“A single idea, can be so persuasive that it can, engulf and entire being, and become the basis for every thought they make. In short an idea is a parasite, like a virus.” – Richard Dawkins
This unique advantage that distinguishes one thing from another in a really clear understandable way can be the difference for businesses between making huge profits, or financial ruin.
Richard Dawkins, a famous evolutionist, outlined a model stating that ideas fight competitively, like that of genes’ they fight for survival amongst other ideas, and the ones that are particularly unique have a competitive advantage and are accepted. He called ideas ‘Meme’s.
Although people can carefully attend to and elaborate on the content of a persuasion message, they can also process the message quite superficially, attending only to cues peripheral to its content such as the length of the message and the source of the message. We attempt to characterize these two modes of processing - systematic and heuristic - and to specify the
conditions that trigger and govern a specific mode of processing.
We haten to add that the two modes of information processing (systematic vs heuristic) are not linked in one-to-one fashion with the types of informational cues (message content vs other cues) as suggested by some researchers Kruglanski & Thomson (1999). What we believe is that people can engage in systematic
or heuristic processing. People can scrutinize cues peripheral to the message content, or they can process the message content heuristically. Dillard, James. Pfau, M. (2002:195)
Earlier cognitive theories focused on how people process the quality of persuasion messages McGuire, W. J. (1968). For example, persuasion effects were conceptualized in terms of the attention allocated to the message, the comprehension of the message content, and the acceptance of the message conclusions Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L. and Kelley, H. H. (1953)
However; People rarely process information in perfect
conditions (Where the speaker has a monopoly of value) There are both environmental and cognitive constraints on information processing. These constraints have given rise to the metaphor of the cognitive miser Fiske, S.T., & Taylor, S.E. (1991) In this metaphor, people are economy-minded, investing cognitive effort in a task only when given sufficient motivation and cognitive resources. Consistent with this assumption, the HSM posits that people engage in systematic processing of persuasive information only when they are sufficiently motivated. In a systematic mode, people consider all relevant pieces of
information and form a judgement based on these elaborations.
However if people are not sufficiently motivated or do not have sufficient cognitive resources, they can engage in superficial or heuristic processing of available information. In heuristic mode, people consider a few informational cues - or even a single informational cue - and form a judgement based on these cues.
for instance, such cues may be the source of the message or the length of the message, that is people use a simple decision rule such as "Experts can be trusted" to arrive at a conclusion instead of scrutinizing the quality of the persuasive arguments.
If we are going to communicate a message, it needs to relate to the unique qualities that define our position, against our
competitors and customize it towards the audience that we want to communicate.
Although consumption is fundamental to all forms of life, human consumption is extraordinary in its variety and sheer inventiveness. Some physical consumption, such as food and water, is essential for basic survival and thus shared with other organisms, but humans are remarkable in the scale of
consumption over and above meeting basic needs, and indeed in the way that even “basic” consumption is embellished and elaborated—consider, for example, the sheer number of brands of bottled water.
We do not buy a product simply because it tastes or looks good, but we also take into account the persona that surrounds the brand, known as brand character.
When thinking about a brand, be it clothing, sports goods, food or drink, we immediately conjure up ideas about the type of person who buys and uses or wears it. One example of the effectiveness of branding and advertising can be seen through the two similar products, Diet Pepsi was perceived as feminine, which deterred men from buying the product even though market research had suggested that timing was perfect to introduce diet soft drinks to a male market, as a response the Pepsi Max brand was launched under a different image. The advertising that surrounded this ‘new’ product reinforced the notion of breaking boundaries, being active, cool and the centre of attention, which drew in the male agent.
“Desire is prompted first and foremost by exposure to the brand, whether exposure is seeing a friend wearing Diesel Jeans, or a PT
cruiser drive down the street, it triggers interest in the brand”
Lindstrom, M. and Seybold, P. B. (2003:59) On the other hand, brands are symbols of aspirations, representing desired self-qualities, such as sophistication or power. Thus, brand priming may well activate goals linked with these desired outcomes and thus elicit goal-directed behaviour.” Fitzsimons, Chartrand, T.
Fitzsimons, G. (2008)
Indeed, much of the psychological value consumers obtain from brands appears to come from brands’ ability to fulfil their personality and identity motivations. In representing desired qualities of self - such as; sophistication or manliness, brands such as Tiffany or Hummer are goal relevant in nature,
symbolizing aspirations or unattained goals. In particular, some brands may represent “be” or ideal-self goals (e.g., to be
sophisticated), which describe people’s aims to improve themselves Carver, C. Scheier, M. (2002) Gollwitzer, P. M., &
Moskowitz, G. B.(1996)
Just as exposure to role models—people who represent success—can inspire goal-directed action, so too should exposure to brands that symbolize success at a given goal.
Fitzsimons, Chartrand, T. Fitzsimons, G. (2008)
This concept that increases the prevalence of ideas is mere exposure. This essentially is the concept that the frequency, or repetition of hearing an idea or seeing a person. Causes us to more admire, be attracted to and see similarity between their ideas, attitudes, and personality as our own, therefore causing us to more easily take on board their ideas.
Mere exposure, is a concept that says, that when we are only partially exposed to an idea portrayed repetitively that we are
more attracted and pleased to see that thing presented. As an idea we are more likely to accept it as truth.
This essentially is the concept that the frequency, or repetition of hearing an idea or seeing a person. Causes us to more admire, be attracted to and see similarity between their ideas, attitudes, and personality as our own….therefore causing us to more easily take on board their ideas.
Generally speaking, attraction is based on the frequency of interactions, and the proximity of exposure to another person. In one study it was found that the more often employees bumped into each other in the office environment the more likely they are to form romantic relations.
