top of page
stacked books_72.jpg

BOOKS

Richard is the author of two best-selling behavioural science books:

The Choice Factory Book Cover
The Illusion of Choice Book Cover
Yellow dotscreen.png

THE CHOICE FACTORY

Before you can influence decisions, you need to understand what drives them.

The Choice Factory Book Cover

In The Choice Factory, Richard Shotton sets out to help you learn. By observing a typical day of decision-making, from trivial food choices to significant workplace moves, he investigates how our behaviour is shaped by psychological shortcuts.

​

With a clear focus on the marketing potential of knowing what makes us tick, Shotton has drawn on evidence from academia, real-life ad campaigns and his own original research.

 

The Choice Factory is written in an entertaining and highly accessible format, with 25 short chapters, each addressing a cognitive bias and outlining simple ways to apply it to your own marketing challenges.

 

Supporting his discussion, Shotton adds insights from new interviews with some of the smartest thinkers in advertising, including Rory Sutherland, Lucy Jameson and Mark Earls. From priming to the pratfall effect, charm pricing to the curse of knowledge, the science of behavioural economics has never been easier to apply to marketing.

 

The Choice Factory is an advertising essential.

pl blue dotscreen.png
iStock-470695784_extended_72.jpg
Planet cut out

Available

in 15

languages

Planet cut out

#1

Amazon

bestseller

Planet cut out

Winner

BBH'S

World Cup of

Advertising Books

Planet cut out

Best Sales and Marketing book

Business Book

Awards 2019

pl blue dotscreen.png
The Choice Factory Reviews

The Choice Factory is a fun easy read packed with sound research that marketers can apply to their businesses immediately.

​

NIR EYAL

Author, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Pale blue speech bubble

Most books in this area are academic and dry as dust. If you want to know how research and sociology can impact on real life in the real world, Richard's book will show you – using simple words and examples that real people can understand.

 

DAVE TROTT

Creative Director, Author of Predatory Thinking &

Founder of three creative agencies

Dark blue speech bubble

Richard delivers a wealth of cases proving the efficacy of working with, rather than against, the grain of human nature. This is catnip for the industry.

​

PHIL BARDEN

Author of Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy

White speech bubble

This book is a Haynes Manual for understanding consumer behaviour. You should buy a copy – and then buy another copy to give to one of the 97% of people in marketing who are too young to remember what a bloody Haynes Manual is.

 

RORY SUTHERLAND

Columnist for The Spectator &

Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy One

DK%20BLUE%20dotscreen_edited.png

Get in touch to find out how we can help you at richard@astroten.co.uk 

Dk green dotscreen.png

THE ILLUSION OF CHOICE

Every day, people make hundreds of choices.

The Illusion of Choice Book Cover

Many of these are commercial: What shampoo to pick? How much to spend on a bottle of wine? Whether to renew a subscription?

​

These choices might appear to be freely made, but psychologists have shown that subtle changes in the way products are positioned, promoted and marketed can radically alter how customers behave.

​

The Illusion of Choice identifies 16 1/2 important psychological quirks that everyone in business needs to be aware of today — and shows how any business can take advantage of these quirks to win customers, retain customers and sell more.

​

You’ll learn to take advantage of the peak-end rule, the power of precision, the wisdom of wit — and much, much more.

​

You simply cannot afford to miss The Illusion of Choice.

DK%20BLUE%20dotscreen_edited.png
iStock-470695784_extended_72.jpg
Planet cut out
Planet cut out

#1

Amazon

bestseller

Planet cut out

Required reading,

IPA Foundation Certificate

Available

in 9

languages

Dk green dotscreen.png
White speech bubble

No one should be allowed near a layout pad or a keyboard until they have read this book. It is an antidote to the tediously direct and transactional nature of much of modern marketing.

 

RORY SUTHERLAND

Author of Alchemy, Vice-chairman of Ogilvy

The Illusion of Choice Reviews

Marketers are likely to be enriched intellectually and commercially by this book, which offers a trove of useful insights that are both grounded in scientific research and presented compellingly.

 

ROBERT CIALDINI

Author of Influence and Pre-Suasion

Dark blue speech bubble

A short guide to applying behavioural economics to marketing, this book is both fun and useful.

A great little bag of tricks!

​

LES BINET

Group Head of Effectiveness

Adam & Eve DDB

White speech bubble

Surprising and practical… Those other books look good on the bookshelf, behind your head in Zoom calls. This book you’ll actually use.

 

DAVE TROTT

Creative Director, Columnist at Campaign & Founder of multiple ad agencies

Pl aqua dotscreen.png
bottom of page