Cognitive Distortions & Marketing

I think everyone should learn about the most common cognitive distortions (or thinking errors) as we are all subject to them. Importantly, I have increasingly witnessed political campaigns playing to many of these errors to achieve their intended ends. I believe this is highly unethical. But understanding what these errors are will help you understand how people (including you) can be and are being manipulated. And, as I am sure you know, politicians aren't the only ones playing to these errors. Anyone who is trying to sell you something has a tendency to do this if he or she knows about these errors and is less than completely ethical.

Here are some of the most common errors:

• Anchoring bias - you are over reliant on the first piece of information that you see or on the first belief to which you were exposed
• Conservatism bias - you tend to favor prior evidence or thinking over new evidence or thinking, causing you to be slow to change
• Confirmation bias - only seeing those things that confirm your preconceived notions, including any prejudices or other biases 
• Choice-supportive bias - when you have chosen something, you tend to feel more positive about that thing
• Dunning-Kruger effect - people of low ability have illusionary superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability to be greater than it is
• Overconfidence - this is a variation of the Dunning-Kruger effect that might appear in people of any cognitive ability level
• Availability heuristic - you overestimate the importance of the information that is available to you over other information that is not
• Filtering (or selective perception) - seeing only what you want to see while filtering out the rest
• Clustering illusion - seeing what you want to see in random patterns or events
• Polarized (or black & white) thinking - if it is not this, then it must be that - there is no room for gray areas, complexity or nuance
• Negative bias - you tend to believe in and respond more to the negative than the positive, related to this, you act more out of fear than hope or vision
• Overgeneralization - making generalized conclusions based on one or a very few data points
• Jumping to conclusions - making a snap judgement before all of the facts are in - deciding on the outcome prior to the analysis
• Magnifying or minimizing the scale of an event or problem - blowing it out of proportion or significantly downplaying it
• Oversimplifying - taking something complex and simplifying it to the degree that it cannot be properly understood or addressed
• Bandwagon effect - this is a form of groupthink in which you are more confident in a position that a large number of people seem to share
• Fundamental attribution error - you overemphasize your personal uniqueness
• Always being right - assuming that you are always right and that anyone who disagrees with you must be wrong
• Projection bias - you think people think like you, agree with you and support your point of view whether they do or not
• Labeling - you might label something to make it look bad, argue against it or lump it with others in a larger group - you might also mislabel something
• Emotional reasoning - making decisions based on how you feel rather than objective reality
• Personalizing - taking everything personally, holding yourself personally responsible for something that was not completely within your control
• Blaming - this is the opposite of personalizing - with this error, you do not take personal responsibility; rather you point the finger at others
• Fallacy of change - thinking that others need to change for you to be happy
• Confusing correlation with causation - just because two things appear to be correlated does not mean that one caused the other
• Framing effect - you accept or reject something based on how it was framed
• Context effect - for instance, luxury items only advertised in upscale magazines and sold in upscale retail outlets are perceived to be of higher quality
• Taking something out of context - without context, something might be interpreted completely differently
• Observing just a portion of the whole - you might observe data points that contradict the general trend, for instance, if you choose a different shorter or more limited timeframe
• Placebo effect - believing that something will have a specific effect often causes it to have that effect
• Authority bias - you tend to follow people in authority rather than your own conscience - you chose authority over your own decisions
• Illusory truth effect (or reiteration effect) - the more something is repeated, the more you think it is true even if it isn't
• Scarcity effect - the more scarce you think something is, the more you want it - this applies to exclusivity
• Recency - tending to weigh the more recent information more heavily
• Zero-risk (or loss aversion) bias - you would rather avoid any risk even if slight risk would result in a large reward
• Pro-innovation bias - getting overly excited about anything new
• Action bias - you prefer action over anything else even if the action is ill-conceived and dangerous or dysfunctional
• Decoy effect - often marketers feature one or more items at a very high price (or a much poorer value) to make the other higher priced (or better value) items seem more reasonable
• The choice paradox - the more choices you have the more anxious you feel

I could provide an example of how each of these cognitive errors was used in sales, marketing, persuasion or manipulation, but I will provide just five examples and leave it to you to think about how the others can be and are being used in this way.

