LEcture 2 and 3: Psychology of Sales- Alpha Strategies Flashcards
social influence
Direct, coordinate, and influence others
history of social influence and rhetorics
• Cicero and Quintilian followed Aristoteles • Rhetoric was taught in nearly every university, but focused on style and beauty of speech • Focus on art of persuasion was revived in 1900’s but was unstructured and observational • Propaganda studies
What are Cialdini’s 6 principles
- Reciprocity
- Scarcity
- Authority
- Consistency
- Liking
- Consensus (Social Proof)
Reciprocity
people feel obliged to give back to someone who has given them something first
scarcity
want what we can’t have/think is rare
authority
trust people who are credible in that field (experts)
ex. dentist on toothpaste
consistency
people like to do things that are consistent with what they have previously said or done
*want to persuade people to make a commitment, then will be more likely to buy it
liking
people will be more likely to say yes to people they like
*sales people try to make you like them
consensus
look to action/behaviour of others to decide for themselves
*especially in unfamiliar situations
what are alpha strategies of persuasion
try to increase the attractive features of an alternative
most common
what are omega strategies of persuasion
attempt to decrease negative features of an alternative
–> focus on reducing customer reactance
landscaping tactics
pre-persuasion
Structuring the situation in
such a way that the target is receptive and responds in a desired manner
valence framing (L)
• People seek to avoid losses
• Losses are more painful than gains are pleasurable.
• Framing issues in terms of losses (vs. gains)
generates motivation to avoid the loss.
• Sub-forms:
• Attribute framing
• Goal framing
decoys (L)
- Inferior option that no-one would choose
* Makes other products in a choice-set appear more superior
storytelling (L)
- Story = narrative that provides causal structure to facts and evidence
- Narrative transportation (being engaged in the story)
- Increases persuasion efficacy
phantoms (L)
–> WANT TO AVOID
• Choice option that looks real but is for some
reason unavailable at the time a decision is made.
• Decreases evaluation of other products
• Alters relative importance of decision criteria
• Reference point for decision making
agenda setting (L)
- placing issues on an agenda
- -> makes them appear important/true
- -> limits information on other issues
ex. Donald Trump tweet about mail-in ballots being fraudulent
Source credibility
- authority and trustworthiness
- we learn from a young age that we should listen to authorities
question to consider about sources
how can we achieve that others perceive us as credible source?
what is the first thing we evaluate when meeting someone new?
whether they are trustworthy
fleeting attraction
• Feelings of similarity between a messenger and their target increases compliance
Liking someone is the #1 predictor for complying with another’s request
• Liking heuristic
• Fundamental human rule
social consensus
“social proof”
- bandwagon effects
- if many people think it’s good, I’ll think it’s good too
altercasting
Casting people into a social
role makes them behave in
ways expected by this role
what are the two types of altercasting
- manded
2. tact
manded altercasting
person is placed in a social role position orally or textually.
Tact altercasting:
often created with suggestive
imagery to have someone take
on a role spontaneously and
voluntarily
anthropomorphism
• When a brand or product is seen as human-like, people will like it more and feel closer to it
• Natural human tendency
to anthropomorphise.
astroturfing
- Fake social proof (consensus) is used to create an impression of popular support.
- Don’t do this! Ever!
effective message tactics
• Tactics in which an influence agent organises, provides, and/or induces the
target to generate arguments and reasons for a given course of action.
- Message characteristics.
