Evil by Design: interfaces from Mephistopheles (part two)
Last week, I started talking about Chris Nodder's book “ Evil by Design ”, which describes how to bring users to sin, benefiting from it, and briefly outlined the techniques from the first chapters. Today I talk about the remaining sins - anger, envy, lust and greed: what lies behind the types of behavior that we describe with these concepts, and how marketing tactics use the corresponding weaknesses of human nature for their own purposes.
Anger is the desire to eliminate the source of discomfort. Usually it occurs as a reaction to an unpleasant situation that has developed due to the fault of another person. Unlike the others described, this is an active and potentially dangerous emotion, but at the same time a very rich source of motivation.
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There are two tactics for working with anger: either avoid and extinguish it, or try to turn it to your advantage. The first one is more secure and can be implemented by the following methods:
1. Use humor to defuse the situation.
Laughter is incompatible with anger and can easily kill her, but this method is associated with a known risk. Humor is most effective when the error does not cause serious consequences (compare: social network and banking service), the user is not too annoyed and the content does not contain aggressive motives. You also need to take into account that the joke will be funny only for the first time - do not allow the user to see a funny error message regularly.
Tumblr social network invites users to laugh at a bug together
2. Make changes step by step
People do not like change and perceive any of them as a loss, so it is best to introduce any updates smoothly, in small portions. If each individual change is not too significant, in the first stages it can be turned off and you give users time to get used to the previous one before adding the next one, the negative reaction will be minimized. In communicating with the audience, emphasize that the pattern of interaction with the product practically coincides with the previous one and that new features were introduced at the request of users (see the chapter “ Pride ”).
Despite all of the above, anger is a feeling that we experience almost more often than not, an integral part of our inner life. Therefore, you should not rely on the fact that it can always be avoided. Dangerous situations and moments should be foreseen in advance and prepare to resolve everything as painlessly as possible. Here are a couple of tactics that will help in this:
1. Control anonymous communication
Anonymity, like the effect of the crowd, removes restrictions and provokes people to acts that are not typical for them under normal conditions. This happens for several reasons: a sense of security (no one will know that it is you), lack of personal contact with the interlocutor (empathy is muffled and it becomes easier to create a negative image in your head), asynchrony (reaction to the action does not come immediately), the feeling that everything “Make-believe”, and the lack of hierarchy (everyone is equal on the Internet).
However, anonymity helps to detect hidden problems and contributes to the creation of a community around the product. The ideal balance between the risk of aggression and the stimulation of candor is pseudo-anonymity, that is, a situation when the user is assigned a permanent nickname that does not correspond to his real name. This helps to eliminate some of the listed factors (impersonality of interlocutors and the absence of social consequences). In addition, anonymous users tend to join groups and accept their rules and values. Accordingly, it is worth carefully moderating the sites and introducing the necessary patterns of behavior until the group “accepted” to communicate more or less correctly.
2. Distil anger into other emotions.
According to the definition we gave at the beginning, the main components of anger are an unpleasant situation and someone else's fault. If one of these is lacking, it transforms into other emotions. Say, when there are no guilty ones, the anger turns into alarm, and if you manage to convince that the problem is in the actions of the user himself, he will begin to feel guilty. You can take the risk of “moving the arrows”, but you need to bear in mind that this is an extremely risky method.
3. Address irrational arguments.
Suppose your actions have irritated some part of the audience and controversy is inevitable. How to act then? Take advantage of the fact that in anger people are not too strong in terms of rational thinking, so they can be easily confused in a dialogue. It becomes much more difficult to argue when one of the parties moves away from the facts and begins to give metaphysical arguments, appealing mostly to emotions and "spirituality." Such a position gives a kind of invulnerability (any criticism can be “refuted” by common phrases), but it requires charisma and caution.
4. Give authoritative permission
In some cases, anger (if it is not directed at us, but at the situation as a whole) can be very useful. He gives us a surge of energy and a thirst for action. According to scientists, angry people, oddly enough, more optimistic about their strength and capabilities, and therefore prone to impulsive actions. Sometimes, in order to release this energy, it is enough to give users authoritative permission to put forward an idea, present it as coming from a respected source and at the same time give them a way to throw out feelings and remove from them the feeling of personal responsibility for the consequences.
5. Scare people and then offer them a solution.
Anger is, in essence, a fear that has been given direction. Both feelings are so unpleasant that they give people a strong impulse to action. Use this to push the audience to the desired action. Make up a problem, connect it with fundamental fears (for health, for children, for personal safety) and show how your product will help to rectify the situation. The picture of the consequences of the problem should be very gloomy, and the solution should be simple, affordable and enjoyable. If necessary, you can distill fear into anger, directing it to the image of the "enemy" against whom the proposed actions are directed.
Envy arises as a reaction to the success of other people. Evolution has formed in us aversion to loss: we want to have not just a lot of resources, but more than all the others. Envy can result in both productive states (to achieve the same) and destructive ones (to take away from others) - companies use both types for their own purposes.
Desires and aspirations
In order to monetize envy, you must first arouse it. This is achieved through the awakening of desires and aspirations in customers. How to make an object desired? Give it the following characteristics:
Aspirations are associated with ambitions, they tend to come from benign envy. The product must set a level slightly higher than the one on which the intended target audience is located, so that it can “catch up” at the expense of it. This is not only about the socio-economic level: you can tease users to feel smarter, more refined, more popular, or even older (a tactic often used by teen magazines).
