- Why are some businesses growing consistently,
regardless of the economy?
How can these brands charge top dollar,
and have people practically beg to give them their cash?
The answer is simple, sort of,
emotions, habits, beliefs.
Companies like Apple know how to make their product,
but more importantly, their brand
become a part of your life.
More than that, become a part of you,
or at least the way you think about yourself.
(ominous music)
It's more than making funny ads.
- Hello, I'm a Mac.
- And I'm a PC.
Great, you just get along.
- PC. Okay.
- Flashy graphics.
(upbeat music)
Or even hyped-up product launches.
- Do is get rid of all these buttons,
just make giant screen,
a giant screen.
- It's about making the brand a part of your identity.
Bad marketing doesn't appeal to any identity
and just tries to sell you things you don't want,
or need, or care about.
Good marketing appeals to a customers current identity,
but it's great marketing that appeals
to your aspirational identity,
who you want to be.
And this effect is so strong, and so powerful
that not only does it influence our buying decisions,
but also carries over into how we think,
and feel, and act in our everyday lives.
A study done by Duke University found that brief exposure
to well-known brands can cause people to behave in ways
that reflect the brands' traits.
(machine beeping)
The researchers tested this by flashing either the Apple
or the IBM logo quickly to participants,
and then did an exercise that measured
how many creative ideas they were able to come up with.
The results were the participants
that were shown the Apple logo
were able to come up with significantly more
creative and unique ideas than for IBM.
This is what makes the Mac vs PC campaign so genius.
It's not just that it's funny,
but that it appeals to a persons identity,
current or aspirational.
It's also polarizing,
pulling some people in and pushing some people away,
something that every great brand and business does.
Identity is about culture, community, and connection,
or as Seth Godin puts it,
"People like us, do things like this."
What Apple did well, as well as other brands like Nintendo,
and Nike and Chic-Fil-A,
is that they tapped into a culture in a community
that was already there.
A target audience if you will,
and gave them another flag to fly.
A flag that not only allows them to show what ideas,
and messages, and lifestyles are important to them,
but also encourages the customers to do a little bit,
or a lotta bit of extra free marketing
in support of the brands that they believe in,
which is what this next point is all about.
We, as humans, use other humans in order to decide
what to do, and what to like,
and what brands and businesses to buy from.
The fancy, psychological term for this
is the mimetic theory of desire,
and it's basically how we're programmed to want things
when we see other people showing them off in a way
that looks cool or interesting or amazing.
And we think, "Hey, I want that too."
Even the most anti-authority,
"you can't tell me what to do",
rebel without a cause kinda people
still look to other anti-authority,
"you can't tell me what to do",
rebel without a cause kinda people for cues,
and signals, and behaviors to copy and model and emulate.
This isn't a bad thing and it's certainly not a judgment
against following other people,
rather than going alone and forging your own path.
After all, this behavior has been evolutionarily
hardwired into us as in the past
the people that forged their own path
often ended up not making it to the other side.
I wouldn't go that way if I were you.
But you are me.
The key then is learning how to harness this power
by stacking the odds in your favor
and going out of your way to show more people
using your business, products, or services,
and loving every minute of it.
In marketing we call this social proof
and Apple does an amazing job of this.
Think of the old white iPod earphone cord
or the new white AirPods.
Think of Apple logos on the back of laptops,
and iPads, and iPhones.
And all of these exposures to hundreds, thousands,
millions of little Apple logos are proving
that this product is popular,
and people love it, and you should too.
But even smaller brands and businesses
can still take advantage of social proof
by sharing customer testimonials,
and case studies, and reports, and reviews.
Anything and everything that shows a potential customer
that other people like you as well.
If you want to take it a step further though,
and I highly recommend you do,
you're definitely gonna wanna use
this next psychological principle everywhere
and anywhere you can.
Did you know that people are more likely to choose
an average, mediocre business
where they know they're going to get
average, mediocre results,
rather than taking a chance on a new business
that looks promising,
but where the outcome isn't quite as clear or guaranteed.
This is because people hate losing.
They don't like taking risks
and they're afraid of looking dumb, or silly,
or dare I say even stupid
for having made the wrong decision.
The scientific term for this is loss aversion,
essentially shows how people feel more pain from losing
than they would from winning the exact same amount.
So, people often make decisions to avoid losing,
rather than prioritize making a gain.
There's an old saying
that's been around in the business community
for pretty much forever now that says,
"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM."
Essentially, saying that you don't wanna take a chance here,
just go with the safe bet.
Sure we might not be as cool, or amazing,
or fancy as some of the other guys
but we're safe and reliable,
and essentially very boring.
Perfectly amazingly average.
But wait a second,
isn't one of the keys to marketing success
to try to be different and new and unique
in order to stand out and differentiate yourself
from the competition?
Yes.
But not at the expense of safety, reliability, or results.
Let me give you an example that ties all of this together
as well as elements from identity, social proof,
and loss aversion.
