Advertising, Psychology and the Process of Persuasion videos from YouTube

Last week while doing some research on persuasion techniques, I came across a few useful videos, two of which I will write about here.  I really wish I had found these earlier as they would have helped me last semester!  Definitely some interesting points which I will have to take into consideration when creating my identity and advertisement.

The Process of Persuasive Design in Six Steps with Dr Eric Schaffer.  

This video explains how persuasive designs are crafted with regard to the way the consumer's mind works.  Though a series of steps, Schaffer explains the necessary factors for successful emotional persuasion in advertising.   Some I was aware of, but others were new pointers for me.

 Firstly, the issue of giving customers too much choice was addressed as this is usually where some companies fall down in their advertising or marketing.  "Using lots of methods results in persuasion clutter.  Capteen and Duplinksy in 2011 researched using more methods, and found that adding social proof, a weak method in that case, to advice from an authority figure resulted in less persuasion than the authority figure alone.  So the mastery of persuasion requires a more sophisticated approach." (Schaffer, 2012)

  The first step outlined is: "We need to understand the emotional battle that goes on inside our customers' heads." Schaffer explains that in order to make successfully persuasive adverts, we need to know what our audience's drives, blocks, beliefs and feelings are.  Looking for "strong" issues which resonate with many of the target demographic - the example used here are flu vaccinations, as "Getting vaccinated is driven by fear of getting sick, which is driven by fear of embarrassment, and guilt in getting other people sick." (Schaffer, 2012) By piquing the emotional factors which fuel a decision to buy, behave or think differently, an company can have more subtle influence over its consumers.  I will have to very soon figure out what the "strong" issues are among those who may be swayed into taking up mindfulness.

"Pick the emotional things that are most likely to work.  What drive or block becomes the theme?  What is the frame for the meme that will be the central point of the effort?" (Schaffer, 2012) Schaffer suggests focusing on the main message of the campaign and carefully selecting the methods in which it will be delivered.  For the example of the flu vaccine, a promotional leaflet is suggested, likely because it would be seen and read in doctor's surgeries and pharmacies where people could easily book a vaccine. Using testimonials by existing customers, or a message such as "only 4 days left!" so suggest scarcity, can sway people into a decision quickly.  During my meeting with Simone (which I will write about tomorrow), she asked me questions relating to this and suggested a series of posters and a mock website page was best suited to this.  I had suggested a leaflet too, however she made the point that a leaflet was something that people were likely to pick up at a health and wellbeing fair or conference.  This is not the kind of place my target audience would be going to as I am aiming this project at those who are perhaps more sceptical of the practice.

With regards to an online process, "There must be a strategy to pull people through the flow of an interaction." (Scahffer, 2012) This could involve elements such as gamification and other methods of making the content exciting.  In the preceding video to this one, what makes a customer return to the same points on a site is also addressed.  This is a key consideration as ideally a website would be used again and again, and this point will be useful to me when I begin to mock up the fictional website for the campaign.

And finally, Schaffer says "To get the customer to the point of certainly, we must remember that this is an emotional event." Ultimately, the message of the video is that in order to succeed, an advertiser must play on the emotional wants and needs of their audience.  This theme is also addressed in a second video I found, which you can watch here (as I was unable to link it to the page).  This video was great fun to watch as the vintage-style cartoon visuals are very charming and the audio-illustration combo was easy to follow. 

Psychology and Advertising by Lori Benoy and Sole Sander

This video was created by Benoy and Sander as an assignment for an applied psychology class, which makes for a very informative and useful video.  The video focuses on explaining the Elaboration Likelihood Model, a common method of persuasion in advertising.  

In the ELM, there are two ways in which information can be persuasive - the central route and the peripheral route.    The central route is direct route of persuasion that appeals to logic and involves a great deal of thought.  It is associated with high involvement, meaning that the receiver is willing to put a lot of time and energy into the subject matter.  Facts and logic are used to make a decision, ultimately  leading to a more permanent attitude change.  The example used in the video is that of wanting a new car, and seeing a car commercial.  Because the receiver wants the car in the commercial (or a car in general), they are highly involved and are more likely to listen to the commercial than those who don't want a new car.  This is an interesting point for me, because I realise I will be aiming my project at those who could likely be inclined towards a low involvement towards the subject matter.

The peripheral route, on the other hand, uses techniques such as an emotional story, bright colours, sappy music, and an attractive speaker to create a situation where the receiver does not think carefully about a communication and is influenced instead by the aforementioned cues.  Involvement here is low, because due to the "wow" factor of the subtle techniques,  things like the message content, facts and logic are ignored.  This results in a more temporary attitude change and the receiver is less likely to change behaviour.  I found this really surprising given the cues are supposed to speak to emotions, senses and feelings.  Looks like logic is a winner here!

The video also goes over the affect of an advertisement - affect here refers to the experience of a feeling or emotion, which occurs rapidly and involuntarily in response to a stimulus.  Advertisers often rely on an affect heuristic which predicts how you might respond to an advertisement as well as corresponding behaviour.  The image below is an example of how a receiver might react to different affect heuristics.  If the stimulus yields negative affects, benefits will be seen as low and risk as high.  Conversely, if stimulus yields positive affects, benefits will be seen as high and risk as low.   As far as I can tell, my own project should only yield positive affects as the content is about mindfulness, which has virtually no downsides to it.  It was really interesting to look at persuasion this way as I was not familiar with all of these ins and outs of the psychology behind persuasive advertising.  There are some really useful points which I will take forward into my practical work in both videos.

References:

Benoy, Lori and Lander, Sole, 2009.  Psychology and Advertising [online video] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC7VLjIw8hY&spfreload=10
[Accessed 13th January 2015]

Schaffer, Eric, 2012.  The Process of Persuasive Design in Six Steps With Dr. Eric Schaffer [online video] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1y-VcZ3JB8&spfreload=10
[Accessed 13th January 2015]