range of competitive grants and prizes.

Find Out:

• about the link between the discipline of psychology and economics.

• why Joe decided to do postgraduate research in behavioral economics.

• how advances in technology, especially in social media, can help behavioral scientists understand human behaviour better.

• why you do not know how much you spend on coffee.

• how Joe has identified the relationship between psychology and money.

• how Joe has used the ‘My Personality’ app to predict your personality from what you like.

• how companies can use ‘Big Data’ to target messages directly to you.

• why people are willing to pay for services that they could otherwise get for free.

• if TIDAL will disrupt the online music industry by taking control of their own music.

• if Spotify risks losing out to TIDAL.

• how important is the price of zero?

• how the ‘Pay What You Want’ pricing model defies classical economic theory.

• why people pay even if they are given the option to take the product for free.

• how Radiohead made more in sales when offering their album on a ‘Pay What You Want’ basis.

• if the ‘Pay What You Want’ model is sustainable for a business in the long run?

• how Jon Bon Jovi has successfully implemented the ‘Pay What You Want’ model in his Soul Kitchen restaurant in New Jersey.

• how sitting with strangers to eat in Soul Kitchen can ‘nudge’ diners to pay more than what they were initially willing to pay.

• about Joe’s passion for financial literacy and financial empowerment.

• if you can become immune to nudging by having a deeper understanding of it.

• if knowledge prevents you from being nudged.

• about behavioral economics events that could be going on in your area with BE-events.org.

• how Joe maximises his time by outsourcing his work on oDesk.

• how to get girls in less-developed and poor countries to go to school.

• how Joe built up a name for himself on LinkedIn by connecting with the main people in the banking sector and offering his services on a no cost basis.

• what the five personality traits known as OCEAN stands for.

Economists Joe Would Love to Collaborate With:

Professor Dean Karlan of Yale University and Professor John List of University of Chicago.

Economists:

In this interview, Joe mentions: 

Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky, Cass Sunstein, Dean Karlan (Poverty Action), David Hagmann, George Loewenstein, Craig Fox (The Behavioral Science and Policy Association), John List and The Behavioural Insights Team in the UK.

Economics:

In this interview, Joe mentions and discusses:

Behavioral economics, experimental economics, factor analysis, microeconomics, poverty, banking, micro-finance, decision making, nudge, nudging, pricing, demand, supply, randomised control trials, field experiments and multi-variate testing.

The ‘Pay What You Want’ pricing model is a great example of where the Classical economic theory doesn’t do a great job of explaining real world behavior – Joe Gladstone.

Resources:

• Upwork (formally oDesk)
• Leadpages

Books:

• The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy by Eldar Shafir

Papers:

• Warning: You Are About to be Nudged by David Hagmann and George Loewenstein.

Where to find Joe:

• Website: www.joegladstone.com
• BE-events.org
• BE-recruit.com
• LinkedIn: Joe Gladstone

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