Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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WHAT PEOPLE REALLY WANT:
Life Force 8:
-------------1) Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.
2) Enjoyment of food and beverages.
3) Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
4) Sexual companionship.
5) Confortable living conditions.
6) To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Jones.
7) Care and protection of loved ones.
8) Social approval.
Quote:
"People buy because of emotion and justify with logic. Force an emotional by touching on a basic
want or need."
9 Learned Human Wants:
-----------------------1) To be informed.
2) Curiosity.
3) Cleanliness of body and surroundings.
4) Efficiency.
5) Convenience.
6) Dependability / quality.
7) Expression of beauty and style.
8) Economy / profit.
9) Bargains.
17 Foundational Principles of Consumer Psychology:
--------------------------------------------------1) The Fear Factor - Selling the Scare. Fear sells. It drives them to spend money. Fear causes
stress. Stress causes action. Tap existing fears.
Four Ingredient Recipe for Using Fear:
1. It scares the hell out of people.
2. It offers a specific recommendation for overcoming the fear-aroused threat.
3. The recommended action is percieved as effective for reducing the threat.
4. The message recipient believes that he or she can perform the recommended action.
(Fear can also paralyze. Use specific, believable recommendations. Use fears that are specific and
widely recognized.)
2) Ego Morphing - Instant Identification. "By purchasing the 'right stuff' we enhance our own egos
and rationalize away." AKA. Retail therapy.
3) Transfer - Credibility by Osmosis. Symbols, images, or ideas. Cues. Institutions, celebrities,
authorities. Experts i.e. "White lab coats."
4) The Bandwagon Effect - Give Them Something To Jump On. "Consensus-Implies-Correctness"
heuristic. People want to belong.
1. Aspirational group - to which you'd LIKE to belong.
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2:
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1) The Psychology of Simplicity - Use words effectively. Write so people can understand.
1. Use Short, Simple Words. - No $10 words. 5th grade level preferred.
2. The Shorter Your Sentances, the Better - Express only one thought in a sentance. No more.
3. The Short, Short Paragraph Trick - Limit regular paragraphs to 4-5 short sentances. Less in
some cases (1-2) for easy reading.
4. Pile on Personal Pronouns - I, you, me, he, she, him, they, them, etc. Gives human flavor.
Quote:
"Consumers buy based on what the product will do for them, not on what ingredients it has."
-Newspaper Association of America
3) Put Your Biggest Benefit In Your Headline - Always. Keep under 6-9 words. 12 Max. Best is 3 or
less.
Quote:
"Unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money."
-David Ogilvy
Quote:
"Short headlines enjoy higher readership than long headlines. As headlines grow, readership
shrinks."
-Starch Research
4) Crank Up The Scarcity - Hard deadline: "Sale Ends August 21st". Soft deadline: "Quantities
limited." "First 100 Buyers only!"
5) 22 Psychologically Potent Headline Starters:
Quote:
"There are four important qualities that a good headline may possess. They are: 1. Self-interest.
2. News. 3. Curiosity. 4. Quick, easy way."
-John Caples
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
FREE: "Free Book Shows You How to Write Sneaky Advertising That..."
NEW: "Powerful New Seminar Teaches..."
AT LAST: "At Last.. A Bakery That Only Uses..."
THIS: "This New Invention Stops..."
ANNOUNCING: "Announcing The Hottest New Sandwich..."
Example Headline: "Just Released! Psychologist's Study Reveals Little-Known Speaking Patterns
That Immediately Put Rude Salespeople in Their Place."
1. Continue the Thought In The Headline: "You know the rude salespeople we mean. The ones
with the big mouths..."
2. Ask a Question: "How would you handle yourself in a situation like this?"
3. Quote a Respected Authority: "According to communication psychologist R. Butler Sinclair,
there..."
4. Give 'Em a Free Taste: "The next time you're confronted by a pushy salesperson, do this: Wait
until..."
5. Challenge Them to Prove it Works: "Here's what we want you to do. Read pages 8 and 9 of this
book - no more. Then go.."
6. Start with a Story of Skepticism: "When we first received the manuscript from the author, we
were skeptical..."
7. Tell What Others are Saying (Bandwagon Effect): Testimonials: "Nobody hates obnoxious
salespeople more than I do.."
8. Play Reporter: "Philadelphia, PA - A New York psychologist..."
9. Get Personal With You, You, You: "Have you ever been hassled... Do you hate when people...
Would you like to know... "
10. Tell a Dramatic Story: "According to communication psychologist R. Butler Sinclair, there's no
longer any need for anyone to feel intimidated."
