The Power Of 'Emotional Factors'

[Guest guest]

The Power Of

'Emotional Factors'

 

 

 

 

 

It's the eternal argument: logic vs. emotion. And many

people want to insist that in their business, this " emotion stuff " is

inappropriate or ineffective These include people in financial services, high

tech businesses, professional practices, industrial equipment. And they are

all, always wrong Emotion-neutered marketing is always wrong.

 

 

 

The primary E-FACTORS of selling - anything and

everything - are:

 

 

 

Fear

 

Guilt

 

Pride

 

Greed

 

Love

 

 

 

FEAR:

 

 

 

In his bit " The 2000 Year Old Man " , Mel Brooks

said " Everything is based on Fear. " He may be right. Certainly, fear

of loss drives people in ways no other appeal can. My speaking colleague and

friend Cavett Robert - who made a fortune teaching people how to sell burial

plots to people still very much alive - said " In order to sell insurance,

the prospect must see the hearse backed up to his door, feel the cold breath of

the Grim Reaper raising the hairs on the back of his neck, and hear the death

rattle in his chest. " Go

ahead: try selling fire alarms without showing pictures

of burn victims, including children. Lotsa luck. I recently saw a survey of

1,000 people, men and women, who were married and stayed married over 20 years.

Asked - anonymously and confidentially - for the #1 reason they had stayed

married, 67% said " Fear of growing old alone. " American Express sells

traveler's checks by scaring you about being stuck in some foreign locale on

vacation and losing your money. Bottom-line: if you can whip up insecurity and

fear, you can sell.

 

 

 

GUILT:

 

 

 

Because most people actually don't behave very well, just

about everybody lugs around some quantity and diversity of guilt. Since humans

are, by design, imperfect, yet every religion I know of sets up standards of

perfect behavior to sin against, guilt is guaranteed. If you stacked up all the

childrens' toys, gifts, jewelry, greeting cards, automobiles, etc. purchased

because of guilt, you could climb it to Mars like Jack climbed the beanstalk

Millions of dollars worth of a mundane product like " stainless steel

cookware " have been sold nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes by direct salesmen

skilled in manipulating husbands' guilt over having their wives do all the

kitchen work. (NOT sold because of the health benefits of the product.) I've

read a fairly persuasive theory that many well-to-do gamblers go to Vegas to

lose money, to assuage guilt over having it in the first place.

 

 

 

PRIDE:

 

 

 

People desperately, hungrily want to " be

important. " People pick schools they go to or send their kids to, places

they go on vacation, neighborhoods they live in, cars they drive, clothes they

wear, even the friends they have so they can feel " proud " , so they

can have " bragging rights. " Maybe you've seen these bumper stickers:

" Parent of a Straight A Student Inside. " Think that's there to

motivate or reward the kid? Not on your life.

 

 

 

GREED:

 

 

 

" Greed " , the Michael Douglas character in 'Wall

Street', said " is good " and he proceeded to deliver an impassioned

defense for this much-maligned human emotion. Maybe it's not good, maybe it's

not healthy, but let's make no mistake about it: it exists. Why would a

super-rich man like Donald Trump try to win a quick million betting on a fight?

Same reason you buy a lottery ticket. The prospect of getting something for

nothing. Greed. Plus, in his case, Pride; the opportunity to brag about

winning.

 

 

 

" Free " is still the most powerful word in

advertising, even though instinctively we all know nothing is truly free. Why?

Because GREED overcomes common sense.

 

 

 

LOVE:

 

It is an interesting contradiction: in real life, people

will often do things for or because of loved ones that they would not do solely

for themselves, yet it is often difficult to sell on this basis - although

entire industries, notably life insurance, are based on this idea. Generally

speaking, each human seems to require the acceptance, approval, respect and

even affection of a number of people, and a long-term love relationship with

one other person. And they will go to extraordinary lengths to facilitate both.

Marketers need to be very aware of our tendency to try and " buy "

love; such appeals work very well for, say, the diamond jewelry industry.

Another aspect of this E-Factor is vanity, for most people link vanity and

their ability to get and keep love; on this basis, weight loss, skin care, hair

replacement, etc. is sold.

 

 

 

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