INFLUENCE: The Principle of Authority

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini

Authority

• Re: Stanley Milgram shock experiment: What could make us do such things? Milgram is sure he knows the answer. It has to do, he says, with a deep-seated sense of duty to authority within us all.
• Milgram: "It is the extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority that constitutes the chief finding of the study."
• We are trained from birth that obedience to proper authority is right and disobedience is wrong.
• We rarely agonize over the pros and cons of authority's demands. In fact, our obedience frequently takes place in a click, whirr fashion with little or no conscience deliberation. Information from a recognized authority can provide us a valuable shortcut for deciding how to act in a situation.
• Once we realize that obedience to authority is mostly rewarding, it is easy to allow ourselves the convenience of automatic obedience. Although such mindless obedience leads us to appropriate action in the great majority of cases, there will be conspicuous exceptions - because we are reacting rather than thinking.
• Once a legitimate authority has given an order, subordinates stop thinking in the situation and start reacting.
• Re: Robert Young Sanka Commercial: Ability to use the influence of the Authority principle without ever providing a real authority. The appearance of authority was enough.
• When in a click, whirr mode, we are often as vulnerable to the symbols of authority as to the substance.
• Compliance professionals who are short on substance: Con artists, for example, drape themselves with the titles, clothes, and trappings of authority. They love nothing more than to emerge elegantly dressed from a fine automobile and to introduce themselves to their prospective "mark" as Doctor or Judge or Professor or Commissioner Someone. They understand that when they are so equipped, their chances for compliance are greatly increased.
• Re Titles: Titles are simultaneously the most difficult and easiest symbols of authority to acquire. To earn one normally takes years of work and achievement. Yet it is possible for somebody who has put in none of this effort to adopt the mere label and receive a kind of automatic deference.
• Our actions are frequently more influenced by a title than by the nature of the person claiming it.
• Highly trained and skilled nurses were not using that training or skill sufficiently to check on a doctor's judgement; instead, when confronted with a physicians directives, they would simply defer.
• Regardless of the type of request, many more people obeyed the requestor when he wore the guard costume.
• Nearly all the pedestrians complied with his directive when he had worn the guard costume, but fewer than 1/2 did so when he dressed normally.
• Motorists would wait significantly longer before honking their horns at a new, luxury car stopped in front of a green traffic light than at an older, economy model.
• People were unable to predict correctly how they or others would react to authority influence. In each instance, the effect of such influence was grossly underestimated. This property of authority status may account for much of its success as a compliance device. Not only does it work forcefully on us, but it also does so unexpectedly.
• Because we typically misperceive the profound impact of authority (and its symbols) on our actions, we are at the disadvantage of being insufficiently cautious about its presence in compliance situations.
• Isn't it fascinating how, when we are whirring along, what is obvious often doesn't matter unless we pay specific attention to it?
• A tactic compliance practitioners use to assure us of their sincerity: They will seem to argue to a degree against their own interests. Correctly done, this can be a subtly effective device for proving their honesty. Perhaps they will mention a small shortcoming in their position or product. Invariably, though, the drawback will be a secondary one that is easily overcome by more significant advantages. By establishing their basic truthfulness on minor issues, the compliance professionals who use this ploy can then be more believable when stressing the important aspects of their argument.
• Who, after all, is more believable than a demonstrated expert of proven sincerity? Vincent the waiter: Much of his profit came from an apparent lack of concern for personal profit. Seeming to argue against his financial interests served those interests extremely well.
  

INFLUENCE: The Principle of Scarcity

"Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini.

