Behavioural marketing, in one page

Loss aversion, social proof, scarcity and variable reward are the workhorses. They explain why money-back guarantees convert, why prize scarcity drives participation, why the crowd around the vault is part of the media plan.

The rest of the field is fun to read and hard to operationalise. Design the mechanic around the four ideas above and you'll ship 90% of the value.

Behavioural marketing isn't a substitute for a good product — it's a way to make sure a good product gets the shot at customer attention it deserves.