It's been said that the act of buying is more often emotional than logical. Marketing experts teach that after showing the prospects the features of your product, or service and the benefits of each feature, you need to give them an emotional push. So, the decision starts with the head and ends with the heart.
If you have ever experienced going out to buy one thing and ending up buying another thing, you'll begin to see what I'm talking about. Impulse buying does not happen sometimes, it happens more often than you think.
Why? On the buying floor, you see with your eyes, and what you see you touch. What you touch, you feel. It's a very sensual thing. Logical thinking is quite remote because when you use your mind you need to sit down to think. You don't have much time to do that on the buying floor.
When your senses like what they perceived, you begin to create pictures of the total experience you'll be having when you own the thing. This picture must create an experience of well-being. You must feel good about this mental image. Otherwise, you won't buy.
So, in marketing, whether by direct mail or on the internet, you need, as much as possible, to create the needed appeal by describing the product in a way that the buyer could see it and feel it through your written piece. Make your site or your letter your own buying floor. Then, put yourself in the buyer's shoes and to always remember, "you buy what you want, not what you need."
Forget about the rational, and logical decision-making appeal. You can put in everything that makes your product unique and different. But, in the end you must make the buyer feel good about it. Give him a picture of how great it would be to own the thing you're selling. Give him the reason why he should buy.
This is where the 7 Deadly Sins come in. These are:
1. Pride. Since buying is emotional, pride takes the cake. Why do people buy a Rolex? Or a Mercedes Benz? Or a BMW? Is Rolex different from Seiko, or Citizen in terms of function? All of them keep good time. If you analyze the commercials for Rolex you'll see why. The buying appeal focuses on the prestige accruing to the person who owns a Rolex.
The same thing is true for expensive luxury cars. The Camry, or Corolla could get you where you want to go. But, the pride of owning a Mercedes, or a Jaguar feeds the human ego. A person who owns a prestigious object feels that he is a cut above the rest. That he is amongst the cream of the crop. By this token, he is different.
A rare breed.
Related to this is the appeal to the buyer's need for approval. It's like you're making him feel he's being inducted into an elite group when he buys your product. Your product becomes a passport to a rarified realm.
2. Greed or Avarice. Aside from their seeming need to hoard material things, people are also hungry for animal comforts. This is the reason why they want to make a great deal of money. With money they can buy everything they want to satisfy the hunger. It is the cold, hard truth. And you need to understand it. With your understanding of what feeds the human ego, you simply focus on how your product, or service, can dramatically change the life of your prospects once they own it. How it can be a great addition to what they already have.
The most common theme I noted among commercials or sales promos is the greed for money. That's why almost all of them focus on the big savings. Like, "You get two for a price of one." Or, "Seventy percent off." Or, it is a "Fire Sale," and the buyers would not even ask if there was really a fire. All they care about is the savings.
3. Gluttony. This is just like avarice. But, it applies to food. In the extreme, some people can never be satisfied when they eat. It's a psychological disorder. They eat, and eat until they vomit. Gluttons, don't taste their food. They wolf it down. If you're in the restaurant business, you do not market to gluttons. You market to those who take pleasure in eating.
If you have a website for your restaurant, you need to show good pictures of your menu. Make the food look alive, they could almost taste it. You can describe each menu in detail. Give your prospects a clear idea of how a particular entre tastes like. Make them savor it. Give them the picture that would make them go and eat in your restaurant.
Anyway, just take a look at all those ads on TV. The fourth meal, the huge shrimp, the big 6 dollar burger. Notice how the guy with the big burger takes a big bite and how he chomps on the food? There's also that ad on TV with the guy saying, "This is a lot of food." And, the lady saying, "But, you finished them all the time." What do you think are they appealing to?
