When I went to the Jiffy Lube to get my oil changed, I was not going to buy more expensive oil. The clerk said to me, – isn’t coming to get your oil changed a pain and inconvenience? Why not buy the synthetic oil that lasts for 7000 miles instead of the conventional oil for 3,000 miles. It on sale, is cheaper then coming again in 3,000 miles AND you’ll stay out of our shop for a more extended period.

I bought the more expensive synthetic oil.

But I left wondering, how did the clerk so easily convince me to buy the more expensive oil and change my mind.

Catalyst – How To Change Anyone’s Mind – A New Jonah Berger Book

Jonah Berger teaches marketing at Wharton’s Business School at The University of Pennsylvania. His new book Catalyst is a reminder that almost every day, we all try to change someone’s mind.

For marketing professionals, we want to change or persuade a customer’s mind. Disruptive startups want to change industries. In our personal lives, we may want to convince a spouse or family member about a trip to the beach instead of the mountains.

Chair Pushers

Berger uses the analogy of pushing a chair. If you want to change the location of a chair, you push it. And, it moves. You don’t get resistance.

But changing the hearts and minds of people is hard. You can push, but you get resistance. Is there a better way?

The thesis in this book is that you want to be a catalyst. Pushing harder or providing more information isn’t the solution. A catalyst removes hurdles and reduces the barriers to change.

Instead of saying how can I change their mind, they pivot the question to ask, why haven’t they already changed their mind? What is stopping them?

Filled with novel examples, Berger’s book Catalyst tells the story of how hostage negotiators get people to come out with their hands up. Or how marketing professionals find ways to get a new product to be adopted. There are examples of how leaders shift and transform cultures or activists to inspire and ignite social movements.

In the book, you’ll learn about Greg, the FBI agent turned hostage negotiator after he witnessed a hardened international criminal turn himself in without a fight.

And, you’ll meet Chuck, who was able to decrease teen smoking rates by 75% by using the power of reactivity.  Instead of smoking, he asked teens to consider rebelling against the cigarette companies who are the ones influencing  your behavior.

If The Shoe Fits

In 1999, a company called www.shoesite.com was one of the first sites to sell shoes online. In the late ’90s, when they opened their doors i.e., website, no one wanted to buy their shoes even though they carried lots of brands and sizes.

You may know this company by its current name – Zappos. The founder realized that consumers were fearful of buying online, and they didn’t want to pay for shipping.

Remember what the early Internet days were like?

When they started to offer free shipping, they removed a hurdle. It shifted the resistance, and free shipping became Zappo’s catalyst to success.

Test Drive

Think of going to the car a dealer and paying $40K for a new car but never taking it out for a test drive. When you test drive a vehicle, a barrier gets removed. You see what it feels like to be in the driver’s seat. How does it make you feel and, does the car meet your functional requirements? Long ago, car dealers realized that test drives would eliminate a barrier to purchase. Today, freemium models for technology and software providers that same sampling opportunity.

Political Canvassing

Another story in the book is how canvassers use tactical empathy to change the mind of voters. Berger urges not to think of being in someone’s shoes to experience what they feel. Instead, he suggests harnessing a similar feeling or experience from your life – how did you think and react. By using this tactical empathy approach, you gain a more visceral understanding of what is holding someone back from changing their mind.

R.E.D.U.C.E.

Berger uses the acronym REDUCE to help you when you are trying to reduce the resistance toward persuading someone.

• Reactance: When pushed, people push back. Stop throwing facts at them and start asking questions that begin with why, how, and what. (THINK: ENGAGEMENT)

• Endowment: People don’t like change. People won’t change even if the difference is to their benefit. Try focusing on the costs of not changing. (THINK: EMOTIONAL BENEFITS)

• Distance: When someone has an opposite opinion of yours or when you have a massive ask, consider asking for less. (THINK: INCREMENTAL MOVEMENT)

• Uncertainty: People are risk-averse. Look for ways to remove or eliminate risk. Make things easy to try. (THINK: FREE SHIPPING/FREMIUM TRIAL)

• Corroborating Evidence: This is related to risk. Some people need more corroborating evidence from multiple sources. (THINK: TESTIMONIALS)

Another fabulous book on persuassion is the classic by Robert Cialdini and his new book Presuasion. If you are a marketer, you’ll want to read Jonah Berger’s books along with the Cialdini series.

Have I changed your mind to go buy Jonah’s book?

Need help changing customer’s minds?

I can help. You can set up a time chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conversation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com. Let’s explore working together today.

Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

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I had a fascinating confidential conversation this week with a company that sells luxury goods. Because I promised to keep the details private, I can only tell you in general terms about her approach to marketing and how she gets customers to wait in line to buy her special products. Imagine having the power of turning away customers because what you sell has a scarce, limited and was created with an exclusive marketing mindset from the start. 

When Denise (not her real name) got into her business, she didn’t want to market her upscale, luxury product like everyone else. She knew that she needed to tap into the powerful desire people have for something they can’t easily get.

Marketing Scarcity – The Exclusive Club

She started by creating an exclusive club that you have to wait in line to become a member. There wasn’t any cost to join the waiting list, and there was no guarantee that you would be able to get into the club. But everyone had to wait in line at least one year to become a member. Waiting in line made membership valuable.

Denise also didn’t sell her goods in places that his competitors sold their products because she didn’t want any competitors. She knew that being in a store or on a shelf would give the perception that this product was like every other product on the shelf – just packaged differently. She only sold directly to members who had waited at least one year to buy from her.

Imagine the stories his customers shared that they had to wait one year to buy from him. Talk about shareable storytelling.