Let's say one day I get a message from a buddy
who says he's going skydiving later
and asks if I want to come along.
Seeing as I consider myself a relatively open-minded person
who's open to new experiences and adventures,
I say yes and decide to go along with him.
When I get to the airfield
I see that there are two different skydiving companies
to choose from.
One has over 100, 5-star reviews
complete with video testimonials,
instructor bios that show how experienced the team is,
and there's even some happy smiling people walking away
talking about just how this was one
of the greatest experiences of their entire lives.
The other place is just a shed,
not even a very nice shed.
Instead of an airplane,
it looks like they're using some kind of catapult system
to launch you into the sky.
Now of course, by this point
my mind has already pretty much been made up
with which company I think is the better bet,
but it's this next point that really seals the deal,
which is how the first company talks about the lengths
and crazy ridiculous amounts of safety precautions
they're going to take in order to ensure
our safety and survival.
I mean there's training, and then checks,
and then more training, and more checks,
so much so that it would be unreasonable for me to consider
that something could ever go wrong.
(wind howling)
Something went wrong, very, very wrong.
And the beauty is,
you can apply these principles of identity,
and social proof and loss aversion
to pretty much anything that your selling,
from services to socks,
marketing to muffins,
coaching, consulting, and courses
to candles, cameras, and cows.
For a real world example though,
Apple's marketing strategy plays perfectly
on the fear of missing out,
FOMO, by emphasizing all of the benefits and the features
that a user will miss out on if they don't upgrade
to the latest and greatest device.
This of course, makes customers more likely to purchase
the newest, latest and greatest thing
in order to avoid that perceived loss.
Of course, there's another psychological principle
that you can use here to make customers
more likely to trust everything single thing
you say and do from the very first moment they meet you.
So, let me show you how to do that now.
I'm sure you've heard at some point in your life
just how important it is to make a good first impression.
But what you may not have known is just how important
that first impression really is, especially in business.
This is because once a first impression has been made
and a customer has formed an initial decision
about you, your business, or your offer,
they're gonna fight like crazy to defend their viewpoint,
whether it's right or wrong,
and they're gonna defend this to themselves and to others
possibly forever.
But wait, it gets worse.
Because, this first impression often happens
in the blink of an eye,
certainly no longer than 7 seconds.
And like I just said,
it's gonna last a very, very long time.
Okay, now the good news.
And there is good news,
because as much as a bad first impression
can haunt you and your business for years to come,
a good first impression can act like a moat,
or a forcefield, or like a guardian angel
sitting on your shoulder watching out for you,
protecting you every step of the way.
Thanks, buddy.
The psychological term for this
is called the halo effect
and it occurs when you think someone is good at everything
just because they're good at one thing.
So if you're able make a good first impression
by looking professional, or clean, or courteous
or whatever other traits you want associated
with your brand,
it's far more likely that a customer
is going to then apply that
to everything else that you do in the future.
The halo effect is kinda like saying,
"Wow, that person is really good at drawing,
"they must also be incredibly smart and funny
"and good at water skiing."
(upbeat music)
But there's another thing you can do
in that all important first impression stage too,
which is not only going to make customers love you more,
but it's also going to enable you
to make a whole lot more money.
Let me tell you a story.
I was staying at a hotel last month
that had a super fancy coffee shop
with all kinds of different exotic coffees
from all over the world.
Anyway, the first thing that I saw
when I walked in the door was a blackboard
with the daily specials on it.
And front and center written in big bold writing
were the words, "Peaberry Coffee, $28 dollars per cup."
Yup. $28 bucks for a cup of coffee.
What a crazy world we live in.
That's pretty much all I could think about
as I was waiting in line.
(gentle music)
I mean, how can a single cup of coffee be that expensive?
Who spends $28 bucks on a cup of coffee?
I wonder what it tastes like?
Should I try it?
I mean for market research purposes.
And just like that, the anchor had been set.
The first price I saw when I walked in was $28 dollars,
and whether I wanted to or not,
that was the number that I was going to use
to judge every single other price against
when I was trying to decide what to order.
And just like that all of a sudden
an otherwise ridiculously overpriced
$8 cup of plain black coffee,
something that would cost 50 cents to make at home,
or be available at any chain coffee shop for like 2 bucks,
in comparison to the $28 cup
started looking like the deal of a lifetime.
And the thing that makes anchoring
just so incredibly powerful,
is that it works even when we know what's happening.
But it's just too strong a force to consciously overcome.
This is why Apple's pricing strategy
almost always involves some kind of anchoring,
where they present a premium higher-priced item first,
and then the more conservative
budget-friendly option second.
The high-priced fancy expensive one sets the anchor,
and the lower-priced one now seems more affordable
and desirable, and therefore increases conversions.
As great as this is though,
we've only just scratched the surface,
and this is why the next thing you're gonna wanna do
is take a look at the video I've got linked up right here
which is gonna give you 15 psychological marketing triggers
to make people buy from you.
So make sure to tap or click that now
and I'll see you in there in just a second.