• Emotional reasoning - consider pharmaceutical advertisements in which there is an emotionally appealing scene of two lovers strolling through a field of wildflowers while the company is quickly mentioning the possible negative side effects of the drug
• Labeling - consider the way our current US president labels his enemies as a way to make them seem less desirable 
• Framing effect - this is what almost every public relations firm specializes in - marketing copywriters are also expert at this
• Decoy effect - this is why many realtors show house hunters the highest priced, poorest value house first
• Scarcity (or exclusivity) effect (and context effect) - this explains while luxury brands such as Vilebrequin limit their distribution to only a small number of upscale shopping centers in carefully targeted upscale markets

Non-Marketing Books for Marketers

I am an avid reader. I read about fifty new non-fiction books each year. My home library contains more than eight thousand volumes, most of which I have read. Having read my share of brand management and marketing books, I can attest to the fact that most of them rehash stuff that has already been said many times before. Having said that, I think marketers can gain insight that will help them with their careers from non-marketing books. Here is my list of interesting non-marketing books for marketers. It includes the following topics and genres - behavioral economics, propaganda and persuasion, understanding American history and values, how personal identity and labels work, power and influence, insights from religious experience, insights from politics, and business models and business strategy.

• Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard H. Thaylor
• Predictable Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Irrational Exuberance by Robert J. Schiller
• SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
• Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson
• The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the 21st Century by Richard M. Perloff
• The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives by Shankar Vedantam
• Snoop: What Your Stuff Say About You by Sam Gosling
• Nine Nations of North America by Joel Garreau
• American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard
• The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony
• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
• The Prince by Nicole Machiavelli
• The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche 
• The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman of P. T. Barnum by Candace Fleming
• The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
• The Future of Illusion by Sigmund Freud
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel
• the four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google by Scott Galloway
• The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
• Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jerad Diamond
• Political Ideologies and Political Philosophies by N. B. McCullough
• The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life by Evanash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff
• Co-opetition by Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry J. Nalebuff

For a listing of my nine favorite brand management and marketing books, click here. To order my Brand Aid book, click here.

The Art of Persuasion

There are certain techniques that advertisers, politicians, salespeople, speechwriters, preachers, and others have long known to be effective in persuading people. Social psychologists have studied many of them in great detail. Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, in their book, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion, outline four basic strategies to effectively influence others: 1) defining/structuring how an issue is discussed, which includes setting the agenda and creating the frame of reference, 2) establishing credibility (authority, likability, and trustworthiness), 3) vividly focusing the audience’s attention on the key point the communicator intends to make, and 4) arousing emotions in a way that can only be satisfactorily addressed by taking the communicator’s desired course of action.

In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., focuses on six principles of persuasion: 1) reciprocation (people try to repay favors out of a sense of obligation); 2) commitment and consistency (people behave in ways that support an earlier action or decision); 3) social proof (seeing other people doing something makes it more acceptable and appealing); 4) liking (people are more likely to say yes to people and brands that they know, like, and trust); 5) authority (people are inclined to yield to authority); and 6) scarcity (people are more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something).

Cialdini also indicates that many approaches lead to “liking”: physical attractiveness (which studies have shown to be a function of body/facial symmetry), similarity (people feel comfortable with you and can relate to you), compliments, familiarity (through contact and cooperation), and direct or indirect association with other likable entities.

Both books are quite interesting and well worth reading, if only to help you better understand how third parties attempt to persuade you on a daily basis.

Other considerations in creating highly persuasive communication:

• Always design the message to play off of the audience’s preexisting beliefs, values, and prejudices.
• To be effective, your point of departure must be from a place of agreement.
• Try to define the issue in a way that your brand can’t help but “win.” This is why it is so important to choose the optimal “frame of reference” in brand positioning.
• Sometimes, just asking the right questions can reorient people’s thinking about a topic in your favor.
• Comparisons/contrasts alter perceptions of the items being compared/contrasted. For example, when I moved to Rochester, my realtor first showed me a number of overpriced houses that required much work. When we got to the houses that she wanted me to buy, they seemed even more appealing than they might have otherwise if she hadn’t first shown me the other houses. This concept is also used in establishing reference pricing. Create reference prices that make your price seem more reasonable or even a “bargain.”
• Be careful when labeling, categorizing, or describing competing brands or approaches in ways that cast them in a negative light. While it is an effective technique (that is, it usually works), in the long run, it may cast a less favorable light on your brand.
• Making people feel as though they are a part of a group (assigning brand labels, brand-as-a-badge) helps sell products and brands.
• Fear and guilt sell. (Example: “When you care enough to send the very best.”)
• Paint vivid pictures of desired or dreaded end states with words or images, or both.
• Let people touch, try, use, and otherwise interact with your product or brand before they buy it. Once they have done so, they are much more likely to want to purchase it. This works for a wide variety of situations: from automobile test-drives and in-home free-trial uses of products, to overnight stays on the campus of a college that you are considering attending (assuming the experience is positive).
• Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a well-studied technique that increases persuasion. Through NLP, you can establish a strong rapport with the audience by mirroring the mannerisms and expressions of the audience, which allows you to more easily lead them in the direction of your choice.
• “Largest,” “fastest growing,” “most popular,” “highest rated,” and other similar claims provide strong third-party endorsements for a product or brand. (Alternatively, they may be perceived to be puffery by a jaded audience unless you back them up with credible proof points.)
• Repetition increases the effectiveness of communication.

