1st post on this forum, just joined so hello to everyone. I think it is important to understand that the term marketing psychology is very broad and can often be seen as unethical among certain social circles, a way of tricking the audience and deceiving them if you will.
These types of views are quite paranoid as the world isn't out to get them and neither are the organisations who adopt certain techniques, although in some cases they are. Three things I would like to discuss are herding, emotional pleas and logical pleas.
So first off herding. Heard behavior on Wikipedia is described as ''how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction. The term pertains to the behavior of animals in herds, flocks and schools, and to human conduct during activities.''
For example if a fire alarm went off in a perfectly symmetrical building with two exits placed parallel to each other, why will the majority of people chose one exit. This is much like the marketing practice of WORD OF MOUTH (WOM). These things at times can seem to manifest out of nowhere. But one thing is certain people want to trust. If everyone is leaving through one fire exit they trust within the crowd that is the right choice. If people are buying your products over competitors potential customers and the audience will again establish a trust within your product. Why...because they trust in the crowd/heard.
Herding can then be described as driving web traffic, footfall and customers in general towards a product, service, event or location. It may seem like a win or lose situation however these organisations can establish, maintain or increase a heard or community size through the use of emotional and logical pleas.
For example a Logical plea for choosing a product would be because it is 2 for 1 or 10% off or buy one get one free. An emotional plea however does not necessarily contain such obvious language. There aim is to provoke a human emotion. You see an Ad for some new trainers and you think to yourself I can make my friends so JEALOUS with these or i have to have them because everyone else has them.
It is important to understand that within herds, communities and crowds there are influencers. These people can affect the formation, mood, direction and general consensus of the herd. It is important to identify these people and 'get them on your side' so to speak. A great example of this is Oprah. If Oprah suggests a particular product people will go crazy for it.
The influence can be seen as a form of delegation between stakeholders of which none are employees. If a product or service is deemed to be of lesser quality than it's competitors it is important to utilize emotional and logical pleas as well as herding as best you can.
In popular culture one type of person is very important in terms of your marketing psychology and that type of person is a celebrity.
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