POWER OVER HABIT | personal development || 41
Many Consumers can’ t say exactly what they need besides money, or even why they need it. They may answer with some one obvious step forward:“ I need money to replace the car,” or“ I need money to buy a house,” or“ I need money to go on a vacation,” and so on in that vein. They can’ t bring anything further into focus because their ability to think strategically is limited, as a result of which a kind of bottomless pit opens up and swallows all their efforts, time, and money. Marketers, the task of whom it is to sell stuff, have long understood how to successfully manipulate Consumers: it’ s enough to suggest ever newer“ goals.”
If you want to avoid the consumption bug, or if you sense that the“ illness” has already infected you and you want to“ get well,” you’ ll need to be aware of some basic psychological tools that marketers use to hook Consumers. We’ ve leaned pretty heavily here on Ginny Mineo, a marketing specialist and past Manager of Content Marketing Strategy for HubSpot, who has written an article for their Marketing blog entitled“ Marketing Psychology: 10 Revealing Principles of Human Behavior” that names essential secrets of the trade and describes how they work. Readers can check out Mineo’ s article for links to further reading.
Priming
Mineo says that priming is a kind of pre-programming. An ad sends a subtle signal that you associate with something else. The marketer wants you to remember the ad and to be influenced by the association to buy the product.
As an example, Mineo cites a study conducted by Naomi Mandel and Eric Johnson in which participants were asked to choose between two similar products. The background and design of a Web site were changed to test whether consumers could be influenced to buy one product or the other. Some visitors to the Web site were primed for cost by a money-green background and images of pennies; others were primed for safety with a red-orange background and a flame. Here’ s what they found: those who were primed for cost looked longer at pricing information than those who were primed for safety. Savvy developers of marketing sites routinely apply the principle of priming to create designs capable of influencing consumer behavior.
Reciprocity
You scratch my back, I’ ll scratch yours. Reciprocity is a behavior seen in other animals as well as in humans. As applied to marketing, Mineo gives an example from the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Dr. Robert Cialdini. A diner at a restaurant will tip according to evaluation of service, but waiters can increase tips up to 20 %, he says, just by bringing a couple of mints with the check, the point being that even a small gesture invites a reciprocal response. Coupons and“ free gifts” are other examples.
Social Proof
People are generally influenced by the attitudes of those toward whom they orient themselves, such as people they admire or trust, or groups with which they would like to be identified. The need to belong is vital to
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