Fourteen Lectures on Consumer Psychology

Chapter 9 Arousing Consumer Interest in Products

When a consumer is interested in a product, it is easy to have a sense of identity, and then the idea of ​​buying.If you want consumers to be interested in an item, you must first provide enough information about the item, and let consumers take actions, for example, provide coupons that need to be torn, provide prizes for solving riddles, and draw cartoons scene, creating a limerick, etc.Moving objects, loud sounds, bright lights, and strong smells are all at your disposal in this process.

Attention turns into interest.After a consumer pays attention to a product, he generally has the following two behaviors: one is to leave, in this case, he loses the possibility of being a potential buyer of the product.The second is to continue to pay attention to the product, and at this time he still stays in the position of a potential consumer.In the latter case, his attention on the product is quite different from that of the first stage, and this attention will evolve into a deep and eager attention.This mental stage needs a new name, we call it interest.This lecture will deal with the nature of interest, and the next two lectures will deal with the two things that sustain interest—feeling pleasurable and imagination.

definition of interest

If you want to describe your interest, you must first start with a definition.There are many definitions of interest put forward by the predecessors: "Interest is closely related to past experience, and it is a thing with a sense of history", "It is the impulse to make people pay attention to an item", "Interest has a tendency to cause behavior", "Interest The essence of "interest is rooted in being concerned", "interest can eliminate the boundaries between people and things and between human behavior, it is a sign of organic combination".

Interest can be felt by watching a child engrossed in reading a fairy tale.When he concentrates on reading, he cannot see anything other than the book, nor hear the sound of the outside world, and is completely immersed in his own world.Such a state may be called interested.Getting an ad's target consumer group to read it in this ecstatic state is any ad copywriter's ultimate dream.According to this, the definition of interest can be drawn, that is, when the reader of the advertisement is interested in the product introduced in the advertisement, he will easily have a sense of identification with the product, and then have the idea of ​​buying. If everything is appropriate, he will put the idea in his mind Put it into practice and actually buy the item.

How to make consumers interested is the first problem that needs to be solved.Read the following two laws of psychology, you may be able to find the answer.

the first rule of interest

The first rule of interest is: If you want to be interested in something, you need to provide enough information about it.Looking back on the growth process, we will find the validity of this law.Take the example of a little girl's obsession with stardom.She knew all the movies the star had been in, his age, the color of his hair and pupils, the style of his car.She cherished every bit of information she knew about him, which to her were like rosary beads in the hands of a priest, and she loved them with a pious devotion, knowledge which formed the basis of a psychological interest.The star agency also knows about this situation, so every once in a while, they will release some news or anecdotes about the star in the media, so as to keep fans interested in him.

If a salesman knows the rules introduced above and timely conveys product information to consumers, he will definitely benefit a lot.Some innovative advertisers are also constantly applying this technique to reality.Maybe they didn't abide by our rules word by word, but by studying many details in the advertisement, we can find that they know that giving product information will definitely have a positive impact on consumers' purchasing behavior.Applying the principle of "survival of the fittest" in the theory of evolution to the advertising world, it can be reasonably inferred that the method of providing sufficient product information has its existence value in promoting sales.

There is a suitable way to provide product information using the above-mentioned laws: to express new concepts in old familiar terms.For example, in order to sell a filing cabinet that sits in a manager's drawer, a salesman might describe the dilemma a manager might encounter: In the middle of an important meeting, everyone has to stop and wait for the secretary to find a file .Almost everyone has encountered this situation in their daily lives. When salesmen sell this kind of filing cabinet, they use it as an entry point, which can often resonate.

The Second Law of Interest
Leaving aside the myriad of ways to deliver product information, move on to the next stage.The second law of attracting interest in psychology: If you want people to be interested in an object, you must make people act on the object.The application of this law can be seen in the instance in which certain organizations seek to interest certain groups of people.A hospital would put a wealthy man on the board of directors or some other important hospital committee in order to attract the interest of a wealthy man.If he is very concerned about the hospital's affairs, then he will become more and more interested in the hospital because of this move by the hospital, and eventually the hospital will definitely get the long-awaited donation.

This approach is common in direct-to-person sales.Salesmen will let consumers touch the silk to feel its texture, and they will also drive consumers in new cars, or let consumers try playing the piano.The most common example of this approach being used is a salesperson trying to sell a new kitchen item to housewives:

"The salesman knocks on the door. As soon as the door opens, the salesman quickly takes off his hat and puts it on the floor in front of the door or hangs it directly on the coat rack at the door. They usually start like this: 'Ma'am, I want to introduce you to a The new concentrated butter—Crisco Butter.’ As he spoke, he held up several bottles of butter in both hands and handed them to her. The moment the woman took the butter, the salesman would immediately pull out the pencil with his left hand, and then take out the pencil with his right hand. Take out a stack of coupons in his pocket. This way, he has things in both hands, and the woman can no longer return the butter jar to him. Next, her most likely action is to put the butter jar on the ground, so A sale is on."

