Eh?
When was the last time you went clothes shopping? Try and remember what it was like. Think about that favorite item you purchased. When you saw that blouse/shirt/dress/skirt/coat/hat, did you find a way to “rationalize” the price? Were you emotionally moved enough to buy the item even though under normal circumstances it was probably more than you should have spent? The more you love that clothing item, the less likely price was an issue right? In fact, with brand labels, we automatically rationalize the price in advance of even entering the mall so price isn’t really an issue.
So why do you think price isn’t always a factor? Well, what happened was that you bought the “opportunity” or chance to feel great about owning/wearing that clothing item. How you felt trying/owning the clothing item was more important given a certain price.
Big Ticket Items
Now think about a larger ticket item like a car or home. Even stronger emotions were likely triggered before you committed to purchasing and owning that house or car. You might think at first glance that price was the only factor, but truthfully, in most cases, it wasn’t. Think about it. Did you rationalize the price after committing emotionally?
Did you say to yourself “It’s OK, I deserve it.. I don’t mind paying extra cause the view is great.. or the seats are so soft, or it’s a sexy car…or the house is beatiful”. With these big ticket items would you still have purchased if you weren’t emotionally committed?
Small Ticket Items
Now let’s look at the other end of the pricing spectrum: a toothbrush. Were strong emotions triggered before you committed to purchasing a toothbrush? Probably not. In fact, price likely played a significant role. Much more so than buying a house or car or that favorite clothing item.
You don’t need an emotional state change to buy a toothbrush because the monetary value is insignificant. The simple want/need in you was enough and the toothbrush company didn’t really have to do much to sell you a toothbrush (secretly I think the fancy colors and features are there because toothbrush marketing executives are bored)
So when was the last time you saw a TV ad for a regular toothbrush? Hmmmm
So What’s really going on?
Well, you see in all purchases – whether its buying toothbrushes, cars, houses, shoes, dinner, groceries – there is a minimum level of satisfaction or happiness we are paying for in advance. Sometimes, like with Insurance we are purchasing the avoidance of future pain as well.
The higher the price of the item (relative to your income bracket), the more important an emotional committment will help push you into a purchase. You can see the power of emotional selling with homes very clearly with a popular TV show called “Sell my house”. The show demonstrates how a well-staged home can sell much more easily than a poorly-staged home. The emotional state change is the key driver in changing people’s perceptions about the house for sale.
The best ads and marketing campaigns leverage every possible emotion (pain and pleasure) they can in making you want to buy..
Tips for Marketers
As a business owner or marketing executive, understanding the importance of price and emotions during a transaction must be part of your marketing program. Tony Robbins says it well in his learning series The Power of Persuasion: “People don’t buy products and services, they buy emotional states”. If you can trigger an emotional state (either pain or pleasure and preferably both at the same time), you have a greater chance of closing the sale.
Some of the best marketing is done with cars. A significant committment is required for most buyers and so a strong emotional committment to avoid pain (like maintenance after ownership) and gain pleasure (the feeling of a brand new car) is leveraged. The best ads on TV mix both pain avoidance and gaining pleasure. In fact, if you can remember some recent car advertisements, its likely an emotional state change is behind that thought.
In business you can leverage everything I have mentioned so far by ensuring your marketing ads follows these simple rules:
- The higher the purchase price relative to your target market’s income, the more you need to leverage an emotional committment
- In advertising, try to trigger a want/need in your target customer by changing their emotional state
- If your product/service is designed to solve pain, leverage that
- If your product/service is low-priced, associate the product/service to something more expensive and significant.
- Start your advertising with pain and end with pleasure
Good luck and remember: Sell emotions, not products and services!
See me live!
December 6th, come and meet me at Eco-Vista West Realty. I will be speaking as a guest speaker about emotional selling and why home-staging is so important.
Eco-Vista West Realty
4658 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC
604-298-2111
1-2pm Jim Small Reliable Home Inspection “How to make your home more energy efficient this winter”
2-3pm Paul Makortoff BC Mortgage Source “Home financing”
3-4pm Me speaking about “Emotional Selling”
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