There
are some kinds of situations where/when people are very difficult
to persuade. Others where they are too easy.
Each
page of this article will reveal many secrets that no one wants
to tell you because most of them are REALLY uncomfortable to think
about. They make your heart race. They even bug me, and I'm pretty
unflappable when it comes to human/consumer behavior.
Aside
from dealing with these polarities...we'll also do one other thing...if
you have kids I might be able to show you how to save their lives
from deadly persuasion.
Today
we find out how
to persuade in those tough situations...and we take a look
at the beliefs and behaviors that make people not only TOO persuadable
but going past the redline and either being taken advantage of,
or asking to be taken advantage of...
There
are uncomfortable secrets here...and they have nothing to do with
visualizing...these secrets all revolve around one of the laws
of persuasion....
Who
Pays More?
In
the good ole USA, we know white women pay more for the same vehicle
than a white man. (Interesting: Black men in America pay much
more for the same car than their white counterparts and they pay
dramatically more than black women. In all cases, best prices
are obtained by white men.)
Two
Factors Lead to More Sales
Astute
salespeople recognize that women are not only looking at and buying
cars more, they often don't have a grasp of pricing to the degree
of their male counterparts. But there is more at work than pricing
knowledge.
The
other factor? Women want to make more important buying decisions
in 2007 than they did in 1977. Those two facts tied together make
for profitable deals.
Quick
analysis for both sides:
When
people feel some cultural bias, or that they are a minority...
(for example, many women believe they are a minority, this is
obviously not accurate, as there are a whole bunch more women
than men in the United States, and for that matter in college
and earning degrees...but it isn't the FACT that matters in decision
making and behavior, it is the belief and the feeling that will
influence people's behavior most)
In
raw no BS english: Black Men pay more than Black Women by a lot.
Black women pay a lot more than white women and white women pay
a lot more than white men.
Car
buying is typically either the biggest or second biggest decision
a person makes.
You
have people who have felt "disrespected" and as anyone
will tell you, people are generally disrespected because of two
things. Their behavior or their decision making ability. The disrespect
can be real, perceived, both, it doesn't matter.
Thus
you have definite internal belief system norms among various demographics,
that are scary predictable. From a self-actualization/self-esteem/self-worth
point of view, certain people MUST make a decision to buy a car
and want to feel
empowered by that decision.
I
find it very hard to believe that a bunch of white guys are all
that more intelligent than a bunch of black guys when it comes
to cars. (Especially if I'm in the mix.)
It
goes much deeper. It goes to The Self and how The Self believes
they are SEEN by other members of their peer group. (I'll come
back to this later. For now, let this be uncomfortable because
this isn't just about gender or race...it gets more fascinating
and more gritty.)
Want
to know what happens when people have these feelings inside and
what people of influence and those dealing with persuasive situations
should do?
Tip
for consumer: If you are not completely familiar with costs
on vehicles, get in touch with someone who is and have them explain
pricing, invoice, holdbacks and value retention...this is not
a great time to let ego get involved. In fact, if you want to
be smart, if you aren't a white guy, bring a white guy with you
to the dealership. He's not smarter, he just gets a better price
on the same car. Otherwise go by yourself and spend more, then
write and tell me that you "got a really good deal."
There's
a LOT of ego involved in buying a car.
Let
me categorically state that I am egoless in this area. I have
had my clock totally cleaned buying a car and that was not just
one time. It was a number of times. That changed when I started
reading Consumer Reports and Edmunds. (Thank you god) I don't
know much more now, but I have access to information.
Tip
for dealers: Your job is to optimize your knowledge of consumer
behavior. As long as women are paying more for the same car, why
aren't you marketing more to women? Your competitor is and he's
cleaning up. Women's buying patterns alone account for a significant
portion of the increase in car prices over the last decade.
Who
Holds the Power?
Aren't
car dealers evil? You know...having a quality position in Dante's
Inferno?
No.
Their business, with a few exceptions, is the same as anyone else's.
Your
Uncle John is a mechanic there and your Aunt Jane is on the floor.
They employ people and the car industry employs vast amounts of
people.... If they don't sell cars at a high price, they have
to let people go. That simple.....
