Psychology

Marketing / January 1, 2018

How to positively influence your customer’s behavior 1 – Intro

The thing that strikes you immediately when visiting a baseball stadium for the first time is the grass. Trimmed to perfection, it sports stripes, diamonds, a checkerboard, or even arches. Over the years I heard many theories about how they’re created. The grass is colored, has different lengths and so on…but the real reason is a lot simpler. It’s the direction of the blades that tints the grass in different shades. When the sun hits a perpendicular blade, its whole body reflects …

Marketing / December 1, 2017

Marketing by Design (4/4): How to create your brand through Repetition

"If he’d spoken like a Midwesterner, all bets would have been off. Looking back, his accent made up for what he lacked in the looks department." -Accentophile We all have our favorites. From Sean Connery's "Shpeak" to Sofia Vergara's rolling "Rrr", accents have a disarming quality to them. And who wouldn't like to be seduced by a French whisper in their ear? On top of their charm, accents help us to recognize certain foreigners–Russians, Indians or Italians for example–immediately. Like an …

Marketing / November 1, 2017

Marketing by Design (3/4): How to gain credibility through proximity

Most doctors were deeply opposed to the idea of peddling prescription drugs on television. As if their resistance wasn't enough, the FDA imposed stringent guidelines on any such ad: a "brief" summary of contra-indications and side effects that would last up to ten minutes. Too big a challenge for most pharmaceutical companies, the marketing team of Vicks Cough Syrup came up with a clever idea. Why go through the hassle of advertising with real doctors if you could hire a well-known actor …

Marketing / October 1, 2017

Marketing by Design (2/4): How to strengthen your message through alignment

“Shieldwall!” As soon as they heard the battle cry, every Viking knew exactly what to do: gathering in two lines and overlapping their shield with the one next to them. This allowed even inexperienced soldiers to create a literal wall, impenetrable by arrows, swords and spears. The only weakness of this wall was the need for everybody to stay in line at all cost. Even just one man stepping out would compromise the whole formation and could break the wall apart. The superior …

Marketing / September 1, 2017

Marketing by Design (1/4): How to stand out through contrast

There comes a day in every parent's life when they hear their first "I want a pet!". And under the umbrella of teaching their offspring responsibility and taking care of another being, some will give in. A few pleasant weeks fly by. But once the novelty fades, the whole experience turns into constant battle to remind them of their promise–or the parents just suck it up and take over. There was a third option, for a brief period in 1997. Back then, children would want to raise a Tamagotchi …

Marketing / August 1, 2017

How to give your prospects what they really want–your product

"Positively demented, a hopeless case. She needs to be put where someone will take care of her." These words would seal Nellie Bly's fate when she was committed to the Blackwell Island Lunatic Asylum in 1887. Only that Bly wasn't insane at all. She had faked her mental illness to report on the conditions of the notorious institution. What she found was hard to stomach even for the enured journalist. Ice-cold baths, freezing nights, abuse at the hands of the nurses and isolation all weren't …

Marketing / July 1, 2017

The Only Two Reasons Your Prospects Buy Your Products

J.P. Morgan once requested a pearl scar pin from a renowned jeweler. After finding a magnificent pearl and mounting it on the appropriate setting, the craftsman sent it to Morgan with a bill for $5,000. On the next day, the package returned with a note that read:"I like the pin, but I don't like the price. Please accept the enclosed check of $4,000 and sent the box back with the seal unbroken." Outraged, the first thing the jeweler did was open the box. To his surprise, there was no pin–but a …

Marketing / June 1, 2017

Inside(r) out: How the power of belonging intensifies your marketing message

“When the boy was born…he was inspected. If he’d been small or puny or sickly or misshapen…he’d been discarded. From the time he could stand…he was baptized in the fire of combat. Taught never to retreat…never to surrender. At age 7…the boy was taken from his mother. Starved, forced to steal and if necessary…kill. Constantly tested…tossed into the wild. Left to pit his wits and will…against nature’s fury. It was his initiation…his time in the wild. For he would return to …