Scarcity

• Something that, on its own merits, held little appeal for me had become decidedly more attractive merely because it would soon become unavailable.
• People seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value. Homeowners told how much money they could lose from inadequate insulation are more likely to insulate their homes than those told how much they could save.
• Pamphlets urging young women to check for breast cancer through self-examination are significantly more successful if they state their case in terms of what stands to be lost (e.g. "You can lose several potential health benefits...") rather than gained (e.g. "You can gain several potential health benefits...")
• As a rule, if it is rare or becoming rare, it is more valuable.
• "I see you're interested in this model here, and I can understand why; it's a great machine at a great price. But, unfortunately, I sold it to another couple not more than 20 minutes ago. And, if I'm not mistaken, it was the last one we had. ......then...... Do I understand that this is the model you want and if I can get it for you at this price, you'll take it? (Another unit would then magically be left in the back)
• One theatre owner, with remarkable singleness of purpose, had managed to invode the scarcity principle 3 separate times in just 5 words: "Exclusive, limited engagement ends soon!"
• A variant of the deadline tactic is much favored by some face-to-face, high pressure sellers because it carries the purest form of decision deadline: right now. Customers are often told that unless they make an immediate decision to buy, they will have to purchase the item at a higher price or they will be unable to purchase it at all.
• Can't come back tactic: It is to "keep the prospects from taking the time to think the deal over by scaring them into believing they can't have it later, which makes them want it now."
• Because we know that the things that are difficult to possess are typically better than the things that are easy to possess, we can often use an item's availability to help us quickly and correctly decide on its quality.
• Secondary source of power: As opportunities become less available , we lose freedoms and we hate to lose freedoms we already have.
• According to the theory, whenever free choice is limited or threatened, the need to retain our freedoms makes us desire them (as well as the goods and services associated with them) significantly more than previously. So when increasing scarcity - or anything else - interferes with our prior access to some item, we will react against the interference by wanting and trying to possess the item more than before.
• We show the strong tendency to react against restrictions on our freedoms of action throughout our lives.
• When our freedom to have something is limited, the item becomes less available and we experience an increased desire for it. However, we rarely recognize that psychological reactance has caused us to want the item more; all we know is that we want it. Still, we need to make sense of our desire for the item, so we begin to assign it positive qualities to justify the desire.
• Almost invariably, our response to the banning of information is a greater desire to receive that information and a more favorable attitude toward it than before the ban.
• Possibility that especially clever individuals holding a weak or unpopular position can get us to agree with that position by arranging to have their message restricted. The most effective strategy may not be to publicize their unpopular views, but to get those views officially censored, and to publicize the cencorship.
• 50% of students received "a book for adults only, restricted to those 21 and over." 50% received the same book with no such restriction. Those who learned of the age restriction: 1. Wanted to read the book more. 2. Believed that they would like the book more.
• Censoring & Banning: People involved came to want the restricted item more and, as a result, came to feel more favorable toward it.
• Compared to the customers who got only the standard sales appeal, those who were also told about the future scarcity of beef bought more than twice as much. But the real boost in sales occurred among the customers who heard of the impending scarcity via "exclusive information." They purchased six times the amount that the customers who received only the standard sales pitch did.
• The fact that the news carrying the scarcity of information was itself scarce made it especially persuasive.
• When the cookie was one of the only two available, it was rated more favorably than when it was one of ten. The cookie in short supply was rated as more desirable to eat in the future, more attractive as a consumer item, and more costly than the identical cookie in abundant supply.
• Department stores holding a bargain sale toss out a few especially good deals on prominently advertised items called loss leaders. If the bait has done its job, a large and eager crowd forms to snap it up. Soon, in the rush to score, the group becomes agitated, nearly blinded, by the adversarial nature of the situation. Humans and fish alike lose perspective on what they want and begin striking at whatever is being contested.
• Extreme caution is advised whenever we encounter the devilish construction of scarcity plus rivalry.
• Do we value more those things that have recently become less available to us, or those things that have always been scarce? In the cookie experiment the answer was plain. The drop from abundance to scarcity produced a decidedly more positive reaction to the cookies than did constant scarcity.
• This pattern offers a valuable lesson for would-be rulers: When it comes to freedoms, it is more dangerous to have given for a while than never to have given at all. And should these now established freedoms become less available, there will be an especially hot variety of hell to pay.
• And when these now-established freedoms were threatened, the people lashed out the way a dog would if someone tried to take a fresh bone from its mouth.
• Freedoms once granted will not be relinquished without a fight.
• The parent who grants privileges or enforces rules erratically invites rebelliousness by unwittingly establishing freedoms for the child.
• People see a thing as more desirable when it has recently become less available than when it has been scarce all along.
• The cookies made less available through social demand were rated the most desirable in the study. --> No only do we want the same item more when it is scarce, we want it most when we are in competition for it.
• The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerfully motivating properties.
• "Goosing 'em of the fence can work devastatingly well. The thought of losing out to a rival frequently turns a buyer from hesitant to zealous.
• Barry Diller: Even the "miracle mogul" was no match for the right mix of competition and scarcity.
• Our typical reaction to scarcity hinders our ability to think. When we watch something we want become less available, a physical agitation sets in. Especially in those cases involving direct competition, the blood comes up, the focus narrows, and emotions rise. As this visceral current advances, the cognitive, rational side retreats. In the rush of arousal, it is difficult to be calm and studied in our approach.
• Cognitive processes are suppressed by our emotional reaction to scarcity. In fact, this may be the reason for the great effectiveness of scarcity tactics. When they are employed properly, our first line of defense against foolish behavior - a thoughtful analysis of the situation - becomes less likely.
• The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity, but in possessing it. It is important that we not confuse the two.
• Each prospect who was interested enough to want to see the car was given an appointment time - the same appointment time. This little device of simultaneous scheduling paved the way for later compliance because it created an atmosphere of competition for a limited resource.
• Re selling a car: The trap snapped surely shut as soon as the 3rd two o'clock appointment arrived on the scene. According to Richard, stacked-up competition was usually too much for the first prospect to bear. He would end the pressure quickly by either agreeing to Richards price or by leaving abruptly. In the latter instance, the second arrival would strike at the chance to buy out of a sense of relief coupled with a new feeling of rivalry with that... that... lurking newcomer over there.

