A few months ago, I was sent an advanced copy of what turned out to be a very interesting book… Written by the very interesting Nir Eyal.

When I first read the title, I knew it was going to be a unique approach (and right in line with my mission to deliver the best value at every turn).

The book is called Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products – and it looks not at how people buy products, but how they actually use them. If you want to sell products that people love, you’ve got to understand how (and why) people develop relationships with the things they use…

Well, not only did I thoroughly enjoy the book (and learned some fantastic stuff), I reached out to the author, Nir Eyal, with some questions…

I wanted to be able to share some of his insights with all of you…

So without further ado, here’s a little “Q&A” style conversation I had with Nir.

Pay close attention – there’s some powerful info here…

Charlie Gaudet: How is today’s market different from the days of the popular “Mad Men,” brand-driven advertising of our past?

Nir Eyal: Brand advertising is alive and well – it’s just that it only makes sense for huge companies (with huge budgets) selling difficult-to-differentiate goods. You watch so many commercials for cola, gasoline, and car insurance because these products are virtually identical, no matter who sells it to you.

On the other hand, if you’re a smallish company, you don’t have the money to spend enough to make a dent using “Mad Men” style advertising. However, startups have a secret weapon… They can use experiences to create consumer habits. How products form habits is the subject of my book.

CG: What are some of the “internal triggers” companies need to create associations with?

NE: Internal triggers are things that tell the user what to do next. This information for “what to do” usually comes from an association in a product user’s mind. Some examples of internal triggers are situations, routines, places, people, and most frequently, emotions. It turns out that negative emotions provide frequent internal triggers.

For example: when we’re lonely, we check Facebook. When we’re uncertain, we search Google. When we’re bored, we watch videos on YouTube. With each habit, there’s an underlying uncomfortable emotional state.

CG: How do business owners create these associations?

NE: Without knowing your customer’s itch, it’s almost impossible to give them what they truly want. It’s the job of the product maker to understand the internal trigger their product attaches to.

The internal trigger you choose to attach to will dramatically affect the features you integrate into your product. For example, a product build to relieve boredom will look very different from one that alleviates uncertainty.

CG: Are these Hooks available to any type of business, or are they limited to online technology companies? Can you give me a few examples of brick-and-mortar companies that have created an effective Hook?

NE: Not every business needs to form a habit, but every business that forms a habit needs a Hook. Lots of offline products are habit-forming. The impulse to watch television at the same time of night, cheer for your local sports team every season, have your favorite cup of coffee from Starbucks each morning, visit your favorite store when you feel stressed, or even attending religious services each week – these are all examples of behaviors we do with little or no conscious thought. We do them out of habit.

CG: What separates a Hook from just a regular feedback loop?

NE: Feedback loops have only three steps, and they’re not specific to business applications – and certainly not specific to habits. Hooks are special in that they incorporate variable rewards and demand an investment by the user.

I also differentiate between internal and external triggers as the path to forming the associations that eventually lead to unprompted user engagement – people using a product or service automatically, without the need for expensive advertising or spammy messages.

CG: What questions do entrepreneurs like me need to ask ourselves when creating a Hook for our own businesses?

NE: The first is to ask yourself whether your business really needs a habit in order to create and deliver value to customers. Not every business needs to form a user habit. The bar is very high for habit-forming products… Lots of things have to go right, and not many companies do it successfully.

Of course, those who do… They create tremendous amounts of value.

However, even if your business doesn’t require a customer habit, there is still quite a bit that can be learned from understanding and integrating lessons from user psychology. A business owner can take parts of the Hook and use them for improving the customer experience – without necessarily building an entire Hook.

CG: How do we know when our Hook is working?

NE: If you don’t have an engagement problem, your Hook is working.

CG: What signposts identify when a Hook needs to be improved?

NE: It’s easy to identify where the Hook is deficient by looking at the previous step.

If people aren’t getting through to each subsequent phase of the four steps – trigger, action, variable reward, and investment – then we can tell there is something wrong with the previous step.

CG: Where can we get more information about creating our own Hook?

NE: Thanks for asking! Readers can go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble to buy the book, but then make sure to go to HookModel.com to get special free bonus content including videos, a workbook, and ebooks.

A big thanks to Nir for fielding my questions – hopefully you’ve got an idea of powerful information he provides. I highly recommend you check out his book. Until next time…

Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and blogs about the psychology of products at NirAndFar.com.