Another way to increase the value of the product in the eyes of the buyer is to create a connection between them, which he will pity to tear off, a sense of belonging. The author offers several proven methods:
Kickstarter - the apogee of early engagement
Thirst status
Envy is based on the notion that certain groups of people are higher than others. By emphasizing the difference in statuses, you can lead users to the desired actions. Emphasis should be placed not only on the envy of the elect, portraying them as successful and happy, but also on contempt for those who are not in one or another group, discouraging the desire to be like them.
The simplest division is those who have already bought the product, against all others. However, the customer base can also be differentiated by building an internal hierarchy. In such cases, the emphasis should be placed on a sense of superiority, rather than contempt, and to bring more “white” envy in people. If customers treat each other neutrally or even with a desire to help, the community around your product will flourish.
Examples of bundles within the customer base - all sorts of loyalty programs and premium accounts. A sense of superiority in such schemes is usually supported by concrete benefits and advantages. Other psychological mechanisms that have already been mentioned contribute to the advancement of the hierarchy: the desire to reach the last rung, the fear of irreversible expenses and the desire to pay them back.
In some contexts, say, online games, a client falls into the category of favorites not just for consumption, but for certain actions that require skills and effort. This is a ticklish situation. On the one hand, it is necessary to give people the opportunity to somehow “pay” their way to the top, saving time and labor. As practice shows, if you do not do this, the initiative will be seized by third parties. On the other hand, it is impossible to provide this option too frankly, otherwise honestly earned their status users will feel that their achievement is depreciating. It is best to act indirectly and facilitate progress up only to a certain extent. This is especially true of the highest steps - they must remain particularly desirable and exclusive.
The ranking table on the xda-developers forum
Status warms the soul less if others do not know about it. Therefore, provide visual insignia for privileged groups (stickers, badges, dies, and so on) and capabilities built into the product to unobtrusively boast of their position. A great example of the latter is the automatically generated Apple signature "Sent from my iPhone" in letters. As practice shows, people are not too eager to remove it - not only because laziness keeps them from doing too much, but also because they like to feel that they own an iPhone with all the consequences, and the signature gives a legitimate reason to emphasize this fact.
Special relationship
It is pleasant to be part of the elite, but even nicer when it is you yourself who is special. Companies do not stint on the efforts to show that every user is important to them and deserves special privileges.
Among these privileges:
To escape from sexual associations, lust is simply an irresistible desire that turns off rational thinking. In fact, it is the basis of envy and greed.
The first step in making a person eagerly wanting your product is to arouse sympathy and affection in him. It may seem that this is a question of taste and it is impossible to manipulate people's reactions to such an extent, however, in fact, there are some tricks here.
Sympathy by reciprocity
Above, we talked about the fact that people tend to "mirror" the emotions directed at them. Therefore, you can simply take the first step and show your own affection for the users - this will arrange them for you and what you offer. Experiments show that flattery works without failures, even when it is so rough that respondents identify it and try not to give in.
The classic scheme associated with this tactic is to attribute some positive qualities to users, and then call into action that will allow them to manifest. Suppose if you convince a site visitor that he is a partial person who is concerned about global issues, it will be easier to sell him goods with an eco label.
The flip side of the love of compliments - anxiety about how people around us treat us. For this reason, some social networks successfully charge users for the opportunity to learn more about their relationship with other participants (who viewed the profile, visited the page, and so on).
Cherished second place
According to the laws of logic, the best option should be most attractive. According to the laws of human psychology, more irrational sympathy is caused in us by those who are close to perfection, but a little short of it. Full perfection scares away, minor flaws cause sympathy. Men are particularly affected by this effect.
This is another reason why you should not worry too much about critical attacks. If the responses to the product are mostly positive, a little negative will rather inspire people with confidence that there is no dirty trick, and a more condescending attitude.
Finally, it is possible to turn the smaller popularity of the company inside out, showing what advantages it gives to the client: faster or attentive service, not such a high price, fewer queues and expectations. In the sixties, Avis, the second most popular car rental company, entirely built its advertising campaign on this.
"We can not afford a careless attitude"
Group thinking
As the examples from the previous chapters show, people are always happy to fall into the “we are against them” way of thinking. Give them the slightest reason to feel oneness with a group, and they will begin to show these people a special relationship. "Their" will receive privileges, and "outsiders" will be perceived much more biased.
Your task is to create a sense of belonging to the group among clients. Mark a clear boundary between those who are in the "circle" and all others. Give both groups contrasting characteristics (of course, so that the customers were flattering) and strongly emphasize the difference between them. Make a special emphasis on the positive qualities that can later be used for manipulation (see above).
Do not forget that different types of identification marks contribute to a better awareness of yourself as part of a group: clothes with logos, stickers or even special naming and attributes of “fan clubs”.
What is the benefit of forming groups? Firstly, among “our own” people easily pick up ideas and values that you, as an organizer, can throw up with them. Secondly, the crowd effect makes the individual more categorical and decisive - in other words, he will be much harder to protect the newly acquired views from "alien".