Epilogue

• Where we are rushed, stressed, uncertain, indifferent, distracted, or fatigued, we tend to focus on less of the information available to us. When making decisions under these circumstances, we often revert to the rather primitive but necessary single-piece-of-good-evidence approach.
• With the sophisticated mental apparatus we have used to build world eminence as a species, we have created an environment so complex, fast-paced, and information-laden that we must increasingly deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago transcended.

Scientific Advertising Notes - The Wisdom of Claude Hopkins

Scientific Advertising Notes

Claude Hopkins was one of the greatest advertising pioneers who ever lived. His book, Scientific Advertising, was written in 1923 and is still considered required reading for any advertising man. In fact, there is a quote by David Ogilvy (another influential marketer) that reads: "Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life."

Gary Halbert told me to read the classics, highlight them, and copy them word for word in my handwriting onto 3x5 cards. Scientific Advertising is the first book he recommends. The guy is a little crazy, but I don't argue.

Here are the notes (from my 3x5 cards) that I took from Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins.

These notes are broken out by chapter. But, I've shuffled through these cards so many times that the chapters are out of order, and the particular notes inside the chapters are out of order. Hey, you're getting what you paid for it!

Headlines

• But people do not read ads for amusement. They don't read ads which, at a glance, seem to offer nothing interesting.
• The writer of this chapter spends far more time on headlines than on writing. He often spends hours on a single headline. Often scores of headlines are discarded before the right one is selected. For the entire return on an ad depends on attracting the right sorts of readers. The best of salesmanship has no chance whatever unless we get a hearing.
• It is not uncommon for a change in headlines to multiply returns from five to ten times over.
• The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest.
• Headlines on ads are like headlines on newspapers. Nobody reads a whole newspaper.
• Don't think that those millions will read your ad to find out if your product interests. They will decide by a glance - by your headline or your pictures. Address the people you seek, and them only.
• We pick out what we wish to read by headlines, and we don't want those headlines misleading. They either conceal or reveal interest.