What's
"evil" (from the consumer viewpoint) is walking into
the place not knowing what a holdback is and pretending to make
a "decision" for your family. (M or F).....
The
consumer COULD have all the control in car buying, but they almost
always choose to give all their power to the dealer. It is a choice
and it is an ego driven choice.
In
some respects, life is a game.
In some respects, buying and selling is a game.
Whether
you're selling or buying you might want to ponder that thought.
If
Car Buying Were a Game
If
buying a car were a game, what rules would be involved? How would
you win? What would you need?
If
you were selling a car, what rules would be involved? How would
you win? What would you need?
And,
for the seller, if you want to keep a customer, what will you
do to win the future game?
So
we know that women continuing to buy more expensive items is not
going to be a factor or a persuasive difficulty. (And indeed all
research bears this out.)
The
Difficult to Persuade
However,
there is a group of people who is the most difficult to change
their behavior and persuasion is mostly resisted.
Who?
KEYPOINT:
The person who is "addicted" to a product or could become
addicted to a product, when told not to use that product, actually
polarize and not only tend to buy the product, but use it, defend
it, and evangelize it to others.
You
tell them don't buy it and they buy it.
Again,
who is this person?
They
are the person who hears this...
* "Don't you go to that cult..." (The church down the
street from yours.)
* "Don't look at that X on line..."
* "Don't do that behavior...."
* "Don't...."
Recent
research breaks it all down to a very specific situation and how
you can know what the person will do. Here it is...
The
Anti-Sell
Some
anti-smoking ads are simply ineffective, while others actually
make youth more likely to light up. Fortunately, some are successful,
and a new University of Georgia study helps explain why.
Researchers
found that anti-smoking ads are most effective when they convince
youth that their friends are listening to the ads. Otherwise,
the ads appear to stimulate the rebellious and curious nature
of youth, making them more interested in smoking. (Credit: iStockphoto/Mitar
Gavric)
Hye-Jin
Paek, assistant professor at the UGA Grady College of Journalism
and Mass Communication, found that anti-smoking ads are most effective
when they convince youth that their friends are listening to the
ads. Otherwise, the ads appear to stimulate the rebellious and
curious nature of youth, making them more interested in smoking.
Paek and co-author Albert Gunther from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
examined data from surveys of nearly 1,700 middle school students,
and their results appear in the August issue of the journal Communication
Research.
"Anti-smoking
ads have the greatest impact on smoking attitudes and behavior
when adolescents think that their peers are listening to those
messages," Paek said. "And that makes sense because
people are more likely to listen to what their close peers say
rather than what the media says."
Evidence
that anti-smoking ads have the potential to make youth more likely
to smoke has been accumulating for the past five years. Paek and
Gunther's study adds to that evidence and helps explain how anti-smoking
ads can be effective.
How?
The researchers surveyed students in four middle schools about
their exposure to anti-smoking ads and their intentions to smoke.
They found that, overall, the more the students were exposed
to anti-smoking messages, the more inclined they were to smoke.
The
exception -- where exposure to anti-smoking ads correlated with
a reduced intention to smoke -- occurred among students who said
their friends were influenced by anti-smoking messages.
"Perception
is sometimes more powerful than actual behavior," Paek
said. "What we've found is that it doesn't necessarily matter
how your friends respond to the ads, but how you think your friends
are responding."
Paek
said many health campaigns assume that anti-smoking messages have
a simple, direct and strong impact on individuals. She said that
by understanding the indirect route that messages often take,
health communicators can design more effective ads.
Her
results suggest that campaigns don't work by convincing
individuals to avoid tobacco, but rather by helping change
the social norms surrounding smoking. With that in mind, she said,
campaigns should be designed for a sustained, multi-year effort.
The
way the message is designed is critically important, too. Rather
than using an authoritarian approach along the lines of "just
say no," Paek urges health communicators to emphasize that
most youth don't smoke, and for good reasons.
"Advertising
professionals have only recently become involved in anti-smoking
campaigns," she said. "We need to develop more sophisticated
appeals."
THE
SECRET - Appeal to a perception of a NORM you create in your
ad/message and they will comply.
Or
you can do what is politically correct and have a lot of people
die of cancer...
