"Each element in the brain is connected, and they support and strengthen each other. A word can evoke memories, which evoke emotions, which in turn evoke facial expressions and other reactions."
"Each element in the brain is connected, and they support and strengthen each other. A word can evoke memories, which evoke emotions, which in turn evoke facial expressions and other reactions."
An entrepreneur or marketer can make people friendlier towards a brand by evoking the right type of memories and associations by using these methods as well. Ask customers first a question that will make them think “yes” and nod their heads and this will open a channel to their brain for the second question: “Would you like to buy _________?” Show pictures in your ads that will awaken strong positive thoughts giving them feelings that will strengthen the emotional state the consumer is in when watching the ad, making her at the same time more positive towards the brand presented.
A study from Ohio State
University showed that simple movements like nodding or shaking the head influenced
people's agreement with an editorial they heard while making the head movement.
"If we are nodding
our heads up and down, we gain confidence in what we are thinking. But when we
shake our heads from side to side, we lose confidence in our own thoughts”, commented
Richard Petty, the man behind the study.
Not just nodding will
control our thoughts; a whole range of body movements, including things such as
smiling, can change our view on a message, according to the researchers.
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman
writes in his “Thinking, fast and slow” about the fascinating concept of
“associative activation”:
This explains why you can feel
better by putting on a fake smile or that you can “fake it til you make it”. If
you for example feel nervous when going into a meeting, the worst you can do is
to give in to and amplify that idea by dwelling “I´m nervous, OMG my
body is shaking”, because this will only make you more nervous! Instead
you should tell your body and mind “I´m confident. I´m good at what I
do and have prepared myself well. They will adore me.” You should also
make sure you stand straight and balanced, walk with energy and shake hands
with strength, looking into people´s eyes. Just by doing this, you will automatically
become more confident.
Also words are filled with
meaning and power. In a
study presented in Malcolm Gladwell´s book Blink, some students got to read a
document filled with words like like ”worried,” “Florida,” “old,”
“lonely,” “gray,” “bingo,” and “wrinkles”. The students were then sent to do
another test in an office down the hall, and it turned out the students who had
read this text walked slower than others, who had read a different type of
text.
Kahneman describes in his book a similar
study conducted in a German university where students were asked to walk around
a room for 5 min at a rate of 30 steps per minute, which was about 1/3 of
normal pace. After this exercise the participants were much quicker to
recognize the words related to old age, such as forgetful, old and lonely. By
walking slowly, they came emotionally closer to the concept of being old.
The secret behind successful
marketing is most times not what you say, but what people pick up; it´s what
they hear, feel and think that matters – and it may not be what you actually
said, but something completely different! Their interpretation of your message
– not your message in itself – is what will make them like a product or not, be
loyal to a brand or not. By using the power of words or movements that people
associate with meaningful feelings, a message can cleverly come close to its
consumers - almost as if hypnotising them into a purchase decision.
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