11. Give Super-Detailed Specs: "This amazing new book - a hefty 8.5x11-inch leather-bound,
hardcover beauty, is jamed packed over 443 pages.."
12. Lure Them With a Very Short Sentance: "Don't you hate it?" "It makes me sick." ""
7) 360-Degrees of Attention-Getting Power - Use circle-shaped ads instead of common
square/rectangular.
8) The Reverse-Type Pitfall - Don't do it. Reverse-type is light words on dark background.
9) Crush Your Competition With Extreme Specificity - Be extremely specific and descriptive when
describing your product/service.
10) The Famous Ogilvy Principle - Start body copy with a Drop Initial. Massive oversized letter.
Always run pics with captions!
11) The Psychology of Typefaces - Sans-serif for online (Arial, Verdana) and Serif for print
(Helvetica, Times, etc.)
12) Insist on the Pro-Design Difference - Use a real graphic designer. Period.
13) The Power of Questions - They captivate and cause "open loops" in people's brains.
14) The "Granny Rule" of Direct Mail - Relate to your reader. Talk to them like a friend and make
them like you.
15) The Psychology of "Social Proof" - People believe testimonials. Always use them!
16) The Guillotine Principle - Use pictures of heads and faces in ads. Preferably smiling and
relevant to the offer.
17) PVAs - The Easy Way to Boost the Power of Your Copy - Powerful Visual Adjectives. "Rake in
$2500 Cash Weekly!"
18) Directing Mental Movies 1.
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19) Battling Human Inertia - Get people to take ACTION! 1. Make it easy to act. 2. Ask for action.
20) Establish Your Unique Selling Proposition - Tell them the real reason why they should PREFER
you! Be serious and descriptive!
Quote:
"It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement, and the more it
looks like an editorial, the more readers stop and read."
-David Ogilvy
30) The Coupon Persuader - Add a broken "coupon style" border to graphic ads. People are
conditioned. Use "Double Coupons!" Light yellow bg tint.
31) 7 Online Response Boosters 1. Best Frequency for E-Mailing - 31-35% => 1/week - 18% => 2-3/week - 13% => 1/month
2. CTRs - What to Expect - Declining for email. 1% for poorly crafted to rented lists. 20%+ for
highly appealing offers to house list.
3. HTML vs Text - 60% have the ability to see HTML. HTML gets 200% better response rate. Some
people block HTML. Must split test.
4. Best Way to Get Emails Opened - (60%+ is excellent open-rate) - 1. Familiar Sender. 2. Subject
line must have their name. 3. Targetted offer.
5. Ad Size and Readership - Leaderboards and Skyscrapers outperform regular banners. Large >
small. DHTML > non-interactive.
6. Animation Click-Through Booster - Animated = 15% higher than non-animated. Movement
catches attention.
7. Mystery Ads Score High Click-Throughs - but low conversions to sales. Poor targetting. Don't
confuse clicks for sales.
32) Multi-page Your Way to Success - (only applies to print)
33) Guarantees that Guarantee Higher Response - Use "Guarantees" generously. Buyers feel
vulnerable. Use a long and strong guarantee.
34) The Psychology of Size - Bigger ads perform better.
35) The Psychology of Page and Section Positioning - Generally just doesn't matter. Ad creative
matters most.
Quote:
"A good ad will get noticed irrespective of its position within the newspaper."
-Roper Starch Worldwide
36)
The Fantastic Four - (only applies to print)
37) Consumer Color Preferences and How Color Affects Readership - 1. Blue. 2. Red. 3. Green.
The older the bluer. Best combo: Blue-Yellow then Blue-Red
38) The Psychology of Pricing - Odd pricing conveys value ($77.95) Even pricing conveys quality
($1,000) Helps justify sale for "teeterers".
39) The Psychology of Color - "Darker is heavier" Apparent weight is higher as you get darker.
White, yellow, green are lightest.
40) Wrap Your Ads in White - Wrap your ads with lots of white space. It garners way more
attention. Pro tip.
41) Give Yourself a "Cleverectomy" - In advertising, it's not clever to be clever. Sell the benefits.
No clever word jokes.
22 Response Superchargers:
--------------------------1) Forget style - sell instead!
2) Scream "Free Information!"
3) Write short sentances and keep them reading.
4) Use short, simple words.
5) Write long copy.
6) Boil it down, cut out the fluff!
7) Stir up desire by piling on the benefits.
8) Show what you're selling - action shots are best.
9) Get personal! Say: you, you, you.
10) Use selling subheads to break up long copy.
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