© 2016 Brad VanAuken, reprinted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.

Words That Sell

There is a book by this name. It was written by Richard Bayan and first published in 1984. A companion book, Phrases That Sell, was written by Edward Werz and Sally Germain and first published in 1998. I have both books. 

My last post was about Using Symbols in Branding. Symbols are triggers to emotions associated with hopes, fears and self-image reinforcement. Words and phrases can also be powerful. They can evoke strong emotions - both positive and negative.

When I was a new business strategist at Hallmark, I knew how to increase the score of a new business concept (in concept testing) by using the right words that I knew would evoke positive imagery and emotions. I didn't however because I did not want to inflate the results. I used neutral language to describe the concept so that its score would be more predictive of its market potential in our volumetric forecasting.   

What are some of the words and phrases that can help a brand? Here are some:

• Imagine
• Finally
• Now
• Long-awaited
• Unique
• New
• Irresistible
• Enchanting
• Captivating
• Stunning
• Amazing
• Adorable
• Picture-perfect
• Engaging
• Innovative
• Leading-edge
• Revolutionary
• Groundbreaking
• Unparalleled
• Unsurpassed
• Authentic
• Original
• Legendary
• Refreshing
• A breath of fresh air
• Empowering
• Passionate
• Bespoke
• Heir apparent
• The chosen one

Now think of some words and phrases and other labels that have been used to turn people off. Politicians and political parties use these to create negative emotional associations for their enemies. Here are some more recent ones:

• [insert the issue]gate (to imply a cover up of an illegal or immoral activity)
• He's a flip-flopper
• He's a carnival barker
• He's a Nazi
• He's another Hitler
• He's a socialist
• She's out of touch
• She's ambitious
• She's a liar
• He's a wackadoo
• He's a terrorist
• He's a racist
• He's a government insider
• He's polarizing
• He's a dinosaur

Or, consider modifying or replacement words to make people feel better about something (often resulting in oxymorons). Here are some examples of that:

• Peacekeeper missile
• Peacekeeping force
• Clean coal
• Sanitary landfill
• Compassionate conservative
• Friendly fire
• Smart bomb
• Troops (instead of soldiers/humans)
• Partial cease-fire
• Energy Citizens

My point in all of this is that words can evoke strong associations and emotions. Words can also mollify situations and people. And they can change the meaning of things and make them more acceptable and even compelling. As marketers, we need to be masters of words and phrases. 

The Art of Persuasion

There are certain techniques that advertisers, politicians, salespeople, speechwriters, preachers, and others have long known to be effective in persuading people. Social psychologists have studied many of them in great detail.

Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, in their book, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion, outline four basic strategies to effectively influence others: 1) defining/structuring how an issue is discussed, which includes setting the agenda and creating the frame of reference, 2) establishing credibility (authority, likability, and trustworthiness), 3) vividly focusing the audience’s attention on the key point the communicator intends to make, and 4) arousing emotions in a way that can only be satisfactorily addressed by taking the communicator’s desired course of action.

In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., focuses on six principles of persuasion: 1) reciprocation (people try to repay favors out of a sense of obligation); 2) commitment and consistency (people behave in ways that support an earlier action or decision); 3) social proof (seeing other people doing something makes it more acceptable and appealing); 4) liking (people are more likely to say yes to people and brands that they know, like, and trust); 5) authority (people are inclined to yield to authority); and 6) scarcity (people are more motivated by the thought of losing

something than by the thought of gaining something).

Cialdini also indicates that many approaches lead to “liking”: physical attractiveness (which studies have shown to be a function of body/facial symmetry), similarity (people feel comfortable with you and can relate to you), compliments, familiarity (through contact and cooperation), and direct or indirect association with other likable entities.

Both books are quite interesting and well worth reading, if only to help you better understand how third parties attempt to persuade you on a daily basis.