Tell Your Full Story

• So present to the reader, when once you get him, every important claim you have. The best advertisers do that. They learn their appealing claims by tests - by comparing results from various headlines. Gradually, they accumulate a list of claims important enough to use. All those claims appear in every ad thereafter.
• Whatever claim you use to get attention, the advertisement should tell a story reasonably complete.
• When you once get a person's attention, then is the time to accomplish all you ever hoped with him. Bring all your good arguments to bear. Cover every phase of your subject. One fact appeals to some, one to another. Omit any one and a certain percentage will lose the fact which might convince.
• The most common expression you hear about advertising is that people will not read much. Yet a vast amount of the best paying advertising shows that people do read much. Then they write for a book, perhaps - for added information.
• Never be guided in any way by ads which are untraced. Never do anything because some uninformed advertiser considers that something right.
• So never waste one line of your space to say something to present users, unless you can say it in headlines. Bear in mind always that you address an unconverted prospect. Any reader of your ad is interested, else he would not be a reader. You are dealing with someone willing to listen. Then do your level best. That reader, if you lose him now, may never again be a reader.

Strategy

• It is a well known fact that the greatest profits are made on great volume at small profit.
• We cannot go after thousands of men until we learn how to win one.
• Names which tell stories have been worth millions of dollars. So a great deal of research often precedes the selection of a name.
• Things done in one way may be twice as easy, half as costly, as when done another way.
• One hardly cares what he pays for a corn remedy because he uses little. The maker must have a large margin because of small consumption.
• There is nearly always something impressive which others have not told. We must discover it. We must have a seeming advantage.
• On other lines a higher price may be even an inducement. Such lines are judged largely by price. A product which costs more than the ordinary is considered above the ordinary.

Just Salesmanship

• One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly. Just as a salesman must.
• The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.
• Ask yourself, "Would this help a salesman sell the goods?" "Would it help me sell them if I met the buyer in person?"
• Ad-writers abandon their parts. They forget they are salesman and try to be performers. Instead of sales they seek applause.
• Don't think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view. Thank of a typical individual, man or woman, who is likely to want what you sell.
• Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception. They are written to please the seller. The interests of the buyer are forgotten. One can never sell goods profitably, in person or in print when that attitude exists.
• Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship.

Information

• Impressive claims are made far more impressive by making them exact.
• Genius is the art of taking pains. The advertising man who spares the midnight oil will never get very far.
• A painstaking advertising man will often read for weeks on some problem that comes up. Perhaps in many volumes he will find few facts to use. But some one fact may be the keynote of success.
• The ad seems so simple, and it must be simple to appeal to simple people. But back of that ad may lie reams of data, volumes of information, months of research. So this is no lazy mans field.

Letter Writing

• Experience generally shows that a 2 cent letter gets no more attention than a 1 cent letter. Fine stationery no more than poor stationery. The whole appeal lies in the matter.
• In a letter, as in ads, the great point is to get immediate action.
• Do something if possible to get immediate action. Offer some inducement for it.

Offer Service

• Remember that the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interest or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising.
• The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not quote a price. The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They cite advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package, or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any risk.
• Practically all merchandise sold by mail is sent subject to return

Being Specific

• No generality has any weight whatever. It is like saying "how do you do?" when you have no intention of inquiring of one's health. But specific claims, when made in print are taken at their value.
• So a definite statement is usually accepted. Actual figures are not generally discounted. Specific facts, when stated, have their full weight and effect.
• One expects a salesman to put his best foot forward, and excuses some exaggeration born of enthusiasm. But just for that reason general statements count for little.

Individuality

• In successful advertising great pains are taken to never change our tone. That which won so many is probably the best way to win others.
• That's why we have signed ads sometimes - to give them a personal authority. A man is talking - a man who takes pride in his accomplishments, not a "soulless corporation." Whenever possible, we introduce a personality into our ads.
• We try to give each advertiser a becoming style. We make him distinctive, perhaps not in appearance, but in manner and tone. He is given an individuality that is best suited to the people he addresses.
• A person who desires to make an impression must stand out in some way from the masses. And in a pleasing way. Being eccentric, being abnormal is not a distinction to covet. But doing admirable things in a different way gives one a great advantage.

