Secrets of master communicators: 11-15

In our previous communications we looked at ten persuasive techniques that advanced communicators use to influence us. Today we look at another five.

Eleven

Firstly, scarcity. Here’s a fun experiment from the 1970s—procure two identical glass cookie jars. In one jar put ten cookies, in the other, two. Same cookies. Now invite friends to tell you which cookies from which jar taste better. You will find the cookies from the ‘two’ jar will consistently rate higher for taste than the cookies in the ‘ten’ jar. This experiment has been replicated countless times, and countless times the jar with the fewer cookies is considered more desirable than the jar with plenty of cookies to go around.

The most expensive things in life are scarce. So too, if supply is withheld, and something seems scarce, we want it more. As an aside, look up the history of diamonds. They are held to be precious stones, but in fact they are plentiful, the big diamond houses deliberately hold production back so as to not flood the market with a rock that they themselves have hyped into desirability and mystique. Women don’t need a diamond ring to feel loved, but a marketing man in the 60s decided that women did, so created a series of ads that sold the dream. The rest is history.

‘Only one left,’ ‘Today only,’ ‘77% off’, ‘limited edition,’ ‘four other potential buyers are interested in this house’. I remember my teenage years and learning early on to schedule all of the people interested in buying my cars for sale to turn up at the same time. When they all saw each other, and realised that there was competition, the demand went up. I never had a problem selling the cars. I always had a problem selling my cars if I staggered the viewings to allow everyone to have their own time.

Twelve

Secondly, the human rule of attraction—’if I like you I will go out of my way to help you’. So, we see adverts full of pretty young men and women enjoying themselves (a friend of mine keeps a collection of images of salads making women laugh). The liking of people similar to us is so strong that even fleeting moments of compatibility or liking are enough to trigger the ‘I will help you’ response. Why, do you think, Coke went to all the expense and trouble of putting people’s names on bottles of Coke? Because sales went up as a result of the feeling of ‘we have the same name.’ And just to dirty the data up a bit, as Andrews, Van Leeuwen and Van Baaren point out, inducing fleeting attraction through similarity has proven most effective on people with high needs for social approval and affiliation. Perhaps leaving you with a little ‘ick’ in your mouth, now that you know this.

Thirteen

Thirdly, skilled communicators use a decoy to get you moving in the desired direction. Let’s say you want a new iPhone, but you don’t know which one to get. Option A is $999 for 64GB of storage, Option B is $1,999 for 256GB of storage. That’s a tough decision to make: do you go for price, or do you go for storage? Hard to choose… But say Apple introduces a decoy, a third option. $1,699 for 128GB of storage space. Now the second option, the 256GB of space, looks the better option, because for a little more cash you jump up a lot in storage space. Voilà. Apple just convinced you to buy the most expensive option, the one they wanted you to pick all along.

Note: this technique works best with high-value products and services. Don’t waste it on your eggs and beans.

Fourteen

Fourthly, ‘But wait, there’s more!’ You’ve seen this on countless late-night infomercials, trying to convince you to buy anti-wrinkle cream, chef knife sets and Tony Robbins motivational products. And how’s this, studies have shown that it’s easier to sell a muffin that is priced at $1 then reduced to $0.75c than it is to sell a muffin priced at $0.75c to begin with. We believe we are picking up a bargain, even though we have heard the sales patter a million times before. As long as the final product in the string of products being ‘thrown in for free’ is very desirable, your ad stands a good chance of working as you would hope.

Fifteen

Lastly, the more we see it, the more we like it. That new person in the office? The more you see them the more you like them. That advert for soap? The more you see it the more positively you view that product. A meaningless Chinese symbol? The more you see it the more positive views you generate towards it. That’s why advertisers flood your channels with the same ads. In Adelaide, where I’m from, there’s an ongoing series of adverts from ‘Frank Walker’ about his tile company. His voice is distinctive, and most people are initially amused by, then bored then repulsed by it. But he continues to run the ads with his distinctive voice because the ads work—we might not like his voice but we remember his tile company, and usually shop there if we are looking for bathroom or kitchen tiles.

Conclusion

Well, there’s five more persuasion techniques that skilled communicators use to persuade us to buy. I hope you found this communication of value and I look forward to sharing another five techniques soon. Until then, take care, take some communication risks, because you never know what’s going to pay dividends, and communicate with passion!