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|| personal development | POWER OVER HABIT
us as social animals. Mineo points out that taking ad-
vantage of this “me, too” phenomenon through promi-
nent display of social media buttons on a Web site or
blog is a simple way to draw attention to a message or
product; the greater the number of saves, shares, and
likes, the more subsequent visitors to the page will save,
share, and like—and stay to browse and perhaps buy.
Decoy effect
Mineo shows us how a decoy is used to impel a po-
tential buyer to choose the most expensive of several
choices. To induce buyers to choose an expensive item,
they must believe that the expensive item is a “bargain,”
so they are shown other options with which to compare
the target: similar but less expensive items, a somewhat
better version that is not particularly attractive on its
own, and the expensive item, priced the same as the
less attractive one but presented in a “combo,” perhaps
with a “free” product piggybacked on from other, slow-
moving stock. The decoy is the one they’d be unlikely to
buy but compared to which the expensive item looks like
the best deal.
Scarcity
Supply and demand is the name of this game. The
greater the supply, the less valuable the commodity. But
perception also determines value: people will consider
an item more valuable if they are led to believe that it’s
scarce. So when an ad is checkered with words like
“most sought after” or “only three left at this price,” buy-
ers imagine that the item is good and popular but almost
sold out—and they want in. But, as Mineo warns, words
like “limited edition” imply an artificial scarcity of some
niche item whose value is thus artificially set and whose
appeal may be mostly to those who want unique status
as an exclusive owner.
Anchoring
The anchor effect is based on the principle that the
first bit of information we learn about anything provides
the mooring to which we attach further information, com-
parisons, and decisions. In Mineo’s example, if a cus-
tomer knows that a certain store usually sells jeans for
$50—the anchor price—but has them on sale for $35,
the customer will be enticed to buy. But for this tech-
nique to work, the customer has to know the anchor
price, and the sale price has to be lower than what the
customer is used to paying. The smart seller sets the
anchor in the ad by showing the usual price next to the
sale price. Striking through the anchor, giving the sale
price in bold color and larger font, and prominently
showing the percentage off are also components of an-
choring.
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
We’ve all had the bizarre experience of meeting a
new word and then suddenly seeing it everywhere.
Named after the German terrorist gang whose name
often appeared in the news forty years ago, this phe-
nomenon is also called frequency illusion. As explained
by Professor Arnold Zwicky of Stanford, we pay selec-
tive attention to new information and are then especially
alert to its appearance. And each subsequent appear-
ance confirms our conviction that it is appearing more
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