From sympathy to engagement
Suppose you have achieved what is good to you - but it still does not make money. To ensure the conversion, you need to push the audience to the target action. For this purpose, a complex of two techniques is used:
The easiest way to kill these two birds with one stone is to give the client something. This will lead, on the one hand, to the fact that the reciprocity trigger works for him (“I have done something good, I have to repay the same”), on the other hand, it will create the feeling that you are not chasing profits and can be trusted.
A gift can be both really valuable (discount coupon, additional goods), and purely symbolic (additional information about products) - the main thing is to be able to unobtrusively emphasize that you have done something for the user. The request should be commensurate with the service, but it should not be forgotten that the service can be delivered in different ways.
“Pay us a tweet,” offers the Shareable service.
Practice shows that the game of reciprocity, although less common as a marketing ploy, works no worse than trying to bribe people with promises of reward. Therefore, the author recommends trying just such a sequence: first a gift, then a request for an action or data. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that these two events are not too separated from each other in time - they must be connected by the user in consciousness.
Is free!
"Free" is a magic word in marketing. No discount can be compared with the gift. In his research, Dan Ariely notes that people perceive the transition from “cheap” to “free” as much more significant than from “expensive” to “cheap”, even if the amount saved does not differ. This is explained by the fact that they calculate the profit as the difference between loss and value. Losses from free goods seem to be zero, respectively, people believe that they will benefit in any case (not taking into account such factors as the quality and suitability of the product).
Conditionally free offers are easily embedded in various schemes:
The third tactic today is particularly relevant - it has not yet had time to become familiar and does not act as much in the forehead as the first two. According to Nodder, it is effective in cases where visitors are "not an audience, but a product." This is the case, say, in social networks, which, first of all, need personal information from users in order to sell it to other companies for advertising targeting.
Dissonance from own generosity
Different combinations of requests, services and responses to them can give a wide range of psychological reactions. We have already spoken about the exploitation of guilt for refusal and the arithmetic progression of requests (chapter “ Gluttony ”), as well as the stimulation of gratitude (the paragraph “From sympathy to engagement” above). There is another option - please users that they left them in debt.
Another old story from the biography of Benjamin Franklin is well known: having done someone a favor, people begin to treat him with more sympathy. This is due to the desire to overcome cognitive dissonance: after all, if we rendered a person or organization a service without calculating to receive something in return, there must be a reason, and the most accessible reason is personal location.
Very cleverly applied this technique to Google, turning a potentially negative interaction in its favor. The company began to actively invite users to leave feedback about bugs and thank them for reporting an error. In this light, everything began to look as if users did not complain about poor service, but cooperated with the team in kindness of heart - and their attitude changed accordingly.
Greed is the desire to possess more values than is necessary. Unlike envy, greed is not based on comparing itself with others and does not act purposefully at the expense of them, but it contributes to selfishness and indifference to other people's interests. Exacerbation of greed is promoted by special reward mechanisms, the exploitation of the desire to gain and the blurring of ideas about the norm.
Partial reinforcement
It is used not only for developing reflexes, but also for developing involvement. The bottom line is that an individual receives a reward for his efforts at irregular intervals. The ability to "win" keeps the user in the service, and unpredictability introduces an element of tension and interest.
The mechanics of video games are built just on the balance of these intervals: the user pursues several goals at the same time and in turn receives awards for different types of actions, which does not allow him to get distracted and bored. The introduction of negative reinforcement will also diversify the process - that is, the threat of an undesirable event that needs to be eliminated.
How to transfer gaming technology to other areas? The principle of gamification is based on the fact that a reward is not a material, but a game type, for really useful user actions. In some cases, this may be just a pleasure from the process - for example, in Stockholm, Volkswagen sponsored the installation of musical steps to encourage people to walk, rather than use the elevator. In the online environment, you can easily develop the game element even more by associating the action with a system of levels and points or a storyline. The DigitalKoot project, for example, motivated many volunteers to help in deciphering the corrupted text by scoring points and visualizing their contribution in the form of a bridge that cute moles build.
Another proven method is the competition element. This can be a side effect of scoring, or a direct invitation to play against another user. Any opportunity to compare yourself with others generates excitement. It is extremely useful to display tablets with the best results, as a constant source of motivation.
Gamification does not imply blackout the essence - you do not need to hide the true goal of user actions. If it serves for some lofty goals, on the contrary, it is worth mentioning it as often as possible.
Not a purchase, but a win.
Is there a difference between the lottery and the auction? The researchers came to a rather unexpected conclusion: in a win situation - no, in a lose situation - there is, and a significant one. People react much more sharply to the fact that someone “stole” the goods from them at the auction than to the simple bad luck in the lottery. The competitive element makes the loss more painful.
For the same reason, people love sales - not just for low prices, but also for the feeling of chasing profit. The JCPenney store experiment, which tried to remove the word “sale” from its vocabulary, failed miserably: customers preferred to chase short-term profitable offers, this gave them the feeling of “victory”.
To ensure engagement, create a feeling in people that the benefits depend on their speed, acumen or persistence. Arrange "quests" for which you can get a reward. Even in situations where everything depends on luck, it is useful to create an illusion of control, supporting in people the belief that there are “strategies”, “secret moves” that will allow replaying the system. As already mentioned, the efforts made and the need to make a choice increase the value of the reward in the eyes of the user and form loyalty.