4. Anger. Many marketers make use of a form of "anger" in their marketing strategy. This involves making the buyers identify themselves with you as the good guy, and your competition as the bad guy. So, now you and the buyer are allies, and the competition is your common enemy. The soda challenge was a good example. The ad was designed to make the other cola taste "bad". This was intended to make the buyer feel "resentful" towards the other cola for selling "inferior" product, or service, and thus, opt for the advertised cola.
5. Envy. This is a very negative emotion, as we know, but you can make it work to your advantage. You can either make your prospects feel they will be the envy of their peers by buying your product. Make use of the pride factor. Or, you can make the prospect feel envious by being out and not yet in with you.
Most car commercials focus on the envy factor. They make you feel like you're missing a big part of your existence because you're not driving this or that model. I remembered this old commercial that projected a car model as the "macho machine." Like all car commercials there was a lot of driving. But, this one featured a revving engine, and lots of tire-squealing. At the end the guy said, "You don't know what you're missing.
6. Sloth. This is the feeling of wanting to relax, to feel easy and comfortable all the time. While many nine-to-fivers continue to labor, the thought of relaxing, on the beach somewhere, continue to linger on the backs of their mind. If you're selling retirement packages, this may work for you. If you could make this feeling of ease and comfort to just be lazy because the prospect has a choice, because he can - as a reward for all the years of hard labor the emotional appeal would work. Make the prospects feel that the opportunity to be able to do this is now before them, with your product or service.
But, the sloth appeal could work with virtually any product or service. There's this commercial of a couple relaxing on the beach with their favorite beer. No sound. There's just this surf giving the lulling sensation of peace and quiet as it strikes the beach again and again. Imagine it's you and somebody special out there. No deadlines to worry about. No boss looking over your shoulder. And, you have your favorite beer in your hand straight from the ice box. Get the picture?
7. Lust. In the negative sense, lust is an intense or uncontrolled appetite for flesh Or, it could be an overpowering desire or craving as in lust for power. However, it could simply be an ardent enthusiasm as in lust for life, or lust for adventure. While the rest of the sins are more like emotional states, lust is active. With lust, there is an element of "go get 'em". If you sell travel, you can make use of the lust factor. You can sell adventure packages, for example. Give the traveler a picture of fun and discovery.
Most of the commercials you see about travel on TV make use of the sloth and avarice factor the hunger for animal comfort and the easy life.
However, there's this ad I saw on the internet which featured a river barge excursion down the Mississippi River. It features, among others, an insider approach to the history and culture of America. Picture yourself visiting cities along the banks of the great river and having a taste of their heritage.
Here's another one from the internet:
"Our unique voyages (will) take you on a journey of breath-taking magnitude. You'll explore awe-inspiring worlds..creating a mind-enriching vacation. Our explorations to dramatic land and seascapes provide the most exclusive encounters with the culture, nature, wildlife and the environment in some of the world's last remaining frontiers."
If you are an adventure traveler you will experience the appeal right away with this one.
While we are at it, there is another emotion that you can capitalize on to great advantage when you're marketing something like life insurance. It is the fear factor. One very popular insurance ad I remembered went like this:
"If something suddenly happens to me, will my family continue to enjoy what they are enjoying now? Will they still have the same lifestyle that they have now when I'm gone?"
This ad plays on the fear of a sudden loss of life of the prospect and the consequence that such a loss would pose to the surviving members of the family.
Those "don't drink and drive ads" you see on TV use the same theme. Fear. The fear of losing life, or fear of going to jail.
If you have received those offers with a time line. Like, "after 12 midnight on Friday the price goes up", it's the same thing. It plays on your fear of losing a big discount. More like a double play actually. It also plays on your greed for money.
So, if you are a buyer, you are now aware what of your emotions the marketers are trying to play around with when you read their promos or ads. If your are a neophyte marketer you are now given the tools to use when you launch your next campaign.
Maria Angelozzi Business Marketing
Mariaangelozzi@veretekk.com
Wenonah, NJ
Friday, December 14, 2007
Sins of Online Marketing!