The use of elements that elicit consumer action responses in advertisements to arouse consumer interest has been relatively rare in the past, but whenever such advertisements have appeared, consumers have responded very well.These take the form of coupons to tear, asking friends and dealers for their names, offering prizes for solving riddles, drawing cartoon scenes, composing a limerick, and more.The above links are set up to allow consumers to generate interest in the product through hands-on when consumers are already familiar with the use of the product through advertisements.

Ways to arouse consumer interest
A salesman has many options as to which method to use to arouse consumer interest.These methods can be divided into methods for innate instinct and methods for learned habits.Let's start by discussing which methods work against your natural instincts.As mentioned in Lecture 2, humans are innately interested in moving objects, loud sounds, bright lights, and strong smells.

To discuss this issue, we must first avoid stepping into the trap of unknowingly dividing some acquired habits into innate instincts.This is not true, for example, an interest in potatoes, Democrats, cheese are all called innate interests.In fact, these are acquired interests that human beings develop through accumulated experience.The two kinds of interests can be roughly distinguished. Humans are naturally interested in simple elements such as the brightness of lights and the sound of bronze drums. In contrast, acquired interests are almost all specific objects, such as Ancient Roman-style chandeliers or orchestral music.

With this confusing conceptual logic error removed, further conclusions can be drawn.James has this suggestion for our next research: "Stand on the side of a person's natural instinctive interests, and provide him with objects that are closely related to these instinctive interests." If James' advice is applied to the advertising design of waterproof shoes, A salesman might devise a scenario in which someone wades through puddles of water in such waterproof shoes, a scenario that appeals to the natural human interest in motion.This visceral interest will then be transferred to the selling point of the product that grabs the consumer's attention, namely the waterproofness of the shoes.

This process of interest transfer is very difficult.Regarding this process, James once said: "Step by step, give some past experience to the first object that attracts instinctive interest, and then give some new experience to the second object that will cause the transfer of interest. You hope to convey to the consumer. Concept. Connect two objects in a natural way, then human’s instinctive interest in the first object will be transferred to the second object, and finally consumers will have the same interest in these two objects.” So , after consumers' interest is transferred to waterproof shoes, salesmen should pay attention to attract consumers' acquired interest at this time, for example, show how cheap this kind of waterproof shoes are, there is no rubber on the shoes that is easy to age, and the nursing work after wearing Very easy and hassle-free, etc.

It is at this point that many salesmen fail. They cannot successfully transfer consumers' interest from old perceptions to new characteristics, and cannot explain the relationship between the Lincoln Day familiar to modern people and the products they are about to sell. which links.Compared with attracting attention, how to divert interest is a very worthwhile question.

Methods for inducing acquired interest can be divided into two categories: methods for permanently acquired interest and methods for temporarily acquired interest.A permanently acquired interest, once acquired, typically lasts a lifetime, and may be a liking for sugar, salt, potatoes, or a particular political party or fraternity.Preferences that are relegated to temporarily acquired interests are less important to the individual than permanently acquired interests.These interests might take the form of an interest in the outcome of a murder trial that occurred on an airplane trip, or in the outcome of a presidential election.

Commodity information that can arouse consumer interest can be roughly divided into the following four categories: ①The source of commodity raw materials; ②Manufacturing process; ③The company's personnel composition; ④Commodity use.By classifying the ad we studied earlier, we can see the benefits of providing these four pieces of information in an ad.

In fact, in the later development of advertising, the frequency of these four kinds of information is still increasing.The reason for this higher frequency may be that by explaining the purpose of a product, the ad designer can narrow the distance between himself and the reader.He can describe the reader's daily life needs in a familiar tone, and can also show the relevant use of a commodity.In addition, the interest in how to use it may come from human nature. Whenever we encounter a new object, our instinctive question is "What can I use it for?"

Interest in company personnel rose from 80 percent to 11 percent in frequency over the 18 years covered by our survey.This situation may reflect the society's growing interest in large enterprises, especially in the personnel aspects of enterprises.People want to know their return on earnings, the amount of excess earnings, and the character and competence of the head of the corporate affairs department.People like to hear other people's success stories because then they can discover the secret of success.

However you explain the nature of the interest, it must be acknowledged that during the past 20 years of advertising expansion, the percentage of disclosure ads in newspapers has risen from 22% to 74%.In this type of advertisement, some of the information disclosed is significantly more than other information about the product.Professional ad copywriters who want to dominate this expansion of the advertising industry must have a good command of this psychological law. (As mentioned in the law,) They must be very interested in the results of this survey.

summary
This lecture discusses the common characteristics of interest and consumer interest from the perspective of psychoanalysis, and puts forward two rules for cultivating consumer interest.Not only the two laws are explained from a theoretical point of view, but also advertising examples are analyzed, in which it is found that the two laws have been consciously or unconsciously applied in practice by successful salesmen.Through the analysis among the specific factors that generate interest, it is also discovered which factors have the best effect on generating consumer interest.

While attracting interest is considered a separate stage in sales, that's not to say it doesn't have any connection to the other stages.In fact, once a consumer has an interest in a product, this interest will exist throughout the sales process, and the interest will traverse the subsequent stages of generating desire to buy, building confidence, deciding to buy, and satisfying.

We will move on to the next lecture and discuss the two components of the mental stream—pleasurable sensations and imagination—both of which are important stimuli for the generation of interest.

(End of this chapter)