The desire to earn their talents is perfectly combined with the effect of Dannig-Kruger - the inverse relationship between competence and confidence in their knowledge and skills. The effect of Dannig-Kruger feeds numerous betting services, which offer to put on the rise or fall of the exchange rate, stocks and so on. The apparent simplicity of the rules and the whole process makes people feel that they can easily win even without special knowledge in the financial sphere.
Fenced area
Everyone wants the user to spend as much time on the resource as possible and go to another page as late as possible. Previously, this was achieved by trying to make the transition more difficult (“Are you sure you want to follow this external link?”). Now they are refusing these artificial fences - they annoy people and do not give the desired effect. Other methods come to replace:
The effect of pegging
In most cases, the buyer has a certain gold standard in the price of the product in relation to which he evaluates all offers as profitable or unprofitable. This standard is quite dynamic and changes under the influence of fresh experience, which can lead to subjectivity in evaluations. For example, after returning from a trip to a country where gasoline is much more expensive, we will be inclined to consider the price, which previously would have seemed too high, within the normal range.
This dynamic perception can be used to your advantage, throwing the right numbers to the user at the right time. As a rule, the first seen price becomes an anchor (and in some cases even just the first number seen). That is why restaurants often put expensive dishes in the first positions of the menu, so that other positions would seem cheap in comparison.
With a flick of the wrist, $ 600 turns into “only $ 600”.
Another example is accessories and all sorts of little things that are often offered at the checkout after a major purchase. The buyer, who came specifically for them, will compare and calculate; the buyer, who takes them as an addition to the main, much more expensive product, will subconsciously perceive them as cheap.
More currencies
It was mentioned above that the release of its currency, which must be constantly recalculated for real money, stimulates spending. This works especially well in cases where the difference is not so great as to justify thinking, but it is sufficient to give the company a good profit. Microsoft's currency, let's say, is at the rate of 80 points for a dollar - so close that it seems to be more profitable to pay 79 points for a song than the $ 0.99 that iTunes asks for.
To enhance the effect, it is desirable that the acquisition of tokens is not confined to the transaction - so the connection between the purchase and the spending of “real” money is completely lost. Many companies sell their currency in large batches (10-15 times the cost of the cheapest product), which users then gradually spend on a number of purchases.
Try to set prices and volume of packages so that the user does not manage to reduce the balance - either something remained, or you had to pay extra. With this calculation, nominal gift cards are often set. If a client wants to use a coupon of $ 5 in a cafe where all drinks cost around $ 3, he would rather pay the missing dollar and take two rather than accept the fact that part of the amount will “burn”.
Price Games
Cheap goods always have a target audience, but the same can be said about expensive ones. To spend more than necessary is your pleasure - the feeling that we indulge ourselves, or the realization that we can afford not to save. Therefore, in addition to budget options, the assortment will never be superfluous and expensive counterparts. The difference between the first and the last may not be so significant - the main thing is that the luxury-products have the appropriate design.
Value, like all other characteristics, is usually established in our consciousness not as an absolute value, but in comparison with other options. To push customers to the desired product, the author recommends the use of contrasts in perception. The first is to show a worse option - decent enough not to create a bad impression about the company, but it is clearly inferior to what you are actually planning to sell. Demonstrating the best option to follow, make sure that it is described in more detail: this detail is associated with high quality. Usually the price of the worst product is clearly too high, so that the product you are betting on also seemed to be profitable (as many advantages for a small overpayment!).
If you, on the contrary, want to avoid price comparisons, try to present products as not belonging to the same category. This can be done in several ways:
In conclusion, the author deals with a question that inevitably arises already in name: is it ethical to use all these practices in your business? There is no single answer. Some of the tactics (mostly from the “Laziness” chapter) are definitely in the gray zone - they border on fraud and have brought some particularly daring companies to court. Others are harmless in small doses, but can lead to misunderstandings, if they get too carried away. In general, when writing a book, the author was guided by two principles:
Anger
Anger is the desire to eliminate the source of discomfort. Usually it occurs as a reaction to an unpleasant situation that has developed due to the fault of another person. Unlike the others described, this is an active and potentially dangerous emotion, but at the same time a very rich source of motivation.
')
There are two tactics for working with anger: either avoid and extinguish it, or try to turn it to your advantage. The first one is more secure and can be implemented by the following methods:
1. Use humor to defuse the situation.
Laughter is incompatible with anger and can easily kill her, but this method is associated with a known risk. Humor is most effective when the error does not cause serious consequences (compare: social network and banking service), the user is not too annoyed and the content does not contain aggressive motives. You also need to take into account that the joke will be funny only for the first time - do not allow the user to see a funny error message regularly.
Tumblr social network invites users to laugh at a bug together
2. Make changes step by step
People do not like change and perceive any of them as a loss, so it is best to introduce any updates smoothly, in small portions. If each individual change is not too significant, in the first stages it can be turned off and you give users time to get used to the previous one before adding the next one, the negative reaction will be minimized. In communicating with the audience, emphasize that the pattern of interaction with the product practically coincides with the previous one and that new features were introduced at the request of users (see the chapter “ Pride ”).