There was no advertising or social media campaign to build awareness like most marketing professionals would have recommended. She didn’t care about likes or followers on social media. She didn’t spend money on fancy image campaigns for his goods either. All she had was an exclusive, and mysterious waiting list and a website built on this idea of intrigue and exclusivity. Even her place of business didn’t have a fancy sign – just a small handwritten note on the outside of her business.

She only makes a few thousand units of this product each year and it is presold to her club members. Her pricing was at least five times higher than the industry average for similar goods. Her club member’s incentive to buy is based on scarcity – they can get something that others can’t get. Her list does lose a few customers each year but through word of mouth, more get in line to buy.

The Principle of Scarcity 

The idea for this approach to marketing was inspired by a book.

Robert Cialdini wrote Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – a landmark book that illustrates some key principles about marketing. The last of his six principles is about scarcity, that can make a product appear more valuable.

A classic study from the 1970’s had consumers value cookies in a jar. One jar had 10, and one jar had two cookies. Which do you think was perceived of as more valuable? Yup – the jar with just 2. We want what everyone else wants and when it becomes scarce, we want it even more.

You may recall Disney using this concept in the past when a Disney classic would go back into the Disney vault and no longer be available for purchase. I recall buying many VHS tapes for my daughter’s because if I didn’t buy, who knew when Aladdin or Sleeping Beauty would be available again?

Lessons about Scarcity – A Powerful Marketing Tool

• Could you offer a limited edition of what you sell?

• Have you considered selling a version of your product to an exclusive list who want something others can’t get?

• Is it possible not to think of selling your product not based on volume but instead, frame revenue from an exclusive, value-based and limited perspective? If you had pricing power to be 5X higher than the category, think of how many fewer units you’d need to sell.

• Do you create any mystery around your brand so that not everything is transparent and revealed? The goal isn’t to hide stuff, but to pull the curious toward you?

• Is there a luxury end of the market for your product and category that no one is paying attention to, but you could corner?

• FOMO- fear of missing out is a powerful motivator. Are you leveraging scarcity in your messaging to your customers?

• Scarcity and exclusive can also leverage time so that your product or service is only available for a limited time. I remember a fabulous restaurant in Philadelphia when I attended college called Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Those were the only days they opened, and you could barely get a reservation. Could you do a better job of using time limitations to motivate purchasers?

• Companies that offer goods or services for sale for a limited period often experience as many sales during the last 24 hours as they do the rest of the period. If your audience is already interested in what you do, how can you create demand by pulling the product off the market? Eliminating a product only works when there isn’t a ready and easy substitution for what you sell.

• Countdown clocks can help reinforce limits and scarcity of opportunity. Think of how motivated you might be to buy when you keep seeing a clock ticking down. eBay is a great example of this principle, and people get motivated to bid during the last hour something is available.

How could you use these principles of scarcity to grow your business in an unexpected way?  

Need help with your marketing? Looking for unusual ideas to help rebrand, refresh or rethink your marketing efforts? I have 30 years of experiences growing small businesses into million dollar brands. Want to connect? Text or call me at 919 720 0995 or email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com

Photo by Paul Dufour on Unsplash

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This is one of my least favorite tactics for retaining existing customers. The programs are expensive, very time consuming and most of all, in my experience, ineffective.

There is a better approach that is often missed by most marketers. The surprise.

The surprise is a way of giving something to customers when they don’t expect a reward. If I tell you that if you buy 4 sandwiches, the fifth is free – that is a very transactional approach to business. Emotionless.

But what happens when you randomly start giving small surprises or gifts to regular customers that can matter to them in a deeper way.

CHEERS: Gary Vaynerchuk told me the story about a Wine Library customer who was in his top ten customers for the year. He could have easily offered a club or discount program but it felt like a detached reward.  Instead, he followed the customer on twitter and saw that he loved to talk about a very specific football player that was his idol.  Gary found an autograph shirt of the customer’s idol, and sent him a personal note that connected Gary’s brand, Wine Library with something the customer cared about deeply.

BOOKS: In another example, when I worked in the food industry, I would listen very carefully to our top customers (retailers, distributors, wholesalers, brokers, agents) who would talk about their challenges. Since retailers can’t typically accept gifts, I would send them business books that would share ideas and insights on their challenges. I’d mention in my note that I know they may not be allowed to accept a gift, so they can return the book if necessary after they read it. (I would send a prepaid envelope).

I never got a book back. I did earn some valuable ‘brownie points’.

SMALL GIFTS OF THANKS: Another company I advised was looking for a loyalty program for their small retail store. The owner and I created a very simple to enact ‘gift with purchase’ program that wasn’t communicated publically. She would give away small gifts to loyal customers and not ask for anything in exchange. It had a built shareability too since many customers would tell about the surprise gift they received at the store. Although a modest and token gift, the store owner learned that the surprise factor made a big difference and won over the hearts of her top customers. The law of reciprocity, as outlined in Robert Cialdini’s book The Psychology of Persuasion, is worth reading if you are looking to understand more about how this works.

From The Six Laws of Influence:

Reciprocity

“As humans, we generally aim to return favors, pay back debts, and treat others as they treat us. According to the idea of reciprocity, this can lead us to feel obliged to offer concessions or discounts to others if they have offered them to us. This is because we’re uncomfortable with feeling indebted to them.

For example, if a colleague helps you when you’re busy with a project, you might feel obliged to support her ideas for improving team processes. You might decide to buy more from a supplier if they have offered you an aggressive discount. Or, you might give money to a charity fundraiser who has given you a flower in the street.”

The Human Filter

Think about loyalty programs through a human filter. Instead of a bank giving away toasters to everyone, what happens when they give something of equal value to customers but personalized to something special about that customer. Yes, it is harder to scale but that is a lazy reason not to do it.

Think human, personal and emotional. It’s a much better approach to loyalty.

Interested in growing your business? I can help you increase profitable revenue with marketing insights. To learn more, click this link.

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