- Aim to increase effectiveness of a message
Self (Generated) Persuasion
- letting people persuade themselves
- often via open-ended questions
- particularly effective for highly involved consumers
- results in persistence of attitude change
fluency
• A message should always be experienced fluently and with ease • Human brains don’t like complexity • Smooth and automatic processing leads to experiencing positive feelings
rhetorical questions
- Question to provoke thought
- Not meant to be answered
- Motivate more intensive processing of message
- Increase in persuasion when message is strong
- Decrease in persuasion when message is weak
pique technique (disrupt-then-reframe)
• Disrupting attention gives advertisers an opportunity to reframe and resell and already
dismissed proposal
–> disrupting momentarily disables critical thinking
• Introduction of an unexpected element to attract attention
negativity effect
- Humans have a negativity bias
* Negative information receives more attention and weight
legitimising paltry contributions
• “Even a penny will help”
–>Legitimising a minimal level of compliance
• Removing objections to comply
• Eliminates reasons to not comply
• Make target look “cheap” if they don’t comply
primacy and recency effects
• Placing a message at the start or end of a block of information
increases:
• Memory retention
• Persuadability of the message
• Information presented first only competes with the information that follows (retroactive inhibition)
• Information presented last only competes with the information
presented before it (proactive inhibition)
• Information in the middle competes with both in order to be retained.
• Reason why the first and last ad in a TV commercial block are often most expensive
*if people will pay attention, primacy is more effective, if not, recency more effective
what are some effective message tactics
- Self (Generated) Persuasion
- fluency
- rhetorical questions
- pique technique (disrupt-then-reframe)
- negativity effect
- legitimising paltry contributions
- primacy and recency effects
emotional tactics
• Make use of the target’s subjective feelings, affect, arousal, emotions, and tension states • Tactics are designed to control emotions
what is the simple rule of emotional tactics
• Simple rule:
1. Arouse emotion
2.Offer the target a way of
responding to that emotion
fear appeals
• Tactic that links undesired action with negative
consequences or a desired action with the avoidance
of a negative outcome
• Successful behaviour change requires high fear/arousal,
high threat, and high efficacy.
• Perceived threat: the issue needs to be presented in a
way that makes people think it is a real and serious threat
to them or their loved ones – the “that could be me”
response
• Perceived efficacy: the ad needs to provide an action
plan or solution to motivate people into action rather than
paralysis – the “I can do something about it” response
guilt sells
- Inducing feeling responsible for some wrongdoing
- Increased guilt leads to compliance
Why?
• Guilt induces desire to make
restitution and to repair the selfimage
flattery
- We like those that flatter us
* People are more likely to comply with a request by someone that flatters them
door-in-the-face
• A large request followed by a small one increases the
chance of compliant behaviour
• Efficacy depends on first rejection of unreasonably
large request
• Target must feel that their “no” is a real rejection
• Second request is seen as a compromise offered by requester
Foot-in-the-Door
• Beginning with a small request paves the way for compliance to a bigger request • Second request needs to be in line with first request • Case of commitment and consistency
That’s-Not-All Technique
• Spontaneously offering a discount or offering free extras before the sales pitch is even over
• Feels like seller makes a concession for
you
–> Principle of reciprocity
**People have to believe that the initial deal would sell for that sum
commitment trap
• Making use of the principle of
Commitment & Consistency
Commitments are strongest when behaviour is: • Visible • Irreversible • Perceived to be freely chosen
low-balling
• Pitching and attractive offer and consequently increasing the price • Targets makes commitment to initial (better) offer • Earlier commitment increases chance of compliance with new offer • Related to foot-in-the-door
self-efficacy
- “the judgement of how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations”
- Increasing self-efficacy increases compliance for behaviour change
–> theory of planned behaviour
self-threat
• When many members of a society (are made to) feel threatened:
=
• Fertile ground for persuasion (propaganda) • Self-threat induces state of social dependency • Desire to re-establish positive aspects of the self
emotional see-saw
- Eliciting a high arousal emotion and then withdrawing it rapidly
- Results in higher likelihood of compliance
• Emotions evoke specific plans of action
• Plan not operative anymore if emotion withdrawn
–> Request can fill that void
what are some emotional appeals
- fear appeals
- guilt sells
- flattery
- door-in-the-face
- foot-in-the-door
6, that’s-not-all technique - commitment trap
- low-balling
- self-efficacy
- self-threat
- emotional see-saw