Use of Samples

• Say to the woman "only one sample per home" and few women will try to get more of them. And the few who cheat you are not generally people who would buy.
• Give samples to interested people only. give them only to people who exhibit that interest by some effort. Give them only to people to whom you have told your story.
• Samples sometimes seem to double advertising cost. They often cost more than the advertising. Yet, rightly used, they almost invariably form the cheapest way to get customers. And that is what you want.
• Samples serve numerous valuable purposes. They enable one to use the word "free" in ads. That often multiplies the readers.
• A sample gets action. The reader of your ad may not be convinced to the point of buying. But he is ready to learn more about the product that you offer. So he cuts out a coupon, lays it aside, later mails it or presents it. Without that coupon he soon forgets. Then you have the name and address of an interested prospect. You can start him using your product. You can give him fuller information. You can follow up.
• Bear in mind that you are the seller. You are the one courting interest. Then don't make it difficult to exhibit that interest. Don't ask your prospects to pay for your selling efforts. Three in four will refuse to pay. Perhaps 9 in 10.
• Therefore, it is always best, where possible, to have samples delivered locally.
• On one line, three methods were offered. A woman could write for a sample, or telephone, or call at a store. Seventy percent of the inquiries came by telephone. The use of the telephone is more common and convenient than the use of stamps.
• The product itself should be its own best salesman. Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, and atmosphere which you place around it. That being so, samples are of prime importance. However expensive, they usually form the cheapest selling method.
• Where samples are effectively employed, we rarely find a line where they do not lessen the cost per customer.

Information

• The cost of advertising largely depends on the percentage of waste circulation. Thus an advertising campaign is usually preceded by a very large volume of data.

Negative Advertising

• We are attracted by sunshine, beauty, happiness, health, success. Then point the way to them. Not the way out of the opposite.
• In advertising a dentrifice, show pretty teeth, not bad teeth. Talk of coming good conditions not conditions which exist. In advertising clothes, picture well dressed people, not the shabby. Picture successful men, not failures, when you advertise a business course. Picture what others wish to be, not what they are now.
• Show the bright side, the happy and attractive side, not the dark and uninviting side of things. Show beauty, not homeliness, health, not sickness. Don't show the wrinkles you propose to remove, but the face as it will appear. Your customers know all about wrinkles.
• To attack a rival is never good advertising. Don't point out others faults.
• Tell people what to do, not what to avoid.

Psychology

• Hand an unwanted product to a housewife and she pays it slight respect. She is in no mood to see it's virtues. But get her to ask for a sample after reading your story and she is in a very different position.
• Many have advertised "Try it for a week, if you don't like it we'll return your money." Then someone conceived the idea of sending goods without any money down, and saying "Pay in a week if you like them." That proved many times as impressive.
• We learn, for instance, that curiosity is one of the strongest of human incentives. We employ it whenever we can.
• We learn that cheapness is not a strong appeal ....... They want bargains but not cheapness. They want to feel that they can afford to eat and have and wear the best. Threat them as though they could not and they resent your attitude.

Art in Advertising

• So with beauty articles. Picturing beautiful women, admired and attractive, is a supreme inducement. But the is a great advantage in including a fascinated man. Women desire beauty largely because of men. Then show them using their beauty, as women do use it, to gain maximum effect.
• Pictures should not be used merely because they are interesting. Or to attract attention. Or to decorate an ad. Ads are not written to interest, please or amuse.
• But the picture must help sell the goods. It should help more than anything else could do in like space, else use that something else.
• Use pictures only to attract those who may profit you. Use them only when they form a better selling argument than the same amount of space set in type.

Mail Order Advertising

• In mail order advertising the pictures are always to the point. They are salesmen in themselves.
• Mail order advertising tells a complete story if the purpose is to make an immediate sale. You see no limitations there on amount of copy. The motto is "The more you tell, the more you sell." And it has never failed to prove out so in any test we know.
• It is far harder to get mail orders than to send buyers to the stores. It is hard to sell goods which can't be seen. Ads that do that are excellent examples of what advertising should be.
• Mail order advertising usually contains a coupon. that is there to get some action from the converts partly made. It is there to cut out as a reminder of something the reader has decided to do.
• In mail order advertising there is no waste of space. Every line is utilized. Borders are rarely used. Remember that when you are tempted to leave valuable space unoccupied.
• Mail order advertising is always set in small type. It is usually set in smaller type than ordinary print.
• The advertising is profitable or it is not, clearly on the face of the returns. Figures which do not lie tell at once the merits of an ad.
• Sometimes the advertiser uses small ads, sometimes large ads. None are too small to tell a reasonable story. But an ad twice larger brings twice the returns. A four times larger ad brings four times the returns, and usually some in addition. But this occurs only when the larger space has been utilized as well as the small space. Set half-page copy in a page space and you double the cost of returns. We have seen many a test to prove that.