Despite all of the above, anger is a feeling that we experience almost more often than not, an integral part of our inner life. Therefore, you should not rely on the fact that it can always be avoided. Dangerous situations and moments should be foreseen in advance and prepare to resolve everything as painlessly as possible. Here are a couple of tactics that will help in this:
1. Control anonymous communication
Anonymity, like the effect of the crowd, removes restrictions and provokes people to acts that are not typical for them under normal conditions. This happens for several reasons: a sense of security (no one will know that it is you), lack of personal contact with the interlocutor (empathy is muffled and it becomes easier to create a negative image in your head), asynchrony (reaction to the action does not come immediately), the feeling that everything “Make-believe”, and the lack of hierarchy (everyone is equal on the Internet).
However, anonymity helps to detect hidden problems and contributes to the creation of a community around the product. The ideal balance between the risk of aggression and the stimulation of candor is pseudo-anonymity, that is, a situation when the user is assigned a permanent nickname that does not correspond to his real name. This helps to eliminate some of the listed factors (impersonality of interlocutors and the absence of social consequences). In addition, anonymous users tend to join groups and accept their rules and values. Accordingly, it is worth carefully moderating the sites and introducing the necessary patterns of behavior until the group “accepted” to communicate more or less correctly.
2. Distil anger into other emotions.
According to the definition we gave at the beginning, the main components of anger are an unpleasant situation and someone else's fault. If one of these is lacking, it transforms into other emotions. Say, when there are no guilty ones, the anger turns into alarm, and if you manage to convince that the problem is in the actions of the user himself, he will begin to feel guilty. You can take the risk of “moving the arrows”, but you need to bear in mind that this is an extremely risky method.
3. Address irrational arguments.
Suppose your actions have irritated some part of the audience and controversy is inevitable. How to act then? Take advantage of the fact that in anger people are not too strong in terms of rational thinking, so they can be easily confused in a dialogue. It becomes much more difficult to argue when one of the parties moves away from the facts and begins to give metaphysical arguments, appealing mostly to emotions and "spirituality." Such a position gives a kind of invulnerability (any criticism can be “refuted” by common phrases), but it requires charisma and caution.
4. Give authoritative permission
In some cases, anger (if it is not directed at us, but at the situation as a whole) can be very useful. He gives us a surge of energy and a thirst for action. According to scientists, angry people, oddly enough, more optimistic about their strength and capabilities, and therefore prone to impulsive actions. Sometimes, in order to release this energy, it is enough to give users authoritative permission to put forward an idea, present it as coming from a respected source and at the same time give them a way to throw out feelings and remove from them the feeling of personal responsibility for the consequences.
5. Scare people and then offer them a solution.
Anger is, in essence, a fear that has been given direction. Both feelings are so unpleasant that they give people a strong impulse to action. Use this to push the audience to the desired action. Make up a problem, connect it with fundamental fears (for health, for children, for personal safety) and show how your product will help to rectify the situation. The picture of the consequences of the problem should be very gloomy, and the solution should be simple, affordable and enjoyable. If necessary, you can distill fear into anger, directing it to the image of the "enemy" against whom the proposed actions are directed.
Envy
Envy arises as a reaction to the success of other people. Evolution has formed in us aversion to loss: we want to have not just a lot of resources, but more than all the others. Envy can result in both productive states (to achieve the same) and destructive ones (to take away from others) - companies use both types for their own purposes.
Desires and aspirations
In order to monetize envy, you must first arouse it. This is achieved through the awakening of desires and aspirations in customers. How to make an object desired? Give it the following characteristics:
- Secrecy (product intended for the elite)
- Rarity (product will not always be available)
- Belonging to something valuable or status (lifestyle, group of people, occupation)
- Aesthetics (nice to interact with the product)
- Functionality (the product is able to solve a problem that no one else solves)
Aspirations are associated with ambitions, they tend to come from benign envy. The product must set a level slightly higher than the one on which the intended target audience is located, so that it can “catch up” at the expense of it. This is not only about the socio-economic level: you can tease users to feel smarter, more refined, more popular, or even older (a tactic often used by teen magazines).
Another way to increase the value of the product in the eyes of the buyer is to create a connection between them, which he will pity to tear off, a sense of belonging. The author offers several proven methods:
- Emotionally involve the user in the product creation process. Such tactics are actively used by game designers, starting accounts in social networks long before the release and publishing all sorts of in-processes and teasers. This not only boosts the curiosity of visitors, but gradually makes them part of a community interested in the success of the project.
- Provide demo copies of products that customers can freely play with. The more they remake the product for themselves (changing settings, rearranging the elements), the harder it will be for them to part with it.
- Give the opportunity for some time to use the product for free (the same free trials). At the same time, the functionality can be cut back, but it should remain attractive enough to create affection and the desire to receive a full range of services.
- create a platform where potential consumers could communicate with those who have already purchased the product. A sense of belonging to a community and a desire to rally stronger with it may push for a purchase.
Kickstarter - the apogee of early engagement
Thirst status
Envy is based on the notion that certain groups of people are higher than others. By emphasizing the difference in statuses, you can lead users to the desired actions. Emphasis should be placed not only on the envy of the elect, portraying them as successful and happy, but also on contempt for those who are not in one or another group, discouraging the desire to be like them.
