How do Marketers use Psychology to grow a Business?
Last time you thought of psychology must have been related to study of human brains and learning the art of persuasion. The study of psychology encompasses the study of how people think and how they can be motivated or deterred. What could go better with business than a solid understanding of how people “tick?” Chances are you were not thinking how you could one day use the study material from psychology as a successful business entrepreneur.
For example, marketing campaigns are essentially created and funded with one aim in mind – to get people to buy a product or service.
There are many ways that businesses entice us to buy.
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Understanding the impact of psychology in business will help a company grow a business. And here’s how they use it;
The Theory of Reciprocity
The reciprocity principle is one of the basic laws of social psychology. The Principle: When someone gives us something, we feel a sense of indebtedness to give them something back. It means if you help someone with something, usually, they will want to help you back.
Reciprocity works in a variety of situations; businesses use it in advertising, marketing, and propaganda. For instance, it’s been shown that a free sample encourages people to buy the corresponding product because they feel that they have to return the favor of being given something for free.
Identify your objectives and decide what you want from the other person. Then identify what you can give them in return. For example: you purchased a washing machine from XYZ electronics & they gave you coupons for 20% off so that you come back again & purchase back from them.
The Concept of Social Proof
The Principle: People have “pack mentality”. If someone else likes something, we’re more likely to like it as well, regardless of if we know them or not. People are more likely to purchase something if it is recommended to them by someone they know and trust.
This is the most important tool used by Marketers to create a FOMO around a product. Be it genuine or whatever, but a social proof confirms the perceptions about the product in the buyer’s mind. Social proof+ limited time offer creates a FOMO that this opportunity won’t last & it’s the best time to buy that product.
Make a “buzz” about your item. Produce support from individuals compelling in the business. Exhibit your prominence through tributes and appraisals on your advertising material or by featuring the quantity of individuals utilizing your item. Urge cheerful clients to discuss your item on social media.
The Theory and Practice of Authority
Your identity-how you’re known-as an authority will make your customers more likely to trust and buy your service or product. If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Let your audience know exactly what credentials you’re holding. What if you’re just starting and have no credibility? Hire a spokesman who does.
The Principle: People are hard-wired to respond to people in positions of authority. This is why we will do most things our boss requests. Someone’s influence over us can be swayed by a job title or uniform.
We all have our favorite celebrities & if they are using specific products, then even we tend to buy those products out of a “sense of authority”. We think they are the perfect personalities & if they choose to market that particular product, it must be the best one out there. That’s how marketers use those celebs & create a brand image in your mind.
Nowadays, those celebrities can even be from social platforms, that’s how the concept of PR is growing among brands to tap influencers from different backgrounds. They cost less but get more reach than paying a big celebrity.
Scarcity
People want what they can’t have. This psychology principle goes back to the simple formula of supply and demand: the rarer the opportunity, content, service or product is, the more valuable it is. Stress your service or products limited availability and you’ll be sure to increase sales.
The Principle: Items are more attractive when they are harder to get or when we may lose the chance to acquire them. We are motivated by the thought we may lose out on something.
Recently I was scrolling through an online course & in their landing page, they’d written 17 seats left. I mean it’s an online course & they can make n number of enrollments, why has the creator written 17 seats left. Yes, it was the concept of scarcity. It helps marketers to create an urgency to buy those products immediately or else the stock will be over or the offer will end. But trust me, in most cases it never does.
The Commitment Psychology
Know that mediocre marketing with commitment will always prove more profitable than a brilliant marketing without commitment.
The Principle: People will go to great lengths to remain consistent in their words and actions. If you commit to something you are more likely to go through with it, even if it ends up being irrational.
I think marketers can learn a lot from Apple when it comes to commitment & loyalty. Think if you buy an iPhone, then it makes you feel so much pride & sense of belonging to that community, that you tend to remain a loyal customer to that brand. Not only that, you might have heard this phrase from one of your friends who’s arguing Android is better, “iPhone is iPhone”.
Those loyal customers not only act as repeat customers, but they also tend to attract others using “word of mouth”.
They become the part of the ecosystem & rebel against everything that’s opposite, as they feel it “Home” there. That’s where marketers use emotional attachments as a tool to keep you the part of their family.
The concept of recency illusion
Marketing works best through repetition. Just like advertising, marketing works best through repetition. Just like advertising, marketing works best through repetition. Just like advertising, marketing works best through repetition. Get the point?
Develop consistent and repetitious marketing campaigns rather than fragmented “shotgun” ads. People will notice the campaign more after they’ve first been introduced to it.
In the event that you see a lot of a promotion, it produces interest in at any rate comprehending what’s that about. You in any event visit that store of site, and get some answers concerning it and the advertisers play a wide range of cards their setting off you to purchase something.
Studies suggest that repeated statements are perceived as more truthful than statements made less frequently, “presumably because repetition imbues the statement with familiarity.” In simple terms: frequency breeds familiarity, and familiarity breed trust. Similarly, studies show that repeated exposure to an opinion makes people a single person.
So not only do consumers remember a statement that gets repeated, they are more likely to believe it, and think it is the popular opinion.
Hacking Time Span
We are constantly bombarded by texts, tweets, push notifications, ads, Facebook posts, emails and more, and your brains get hooked on all that stimuli. We crave more and more new information which can be difficult to pay attention to any one thing for very long. conversely, it also makes it difficult to hold anyone’s attention for very long. This creates a significant challenge for marketers, whose entire job is to cut through the noise and meaningfully engage with consumers.
We all are losing our attention span, think about it, while scrolling on Instagram, you read & watch only those post, of which the initial words/statements grabs your attention. This hack your mind in sticking to that post & watching/reading it till the end.
In today’s over saturated digital world, marketers need smart strategies for making the most of the eight second attention span. This requires including images and visual storytelling tactics that will capture and hold attention before something else does.
Great Marketers Start out their campaigns/video/ads with catchy lines, & the first line of advertisement triggers your mind to watch it till the end.
That’s why including an image with your social media posts delivers 180 percent more engagement or 150 percent more tweets. Words along only have 10 percent recall, but adding a visual element increases retention of the content to 65 percent.
The Colour Psychology
The psychology of colour as it relates to persuasion is one of the most interesting — and most controversial — aspects of marketing.
Colour psychology is the investigation about how colours influence behaviors, recognitions, practices and create perceptions. When we talk about marketing and branding, Color Psychology is centered around how colors sway customers’ impressions of a brand and whether they convince shoppers to consider specific brands over others or make a buy.
Making practical decisions about colour in your marketing and branding
The bottom line is that there are no clear-cut guidelines for choosing colours for your brand. While it would be nice to be able to simply look at an info-graphic and make the right decision, the reality is that the answer to “What colours are right for my brand?” is always “It depends.”
Image Source: Fast Company
The right colour is –
- Appropriate for your brand
- Shows off your brand’s personality
- Appeals to your audience
- Differentiates your brand
- Has the right name
Hope you found some Value!
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Thanks for reading!
Rohan Jain