Other considerations in creating highly persuasive communication:

• Always design the message to play off of the audience’s preexisting beliefs, values, and prejudices.
• To be effective, your point of departure must be from a place of agreement.
• Try to define the issue in a way that your brand can’t help but “win.” This is why it is so important to choose the optimal “frame of reference” in brand positioning.
• Sometimes, just asking the right questions can reorient people’s thinking about a topic in your favor.
• Comparisons/contrasts alter perceptions of the items being compared/contrasted. For example, when I moved to Rochester, my realtor first showed me a number of overpriced houses that required much work. When we got to the houses that she wanted me to buy, they seemed even more appealing than they might have otherwise if she hadn’t first shown me the other houses. This concept is also used in establishing reference pricing. Create reference prices that make your price seem more reasonable or even a “bargain.”
• Be careful when labeling, categorizing, or describing competing brands or approaches in ways that cast them in a negative light. While it is an effective technique (that is, it usually works), in the long run, it may cast a less
• favorable light on your brand.
• Making people feel as though they are a part of a group (assigning brand labels, brand-as-a-badge) helps sell products and brands.
• Fear and guilt sell. (Example: “When you care enough to send the very best.”)
• Paint vivid pictures of desired or dreaded end states with words or images, or both.
• Let people touch, try, use, and otherwise interact with your product or brand before they buy it. Once they have done so, they are much more likely to want to purchase it. This works for a wide variety of situations: from automobile test-drives and in-home free-trial uses of products, to overnight stays on the campus of a college that you are considering attending (assuming the experience is positive).
• Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a well-studied technique that increases persuasion. Through NLP, you can establish a strong rapport with the audience by mirroring the mannerisms and expressions of the audience, which allows you to more easily lead them in the direction of your choice.
• “Largest,” “fastest growing,” “most popular,” “highest rated,” and other similar claims provide strong third-party endorsements for a product or brand. (Alternatively, they may be perceived to be puffery by a jaded audience unless you back them up with credible proof points.)
• Repetition increases the effectiveness of communication.

Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.

The Art of Persuasion

There are certain techniques that advertisers, politicians, salespeople, speechwriters, preachers, and others have long known to be effective in persuading people. Social psychologists have studied many of them in great detail. Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, in their book, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion, outline four basic strategies to effectively influence others: 1) defining/structuring how an issue is discussed, which includes setting the agenda and creating the frame of reference, 2) establishing credibility (authority, likability, and trustworthiness), 3) vividly focusing the audience’s attention on the key point the communicator intends to make, and 4) arousing emotions in a way that can only be satisfactorily addressed by taking the communicator’s desired course of action.

In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., focuses on six principles of persuasion: 1) reciprocation (people try to repay favors out of a sense of obligation); 2) commitment and consistency (people behave in ways that support an earlier action or decision); 3) social proof (seeing other people doing something makes it more acceptable and appealing); 4) liking (people are more likely to say yes to people and brands that they know, like, and trust); 5) authority (people are inclined to yield to authority); and 6) scarcity (people are more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something). Cialdini also indicates that many approaches lead to “liking”: physical attractiveness (which studies have shown to be a function of body/facial symmetry), similarity (people feel comfortable with you and can relate to you), compliments, familiarity (through contact and cooperation), and direct or indirect association with other likable entities.

Both books are quite interesting and well worth reading, if only to help you better understand how third parties attempt to persuade you on a daily basis.

Other considerations in creating highly persuasive communication:

• Always design the message to play off of the audience’s preexisting beliefs, values, and prejudices.
• To be effective, your point of departure must be from a place of agreement.
• Try to define the issue in a way that your brand can’t help but “win.” This is why it is so important to choose the optimal “frame of reference” in brand positioning.
• Sometimes, just asking the right questions can reorient people’s thinking about a topic in your favor.
• Comparisons/contrasts alter perceptions of the items being compared/contrasted.
• For example, when I moved to Rochester, my realtor first showed me a number of overpriced houses that required much work. When we got to the houses that she wanted me to buy, they seemed even more appealing than they might have otherwise if she hadn’t first shown me the other houses. This concept is also used in establishing reference pricing. Create reference prices that make your price seem more reasonable or even a “bargain.”
• Be careful when labeling, categorizing, or describing competing brands or approaches in ways that cast them in a negative light. While it is an effective technique (that is, it usually works), in the long run, it may cast a less favorable light on your brand.
• Making people feel as though they are a part of a group (assigning brand labels, brand-as-a-badge) helps sell products and brands.
• Fear and guilt sell. (Example: “When you care enough to send the very best.”)
• Paint vivid pictures of desired or dreaded end states with words or images, or both.
• Let people touch, try, use, and otherwise interact with your product or brand before they buy it. Once they have done so, they are much more likely to want to purchase it. This works for a wide variety of situations: from automobile test-drives and in-home free-trial uses of products, to overnight stays on the campus of a college that you are considering attending (assuming the experience is positive).
• Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a well-studied technique that increases persuasion. Through NLP, you can establish a strong rapport with the audience by mirroring the mannerisms and expressions of the audience, which allows you to more easily lead them in the direction of your choice.
• “Largest,” “fastest growing,” “most popular,” “highest rated,” and other similar claims provide strong third-party endorsements for a product or brand. (Alternatively, they may be perceived to be puffery by a jaded audience unless you back them up with credible proof points.)
• Repetition increases the effectiveness of communication.

Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.