Emotional Drivers

[Clay Cotton]

In “Mail Order Strategy”, Victor Schwab compiled the following 40 key emotional drivers...

People want to be:
Good parents
Creative
Efficient
Recognized authorities
Up-to-date
Gregarious
“First” in things
Sociable, hospitable
Proud of their possessions
Influential over others

People want to gain:
Health
Popularity
Praise from others
Pride of accomplishment
Self-confidence
Time
Improved appearance
Comfort
Advancement: social-business
Money
Security in old age
Leisure
Increased enjoyment
Personal prestige

They want to do:
Express their personalities
Satisfy their curiosity
Appreciate beauty
Win others’ affection
Resist domination by others
Emulate the admirable
Acquire or collect things
Improve themselves generally

They want to save:
Time
Discomfort
Risks
Money
Worry
Embarrassment
Work
Doubts

In both their internal, mental buzz and within the external buzz of their ever-changing environment, folks scan for that which can help meet these internal needs, responding to hooks which capture their attention and following those related threads only as far and as long as the associated spin sustains their precious attention.

An effective hook captures attention but this is just the beginning, because now the spin cycle starts.

In contexts of influence, stories and metaphors are most effective in sustaining and directing attention. It's been so for thousands of years now. So in the end, we humans aren't all that much changed from the ages in which we sat around campfires listening to storytellers spin tales of past, present and future. Dreams, myths, fantasies.

As emotions, needs, hooks and stories exist only in the mind, this must be the spinners territory. As Seth Godin puts it, “Successful marketers allow people to tell themselves a story they want to hear. Great marketers then do work that they're proud of, using their leverage to create outcomes that people might not appreciate fully in the short run but are delighted in later on.”

More of my take on all this will come here and at my upcoming, Web2.0 biz blog. I'll keep ya posted, of course, so stay tuned, kids…

But what's important to you about motivators / hot buttons?

/clay cotton
"All advancement, all success and all achievement starts with personal relationships and creativity." - Mark Victor Hansen

[jackforde]

Clay, this is great... mind if I use it sometime in an upcoming Copywriter's Roundtable issue? And if so, can I direct people anywhere in return? Like your website or something? I'm always looking for great roundtable content.

[Patricia Skinner]

It matters to me that my writing is ethical. I hate to think that my words would ever be used to scam someone, or to persuade someone to buy something they didn't really want. These emotional triggers need to be used very carefully. It's fascinating stuff though isn't it?

[Clay Cotton]

Which Emotions Change Minds?

New research just out reveals some pretty fascinating data about which emotions are most effective in persuading in difficult cases...and the direction consumers are likely to go when experiencing still other emotions. How do you think emotions affect your choices during challenging decisions, such as compromising on vehicle safety to get better gas mileage on a car? In their June article in the Journal of Consumer Research, Nitika Garg, Jeffrey Inman and Vikas Mittal find that angry consumers react very differently from sad consumers when making emotionally difficult trade-offs.

According to the study, angry consumers were 37% more likely to choose a default option than sad individuals. In contrast, sad individuals were not different from neutral mood individuals when it came to consumer decision making.

This study shows that all negative emotions are not the same. For instance, if you are choosing different retirement options, you are more likely to stick with the default retirement option (often company stock) if you are angry compared to sad. Sad people tend to examine all the options more carefully and choose the best available option. The moral: Don't make important decisions when you are angry.

KEY POINT: Sad people look at all options and do so carefully...choosing the best option. Angry people tend to stick with the status quo.

"Smoking pot may not kill you, but it will kill your mother," says an ad from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. In the first empirical work to examine both stated intentions and actual behavior, researchers argue that this sort of negative message -- evoking both fear and guilt -- is a far more effective deterrent to potentially harmful behavior than positive hopeful or feel-good messages.

"Making people feel good is less important than making people feel accountable when it comes to making wise decisions about self-protection," explain Kirsten A. Passyn (Salisbury University) and Mita Sujan (Tulane University) in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. "Our work separates intentions from implementation and clarifies the role of emotions in this process."

KEY POINT: Good intentions and positive emotions can elicit further good intentions but they don't necessarily cause people to actually DO something.

Whether it involves persuading people to use sunscreen or eat high fiber foods, good intentions can be elicited by a variety of appeals. However, getting people to actually follow through on these intentions and change their behavior requires appeals combining fear and an emotion high in self-accountability, such as regret, guilt or challenge.

KEY POINT: Fear, regret, guilt and challenge cause people to FOLLOW THROUGH.

"[This research] suggests a new emotion-based approach to encouraging a wide range of health protection behaviors," say Passyn and Sujan. "We illustrate the critical role of emotions in persuasion, especially for translating tendencies into action."

- by Kirsten A. Passyn and Mita Sujan. "Self-Accountability Emotions and Fear Appeals: Motivating Behavior" Journal of Consumer Research. March 2006.

[Soni Pitts]

KEY POINT: Fear, regret, guilt and challenge cause people to FOLLOW THROUGH.

Very interesting. Thanks!

[Jacob Bear]

I wonder if there's a difference between the emotional drivers that cause us to initiate a new behavior, and those that reinforce an existing behavior.

For example, you might follow through on an exercise program out of fear, guilt, or regret. But after a few months, when the pounds drop off and your energy level shoots up, you might be motivated to stay with it because of positive, feel-good emotions.

This ties in with the idea behind Maxwell Maltz's "Psycho-Cybernetics," that we behave in a way that's consistent with our self image. You can get someone to change their behavior temporarily through various carrots, sticks, or sheer will power. But ultimately they'll act like the person they really are. If using your product or service is a part of their self image, a customer will be loyal.

The application for copywriting is important--the tactics you use to close a new sale might not be the same as the ones you'll use for your back end, or to hold on to existing clients. Ideally you'll maintain loyalty by instilling your clients with a positive belief about themselves--or tapping into one they already have--and associating your product with that belief.

(Maybe this would also work with a negative self-belief, but would you want to make money by reinforcing someone's fear, sorrow, or insecurity?)

[Sean D'Souza]

I tend to boil it down to money, time, peace of mind.

S-
http://www.psychotactics.com