Influencing consumer behaviour in the age of right to repair

With the EU Right to Repair legislation set to fundamentally reshape the appliance market, a leading manufacturer of domestic appliances faced a critical challenge.

From July 2026, consumers would have the right to choose between repairing or replacing appliances that break down within warranty. While this shift supports sustainability goals, it also introduces significant commercial risk, particularly as replacement costs are substantially higher than repairs. 

In order to develop a strategy ahead of the legislation coming into effect, our client needed to understand:

• How consumers make repair vs replace decisions in real-world scenarios
• Which emotional, practical, and contextual factors affect those decisions
• What the likely outcome would be when consumers are presented with a choice to repair or replace appliances
• How to design communications, experiences, and incentives that encourage repair over replace

The challenge was not just predicting behaviour, but how to but actively influence it and shape it.

Bryter designed a multi-market, behavioural insight-led study to uncover the drivers behind consumer decision-making during appliance breakdowns.

1. Simulating real-world decision contexts

We conducted in-depth interviews across European markets, exposing consumers to a range of realistic appliance breakdown scenarios.

These scenarios varied key factors such as:

• Appliance type and age
• Severity of failure
• Time required for repair vs replacement
• Availability of incentives or support

This allowed us to move beyond stated attitudes and understand how decisions shift as variables and scenarios change

2. Isolating behavioural drivers

The study explored the full range of influences shaping decision-making, including:

• Practical considerations (time to repair, functionality, inconvenience)
• Financial context (relative cost and perceived value)
• Product lifecycle stage and prior experience with breakdowns

We also examined how these factors interact to better understand that decisions are rarely rational or linear, but shaped by situational trade-offs

3. Testing levers to encourage repair

Testing different messaging, scenarios, and incentives to identify which have the greatest potential to encourage repair and discourage replace spanning

• Inducements
• Friction points

The project delivered a comprehensive insight framework and activation toolkit, including:

• A clear model of repair vs replace decision drivers
• A set of prioritised behavioural levers to encourage repair
• Strategic recommendations for customer journeys, communications, and service design
• An interactive insight-to-action workshop, aligning stakeholders and translating insight into practical solutions