As previously known, psychology is the study of experiences that arise in humans, both the senses, mind, feeling and will. Most people may only focus on psychology that studies human personality. However, this human learning activity can actually be seen from various aspects, namely social, educational, criminal, organ function, medical, religious, industrial and many more. For those of you who are focused in the business world, psychology also embraces the world of marketing.
Marketing psychology will help you understand the motives that influence emotions and the actions of consumers in looking at a product or service offered. Theories in marketing psychology can be used to optimize the marketing function of your business . It is even said that if you don’t understand marketing psychology , then your marketing strategy is not exactly perfect.
In this case there are several principles of marketing psychology that can attract and convince consumers to conduct transactions in your business which are explained as follows.
Priming
This principle is in line with word games where when you say one word, your other colleagues respond with the first word that comes to mind. For example, one person reads the word “green”, then the response obtained is “leaf”. According to Bryant and Thompson (2002), priming has two perspectives. First , priming can occur when someone reads or watches a story on the media that activates thoughts or feelings that have been stored in the minds of previous minds because of the influence of learning and experience in the past.
Second , priming is defined as media exposure that influences a person’s behavior so that they do unwanted actions, for example mimicking crime. In psychology, that’s how priming works . When you are exposed to a stimulus, it will affect the way you respond to the stimulus. This is applied so that when consumers see a particular color, object or thing, what comes to their mind first is your product or service.
Fine priming techniques are usually used to make your website visitors remember key information about the products and services provided. You can influence this by making repeated information about your products and services so that the idea is embedded in the minds of consumers. Another way is to make something simple or even striking to be easily remembered by consumers.
Reciprocal
The principle of marketing psychology this one was introduced by Dr. Robert Caldini in his book Influence: Psychology of Persuasion. This principle of reciprocity is familiar in life, when people do something to you, you will want to do something for that person. This also applies in the world of marketing. If you want consumers to do something about your product or service, then you should also do something for them.
This something can be in the form of attractive offers. Who doesn’t like discounts or promos? Yes, you can realize this principle by offering discounts, ease of shopping for certain products, free products and so on. Or it could be just a statement of thanks addressed personally or in a form more to touch the hearts of consumers. Consumers who are touched by your gift will definitely do something in return, it could be in the form of a purchase, contact or registration as a member.
Social Proof
Social proof is a theory where people will adopt and put trust in the parties they like or trust. In marketing this is usually obtained with testimonials. Most people will decide to buy a product or service if they see the closest people or idols they have used before.
Testimonials are often found on social media or websites of a brand. Good testimonials can be obtained by improving quality so that your customers will voluntarily give positive opinions about your products and services. This principle can also be slightly modified by giving attractive offers to consumers when they bring up uploads related to your product in their respective accounts. And if your business has sufficient capital or profits, you can use influencers or famous artists.
Also read: Special Tricks and Strategies in the Application of Marketing Psychology to Increase Sales
Decoy Effect
This principle uses a price strategy where one price point is deliberately entered so that consumers are lured to choose a more expensive price. Decoy effect is also a trick that can lead consumers to shop for more goods. The decoy effect is one of the most powerful and effective psychological techniques used by the marketing team.
An easy example, in a coffee shop, the price of coffee with a small glass of IDR 5,000 and a large glass of IDR 9,000. With these two options, of course people will choose coffee at a price of IDR 5,000 because the 9000 figure is too expensive for a glass of coffee. But it is different if one more option is added which is a moderate glass coffee for IDR 8,000. Most people would move their choices to large glass coffee because with a price of only IDR 1,000, they have gotten coffee with a larger size.
Scarcity
This principle is in line with the supply and demand formula, where the less opportunity, content or product, the more valuable the price will be. Scarcity will encourage consumers to buy, collect, or get something with the perception they will not get it again in the future. To reach consumers like this you can provide the concept of scarcity as if there are 100 products. However, due to the very large demand, there were only 3 products left, and people who were fast and lucky were able to get these popular products.
But there are also those who regard scarcity as self-esteem. When able to get these products consumers will feel that they can control the environment. For consumers, this can be done by making exclusive products that are only available in very small quantities.
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon
Have you ever heard of a product and started seeing it wherever you are? This is the influence of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. This phenomenon can be related to marketing automation. Marketing automation will make a product appear on any media that consumers use if they provide contact information or IP addresses have been tracked after opening a website, social media or shopping sites. Consumers might think this is something surprising where the product looks everywhere. And will assume that they really are due and should buy the product.
Also read: Easy Steps to Implement Marketing Psychology
Emotion Beats Intelligence
Consumers will tend to respond to things that have more emotional appeal than intellectual things. Emotional ads work better than rational focused ads. Emotional advertising is more persuasive because it can show how a product can be more meaningful and beneficial to the lives of its consumers.
Foot-in-door
This psychological principle can be suggested if you use digital marketing to use small requests to prepare them to be better prepared for bigger requests. Like for example, you initially ask to register as a member to get the latest notifications about new promos and products). Next, you will ask to buy a product or subscribe to your service.