The simplest division is those who have already bought the product, against all others. However, the customer base can also be differentiated by building an internal hierarchy. In such cases, the emphasis should be placed on a sense of superiority, rather than contempt, and to bring more “white” envy in people. If customers treat each other neutrally or even with a desire to help, the community around your product will flourish.
Examples of bundles within the customer base - all sorts of loyalty programs and premium accounts. A sense of superiority in such schemes is usually supported by concrete benefits and advantages. Other psychological mechanisms that have already been mentioned contribute to the advancement of the hierarchy: the desire to reach the last rung, the fear of irreversible expenses and the desire to pay them back.
In some contexts, say, online games, a client falls into the category of favorites not just for consumption, but for certain actions that require skills and effort. This is a ticklish situation. On the one hand, it is necessary to give people the opportunity to somehow “pay” their way to the top, saving time and labor. As practice shows, if you do not do this, the initiative will be seized by third parties. On the other hand, it is impossible to provide this option too frankly, otherwise honestly earned their status users will feel that their achievement is depreciating. It is best to act indirectly and facilitate progress up only to a certain extent. This is especially true of the highest steps - they must remain particularly desirable and exclusive.
The ranking table on the xda-developers forum
Status warms the soul less if others do not know about it. Therefore, provide visual insignia for privileged groups (stickers, badges, dies, and so on) and capabilities built into the product to unobtrusively boast of their position. A great example of the latter is the automatically generated Apple signature "Sent from my iPhone" in letters. As practice shows, people are not too eager to remove it - not only because laziness keeps them from doing too much, but also because they like to feel that they own an iPhone with all the consequences, and the signature gives a legitimate reason to emphasize this fact.
Special relationship
It is pleasant to be part of the elite, but even nicer when it is you yourself who is special. Companies do not stint on the efforts to show that every user is important to them and deserves special privileges.
Among these privileges:
- personal offers (“This loan is calculated and approved especially for you”)
- free surprise gifts, sometimes personalized to suit user preferences
- interest in their opinion (personal requests for feedback, the ability to vote on some issue or offer your content)
- space for self-expression (sections with comments)
Lust
To escape from sexual associations, lust is simply an irresistible desire that turns off rational thinking. In fact, it is the basis of envy and greed.
The first step in making a person eagerly wanting your product is to arouse sympathy and affection in him. It may seem that this is a question of taste and it is impossible to manipulate people's reactions to such an extent, however, in fact, there are some tricks here.
Sympathy by reciprocity
Above, we talked about the fact that people tend to "mirror" the emotions directed at them. Therefore, you can simply take the first step and show your own affection for the users - this will arrange them for you and what you offer. Experiments show that flattery works without failures, even when it is so rough that respondents identify it and try not to give in.
The classic scheme associated with this tactic is to attribute some positive qualities to users, and then call into action that will allow them to manifest. Suppose if you convince a site visitor that he is a partial person who is concerned about global issues, it will be easier to sell him goods with an eco label.
The flip side of the love of compliments - anxiety about how people around us treat us. For this reason, some social networks successfully charge users for the opportunity to learn more about their relationship with other participants (who viewed the profile, visited the page, and so on).
Cherished second place
According to the laws of logic, the best option should be most attractive. According to the laws of human psychology, more irrational sympathy is caused in us by those who are close to perfection, but a little short of it. Full perfection scares away, minor flaws cause sympathy. Men are particularly affected by this effect.
This is another reason why you should not worry too much about critical attacks. If the responses to the product are mostly positive, a little negative will rather inspire people with confidence that there is no dirty trick, and a more condescending attitude.
Finally, it is possible to turn the smaller popularity of the company inside out, showing what advantages it gives to the client: faster or attentive service, not such a high price, fewer queues and expectations. In the sixties, Avis, the second most popular car rental company, entirely built its advertising campaign on this.
"We can not afford a careless attitude"
Group thinking
As the examples from the previous chapters show, people are always happy to fall into the “we are against them” way of thinking. Give them the slightest reason to feel oneness with a group, and they will begin to show these people a special relationship. "Their" will receive privileges, and "outsiders" will be perceived much more biased.
Your task is to create a sense of belonging to the group among clients. Mark a clear boundary between those who are in the "circle" and all others. Give both groups contrasting characteristics (of course, so that the customers were flattering) and strongly emphasize the difference between them. Make a special emphasis on the positive qualities that can later be used for manipulation (see above).
Do not forget that different types of identification marks contribute to a better awareness of yourself as part of a group: clothes with logos, stickers or even special naming and attributes of “fan clubs”.
What is the benefit of forming groups? Firstly, among “our own” people easily pick up ideas and values that you, as an organizer, can throw up with them. Secondly, the crowd effect makes the individual more categorical and decisive - in other words, he will be much harder to protect the newly acquired views from "alien".
From sympathy to engagement
Suppose you have achieved what is good to you - but it still does not make money. To ensure the conversion, you need to push the audience to the target action. For this purpose, a complex of two techniques is used:
- Rely on social laws, that is, the desire for reciprocity
- Put aside the laws of the market, that is, the desire for profit
The easiest way to kill these two birds with one stone is to give the client something. This will lead, on the one hand, to the fact that the reciprocity trigger works for him (“I have done something good, I have to repay the same”), on the other hand, it will create the feeling that you are not chasing profits and can be trusted.