Research has shown that repeated exposure to a stimulus can lead to a more positive, or less negative, evaluation of the stimulus Zajonc, R. (1968). Thus, employees who interact during their daily work routines can become attracted to one another because of their repeated social contact. Indeed, a vast amount of the literature on repeated exposure supports the claim that ‘mere exposure of the individual to a stimulus is a sufficient condition for the enhancement of his attitude toward it. Individuals who are ‘encountered more frequently seem to elicit greater feelings of attraction from us, even though often little or no social interaction has taken place’”. Pierce, C. Byrne, D. Aguinis, H.
(1998)
What natural conditions create mere exposure? In a pioneering study, Leon Festinger, Stanley Schaehter and Kurt Back (1950) studied students attending the university of Massachusetts institute of technology. They were interested in who the students made friends with, as determined by proximity.
Physical distance measures the contact encouraged by the design and relative positions in the environment (i.e. adjoining houses could have front walkways leading in opposite directions).
Functional distance modifies physical distance because peoples paths may be mere likely to cross if they share mailboxes, walkways, or parking. The smaller the functional distance, the more likely people are to bump into each other and perhaps become friends. Two types of housing provided a natural replication of the researchers study. In one, Westgate West, apartments on the same floor shared common entrance porches in a two-story building with external stairs between floors. In the other Westgate Court, the duplex houses shared a common courtyard with shared paths to the street. In both housing complexes, researchers measured the distance between peoples apartments – that is, proximity – as a predictor of friendship.
Residents nominated their top three contacts. Within one floor of Westgate, west, over 41% of the top choices were next door neighbours, with other 22% more being next but one. People’s seemingly arbitrary assignment to apartments determined that nearly two thirds of their friends would be within a door or two of
their own place. “Susan T. Fiske (2009)
It’s been shown by numerous studies that “People remember people associated with positive things but forget people associated with negative things. An increasing amount of data suggests that stimulus familiarity increases with stimulus positivity” that is to say that we think positive experiences are familiar. For example we might recognize a smiling person, who makes direct eye contact with us, thinking we’ve met them before. But not recognize someone we know but looks sad or depressed. Berscheid. Walster. (1972)
If your associated with positivity your likely to be remembered and preached about. This is why in car adverts they feature glamorous locations, and sexy women, these items have little to do with cars, most people don’t take their fancy Mercedes Benz when travelling abroad. And most people only can afford cars like Mercedes Benz when they are near retirement and therefore are perhaps unlikely to have a girl on their arm like shown in those adverts. (That’s not to imply anything disrespectful to older women). Other than an idea being unique, it’s the
frequency and proximity of exposure to that person or thing that increases your liking of it and your engagement with it. This is why many companies will have a cheap product that they will distribute to huge numbers of people and offer an upgrade for the premium and advance version of the package. For instance Sky television (a Satellite TV company equivalent to cable TV in the us) have a basic package of £20-00 then to get their movie channels, entertainment channels and sport channels you pay an increased fee. 75% of UK society could afford the Sky basic package; by getting the majority of people involved then you can easily upgrade these people later on to the full package. By doing this you reach a much wider audience and make larger profits.
When we try and decide what product to buy, it’s a very difficult decision. Well perhaps you, the reader find it easy because you made the highly educated decision to buy this book = ) but seriously, you had little way of knowing whether buying this book was going to help you in any way.
Perhaps you knew it might this text might teach you something about hypnotism, or how to influence, or how to seduce. But you had no way of knowing that it was the best product to buy to suit your need.
We, the reader of the advert, don't really have any assessment of whether it’s a good deal. It just depends on whether we want what the product claims to offer us, and if it does manage to do this then the product is worth buying.
This is why you can sit courses on Viral Marketing, or Website marketing. And they teach you things like;
“List the bullet points of things your customer will gain by buying the product, relating the benefits to them.”
In order to prescribe benefits to a person we must know a little information about the person; like what motivates them? Why are they likely looking at your advert? Where have they seen your advert? How old are they? And what sex are they.
“When we buy a product we are actively seeking benefit that we desire and believe we will receive as an outcome of ownership and usage of a particular brand and/or product” Morrin, Maureen and S. Ratneshwar (2000)
On the internet there are millions of websites set up by web-entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck. They have a long sales letter explaining why you should buy their product, how it’s selling out fast and how it’s the best in the world.
These letters emphasize the benefits for the customer while explaining that their product is exclusive and never seen before on the market. And that it’s been reduced from $599-00 to only
$89-00 and this is a good deal! The list of benefits is usually explained in bullet points like the below:
- You will have the five ultimate techniques to persuade anyone to do anything!
- You will be able to attract any girl
- You will be getting a product approved by worldwide experts. Rated by many as the #1 product in the world.
- It’s easy to learn and you will be able to perform it in two weeks!
When reading such an advert you have no way of knowing whether they are telling you a load of lies, without having an in-depth knowledge of the topic area. Your only choice for many viewers of the advert is simply to accept the statements within the advert as true and click the buy button.
We are all prone to these techniques. The typical website viewer views a site for roughly 22 seconds. But inclusions numerous pages full of easy to read content, image slideshows, and videos causes the viewer to wait for the next event to occur in the video or the next slide in the slideshow, and this typically increases the conversation ratio, meaning that the viewers of the website stay there longer, and are far more likely to buy the product listed on the website as they feel a greater connection with your brand as they have invested more time into viewing your website with a degree of attention.
In this complex sensory world on infinite information &
possibilities, we find it difficult to know what is a good thing to believe, and what is a bad thing, so we just have to rely on things such as ‘how frequently we’ve heard it’, ‘how emotionally positive it made us feel’, ‘how similar we feel to it’, and ‘the utility benefit it claims it will offer us’.
When buying a product from an advertisement, without having an in-depth knowledge of the industry, whether its fashion,