Robert Cialdini wrote a landmark book - Influence, in the 2000s. That book decoded elements that make us act in a certain way. He later noted that if we preload our brain with subtle messages, we can significantly influence the decisions that follow. He covered the details of this phenomenon in his book - Pre-suasion. One of the strategies recommended in the book for effectively advertising our products and services involves these three factors:
Sex
Fear
Novelty
Universally, we all are hard-wired to grab sexual cues. It is the reason magazine cover pages have semi-nude models. Even car advertisements have models that are perceived to be beautiful by the standards generally applied by society. We cannot ignore them. Along with these pictures, the main message subtly catches our attention. So, if you are in the business of hairstyling, apparel, cars, sports, perfumes, beauty products, sex works for you.
Despite millions of years of evolution, our brain still lives is in fear mode. We worry about survival in almost all instances. The media uses this trigger against us to grab eyeballs. We are bombarded with news of violence, rape, natural disasters.
Many times we see examples of one strategy used against one another. For example, the cigarette packs used masculine images to project an image of power and strength (sex appeal). The government ads showed blackened lungs to highlight the ill-effects of smoking (fear). The fear prevailed over sex, and we saw the number of smokers drop considerably over the years.
Novelty is the third element of pre-suading people. Jonah Berger calls this social currency. When we get to experience something unique, it grabs our attention. We want to share that experience with everyone. I always advocate using lumpy mail for customer communication. It is a package that has some gift or an artifact along with the sales letter. People don't throw away any such parcel without opening it.
Depending on your customer segment, you can use one or a combination of the above three elements for promoting your products/services.
Metrics:
Review your customer segment.
Review your current promotion strategy.
Add one or more of the above elements, and conduct a test run on select customers.
Roll out the final version based on the response.
Subodh
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