A gift can be both really valuable (discount coupon, additional goods), and purely symbolic (additional information about products) - the main thing is to be able to unobtrusively emphasize that you have done something for the user. The request should be commensurate with the service, but it should not be forgotten that the service can be delivered in different ways.
“Pay us a tweet,” offers the Shareable service.
Practice shows that the game of reciprocity, although less common as a marketing ploy, works no worse than trying to bribe people with promises of reward. Therefore, the author recommends trying just such a sequence: first a gift, then a request for an action or data. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that these two events are not too separated from each other in time - they must be connected by the user in consciousness.
Is free!
"Free" is a magic word in marketing. No discount can be compared with the gift. In his research, Dan Ariely notes that people perceive the transition from “cheap” to “free” as much more significant than from “expensive” to “cheap”, even if the amount saved does not differ. This is explained by the fact that they calculate the profit as the difference between loss and value. Losses from free goods seem to be zero, respectively, people believe that they will benefit in any case (not taking into account such factors as the quality and suitability of the product).
Conditionally free offers are easily embedded in various schemes:
- a free product or service is used as bait to force a customer to buy more (“Delivery for orders from $ 199 is free”, “Dial goods for $ 199 and receive as a gift ...”)
- the cost of a “free” product actually simply passes under the guise of something else (free of charge only for those who have issued a one-year subscription)
- the company receives some benefit from the transaction, but not in monetary terms (you can use the service for free, but at the same time agree to the processing of personal data)
The third tactic today is particularly relevant - it has not yet had time to become familiar and does not act as much in the forehead as the first two. According to Nodder, it is effective in cases where visitors are "not an audience, but a product." This is the case, say, in social networks, which, first of all, need personal information from users in order to sell it to other companies for advertising targeting.
Dissonance from own generosity
Different combinations of requests, services and responses to them can give a wide range of psychological reactions. We have already spoken about the exploitation of guilt for refusal and the arithmetic progression of requests (chapter “ Gluttony ”), as well as the stimulation of gratitude (the paragraph “From sympathy to engagement” above). There is another option - please users that they left them in debt.
Another old story from the biography of Benjamin Franklin is well known: having done someone a favor, people begin to treat him with more sympathy. This is due to the desire to overcome cognitive dissonance: after all, if we rendered a person or organization a service without calculating to receive something in return, there must be a reason, and the most accessible reason is personal location.
Very cleverly applied this technique to Google, turning a potentially negative interaction in its favor. The company began to actively invite users to leave feedback about bugs and thank them for reporting an error. In this light, everything began to look as if users did not complain about poor service, but cooperated with the team in kindness of heart - and their attitude changed accordingly.
Greed
Greed is the desire to possess more values than is necessary. Unlike envy, greed is not based on comparing itself with others and does not act purposefully at the expense of them, but it contributes to selfishness and indifference to other people's interests. Exacerbation of greed is promoted by special reward mechanisms, the exploitation of the desire to gain and the blurring of ideas about the norm.
Partial reinforcement
It is used not only for developing reflexes, but also for developing involvement. The bottom line is that an individual receives a reward for his efforts at irregular intervals. The ability to "win" keeps the user in the service, and unpredictability introduces an element of tension and interest.
The mechanics of video games are built just on the balance of these intervals: the user pursues several goals at the same time and in turn receives awards for different types of actions, which does not allow him to get distracted and bored. The introduction of negative reinforcement will also diversify the process - that is, the threat of an undesirable event that needs to be eliminated.
How to transfer gaming technology to other areas? The principle of gamification is based on the fact that a reward is not a material, but a game type, for really useful user actions. In some cases, this may be just a pleasure from the process - for example, in Stockholm, Volkswagen sponsored the installation of musical steps to encourage people to walk, rather than use the elevator. In the online environment, you can easily develop the game element even more by associating the action with a system of levels and points or a storyline. The DigitalKoot project, for example, motivated many volunteers to help in deciphering the corrupted text by scoring points and visualizing their contribution in the form of a bridge that cute moles build.
Another proven method is the competition element. This can be a side effect of scoring, or a direct invitation to play against another user. Any opportunity to compare yourself with others generates excitement. It is extremely useful to display tablets with the best results, as a constant source of motivation.
Gamification does not imply blackout the essence - you do not need to hide the true goal of user actions. If it serves for some lofty goals, on the contrary, it is worth mentioning it as often as possible.
Not a purchase, but a win.
Is there a difference between the lottery and the auction? The researchers came to a rather unexpected conclusion: in a win situation - no, in a lose situation - there is, and a significant one. People react much more sharply to the fact that someone “stole” the goods from them at the auction than to the simple bad luck in the lottery. The competitive element makes the loss more painful.
For the same reason, people love sales - not just for low prices, but also for the feeling of chasing profit. The JCPenney store experiment, which tried to remove the word “sale” from its vocabulary, failed miserably: customers preferred to chase short-term profitable offers, this gave them the feeling of “victory”.