Test Campaigns

• When we learn what a thousand customers will cost, we know almost exactly what a million will cost. When we learn what they buy, we know what a million will buy. We establish averages on a small scale, and those averages always hold.
• He is playing on the safe side of a hundred to one bet. If the article is successful, it may make him millions. If he is mistaken about it, the loss is a trifle.
• We may use a sample offer or a free package to get users started quickly. We learn in this way the cost per customer started.

A Name That Helps

• There is a great advantage in a name that tells a story. The name is usually prominently displayed. To justify the space it occupies, it should aid the advertising.

Things Too Costly

• People will do much to cure a trouble, but people in general will do little to prevent it. This has been proved by many disappointments.

Copywriting Wisdom From A Legend

If there is one thing that will make you successful in Internet business, it is copywriting. There are many other skills that are helpful. But, how can you make money if you can't convince somebody to open their wallet and spend their hard earned money on your product or service?

It's a fact that average folksie folks make the best copywriters. They're not extraordinarily talented writers. They're not even extraordinarily smart! They just know people, and the fundamentals of writing a convincing letter. And they know them both inside and out.

Gary Halbert is my hero. He's my shining superman. Made of steel. Impervious to evil. He may never die. Years ago I started reading his newsletter and took one piece of advice to heart. He instructed me to read books written by the copywriting legends. He instructed me to read ads written by the copywriting legends.

Then... comes the pain.

He instructed me to reread all those advertising books and take notes.

"Write down every good idea, every important insight, and every nugget of wisdom that is contained in all that material. What this means, my friend, is that by the time you are finished, you should have hundreds of notes."

He instructed me to copy the ads in their entirerty.

"I want you to sit down and copy them out word-for-word in your own handwriting. "

"Do this. Do it. Do it."

"If you really want to know it you've really got to do it. There are no shortcuts."

"You know, I'm sick to death of people who can't be bothered with the little nitty-gritty details of "hands on" experience. Of people who believe they can know a thing without doing it. Listen: It is possible to be "conversant" with something and not really have any kind of "gut understanding" of it at all. I'm sorry, but no matter what your Mommy and Daddy told you, men can never really understand the pain of childbirth, priests cannot comprehend the joys of sex, "normies" can never understand alchoholics, and not one speck of true advertising wisdom has ever been written by a PhD."

Read the entire rant here.

He further instructed me to keep a swipe file of all the headlines I found in all of these books and letters. He asked me to further extend my headline swipe file with every great headline I could get my hands on.

So, like a humble student of greatness, I didn't argue. I did it. I have copied, by hand, several complete books. Plus, many of the best direct mail pieces. Plus, hundreds and hundreds of headlines. All onto 3x5 cards, stored in boxes next to my desk.

And, it really works.

When I'm preparing to write a sales letter, I break out my notes and rifle through them. I am instantly inspired with the wisdom of the greats.

Anytime I write a headline I rip through my headline swipe file. I modify them to fit my needs and I instantly have 10's of perfect headlines for any application. (Then it's just a matter of narrowing them down to the one I want to use.)

One thing Gary Halbert knew is that great copywriting is not genius. It's hard work. It's burning the midnight oil and being a student of the great copywriters before him.

So, don't think that you can get rich on the Internet easily either. To make money on the net, you have to be good at several things. Copywriting is at the top of the list. And copywriting is not lazy man's work.

I'm going to (at the possible expense of copyright infringement) start posting the relevant snippets that I've copied from some of these books. It is a good exercise to keep it fresh in my mind, and maybe it will help to inspire somebody out there to follow the Halbert way.

Happy writing!

Travis