To ensure engagement, create a feeling in people that the benefits depend on their speed, acumen or persistence. Arrange "quests" for which you can get a reward. Even in situations where everything depends on luck, it is useful to create an illusion of control, supporting in people the belief that there are “strategies”, “secret moves” that will allow replaying the system. As already mentioned, the efforts made and the need to make a choice increase the value of the reward in the eyes of the user and form loyalty.
The desire to earn their talents is perfectly combined with the effect of Dannig-Kruger - the inverse relationship between competence and confidence in their knowledge and skills. The effect of Dannig-Kruger feeds numerous betting services, which offer to put on the rise or fall of the exchange rate, stocks and so on. The apparent simplicity of the rules and the whole process makes people feel that they can easily win even without special knowledge in the financial sphere.
Fenced area
Everyone wants the user to spend as much time on the resource as possible and go to another page as late as possible. Previously, this was achieved by trying to make the transition more difficult (“Are you sure you want to follow this external link?”). Now they are refusing these artificial fences - they annoy people and do not give the desired effect. Other methods come to replace:
- eliminate the impulse to leave the page, adding the most demanded functionality (when Facebook had the opportunity to edit photos, users no longer need to go to Instagram)
- keep a careful balance between advertising and content so as not to scare users away
- make the borders elastic - find a way to remind about your service on other platforms in order to attract users back (authorization via social networks, “Share” buttons)
- also consider whether using similar agreements it is possible to obtain data on user movements, so that you can be useful even outside your website
The effect of pegging
In most cases, the buyer has a certain gold standard in the price of the product in relation to which he evaluates all offers as profitable or unprofitable. This standard is quite dynamic and changes under the influence of fresh experience, which can lead to subjectivity in evaluations. For example, after returning from a trip to a country where gasoline is much more expensive, we will be inclined to consider the price, which previously would have seemed too high, within the normal range.
This dynamic perception can be used to your advantage, throwing the right numbers to the user at the right time. As a rule, the first seen price becomes an anchor (and in some cases even just the first number seen). That is why restaurants often put expensive dishes in the first positions of the menu, so that other positions would seem cheap in comparison.
With a flick of the wrist, $ 600 turns into “only $ 600”.
Another example is accessories and all sorts of little things that are often offered at the checkout after a major purchase. The buyer, who came specifically for them, will compare and calculate; the buyer, who takes them as an addition to the main, much more expensive product, will subconsciously perceive them as cheap.
More currencies
It was mentioned above that the release of its currency, which must be constantly recalculated for real money, stimulates spending. This works especially well in cases where the difference is not so great as to justify thinking, but it is sufficient to give the company a good profit. Microsoft's currency, let's say, is at the rate of 80 points for a dollar - so close that it seems to be more profitable to pay 79 points for a song than the $ 0.99 that iTunes asks for.
To enhance the effect, it is desirable that the acquisition of tokens is not confined to the transaction - so the connection between the purchase and the spending of “real” money is completely lost. Many companies sell their currency in large batches (10-15 times the cost of the cheapest product), which users then gradually spend on a number of purchases.
Try to set prices and volume of packages so that the user does not manage to reduce the balance - either something remained, or you had to pay extra. With this calculation, nominal gift cards are often set. If a client wants to use a coupon of $ 5 in a cafe where all drinks cost around $ 3, he would rather pay the missing dollar and take two rather than accept the fact that part of the amount will “burn”.
Price Games
Cheap goods always have a target audience, but the same can be said about expensive ones. To spend more than necessary is your pleasure - the feeling that we indulge ourselves, or the realization that we can afford not to save. Therefore, in addition to budget options, the assortment will never be superfluous and expensive counterparts. The difference between the first and the last may not be so significant - the main thing is that the luxury-products have the appropriate design.
Value, like all other characteristics, is usually established in our consciousness not as an absolute value, but in comparison with other options. To push customers to the desired product, the author recommends the use of contrasts in perception. The first is to show a worse option - decent enough not to create a bad impression about the company, but it is clearly inferior to what you are actually planning to sell. Demonstrating the best option to follow, make sure that it is described in more detail: this detail is associated with high quality. Usually the price of the worst product is clearly too high, so that the product you are betting on also seemed to be profitable (as many advantages for a small overpayment!).
If you, on the contrary, want to avoid price comparisons, try to present products as not belonging to the same category. This can be done in several ways:
- clearance of goods - more "elite" colors (black, purple), another form of packaging
- physical distance - place the product on a special page on the website or on a separate microsite
- emphasis on other characteristics (for example, quality of materials)
In conclusion, the author deals with a question that inevitably arises already in name: is it ethical to use all these practices in your business? There is no single answer. Some of the tactics (mostly from the “Laziness” chapter) are definitely in the gray zone - they border on fraud and have brought some particularly daring companies to court. Others are harmless in small doses, but can lead to misunderstandings, if they get too carried away. In general, when writing a book, the author was guided by two principles:
- in any case, the satisfaction of the user always remains in priority. If he does not get a positive experience (he will be disappointed, he will regret his decision), this will affect the conversion in the future and bring you a loss.
- There is nothing wrong with knowing all the techniques listed above - it is always better to understand what you are doing and why, than simply copying popular practices. When the user's thought process is clear, it will be easier for you to decide whether you want to include this or that method in your arsenal.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/351714/
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