25 Psychological Skills That Marketers Must Know

Why do marketers need to understand psychology?

Because for practitioners in the marketing, operations, and advertising industries, their job is to deal with people .

Psychology is a scientific behavioral science that studies human psychological phenomena and the mental functions and behavioral activities under their influence.

Especially when you don’t have enough data to analyze user behavior, psychology is the underlying logical support for making various decisions.

However, psychology has a broad scope, and not all psychology can be applied to the marketing scenario.

This means that we have not systematically sorted out the psychology applied in the field of advertising and marketing.

Furthermore, we have not studied how these psychological principles are applied in work. In most cases, we only stay at the level of “explanation”.

Face this pain point. We at Mad Men have systematically sorted out the most commonly used psychology in the field of advertising and marketing , and for each psychological phenomenon, we have not only provided an explanation, but also provided case analysis and implementation suggestions on how to implement each psychological theory.

Due to space limitations, this article only analyzes how psychology is implemented in marketing scenarios. For more classic cases, you can go to the marketing theory section of the Mad Men website.

Marketing theory direct link https://www.socialmarketings.com/bk/theory

Currently, the marketing theory section can only be opened on PC, so please be sure to click the link on your computer!

Below are 25 psychological facts we have summarized.

We have given explanations and cases for each psychology, but due to space limitations, we cannot list more extensive cases. If you want to know more cases and how to put them into practice, you can directly click on the name of the psychology, which will jump to the advertising encyclopedia interface.

1. Anchoring Effect

The so-called anchoring effect means that when people need to make a quantitative estimate of an event, they will use certain specific values ​​as starting values, and the starting values ​​will constrain the estimated value like an anchor. When making decisions, we unconsciously give too much weight to the initial information we obtain.

Marketing landing:

Evian water sells for 22 yuan a bottle in Starbucks, but if you buy a whole box on JD.com, the average price is less than 5 yuan a bottle, which is a price that the "middle class" can barely afford.

The price of Evian water in Starbucks may give people a "high-end" impression, so that users will buy Evian water when they need to "show off" in the future. At the same time, according to the price of Starbucks coffee, a medium cup basically does not exceed 30 yuan, and an extra-large cup basically does not exceed 40 yuan. When users find out that a bottle of mineral water costs 22 yuan, they will feel that coffee is not that expensive in comparison.

In addition to the Starbucks case, the anchoring effect is applied in a wider range of scenarios.

This is the title of a tweet. In order to highlight the low prices, the author uses 618 as an anchor point, prompting readers to establish a thinking framework that the products in the article are very cheap.

2. Framing Effect

The framing effect refers to the fact that people's different descriptions of an objectively identical problem lead to different decision-making judgments.

Marketing landing:

For users, there are two kinds of frames: one is the "gain" frame, and the other is the "loss" frame.

During a promotional sale,

"Clearance sale at the end of the season" is a way of saying "losing" the framework, making people feel that what they buy are all junk that is stored at the bottom of the warehouse;
"Off-season sale" is a framework of "gain", which makes people feel happy that they have found a bargain.

In a study on express insurance, researchers found that when faced with different insurance sales pitches, users had different chances of being willing to accept the offer: “1 yuan for insurance of 500 yuan, 2 yuan for insurance of 1,000 yuan” was the sales pitch that most users were willing to accept, a typical “get” framework.
"Uninsured items will be compensated up to 7 times the shipping cost, insurance is recommended" is the wording that the fewest users are willing to accept, a typical "loss" framework.

Research shows that the characteristic framing effect of language classes is that the positive framing effect is greater than the negative framing effect. This result was verified in this case. Of course, we can also use the framing effect to explore more marketing persuasive techniques.

3. Backfire Effect

The backfire effect means that when a piece of wrong information is corrected, if the corrected information contradicts people's original views, it will deepen people's trust in the (originally) wrong information.

Marketing landing:

Regarding the application of the backfire effect in advertising and marketing, it can be understood that we and the users are in a state of opposition, but remember not to play with fire and to grasp a certain degree, otherwise it is easy to be backfired.

For an example of the backfire effect, please refer to LinkedIn’s commercial “Don’t Advertise”. The psychological support of the commercial is the backfire effect, which stimulates the users’ rebellious psychology and triggers widespread discussion inside and outside the circle.

During the epidemic, NetEase Yanxuan's outdoor advertising in Hangzhou also used the backfire effect. The core message conveyed by the entire set of copy was not to watch this set of ads and everyone should reduce outdoor activities.

Soon, this set of outdoor advertisements by NetEase Yanxuan quickly went viral on Weibo and received positive reviews from users.

4. Schema Theory

Cognitive psychologists believe that a lot of knowledge is stored in the human memory system in the form of schemata. The difference between a schema and other knowledge representations is that it is broader and more organized, but also more abstract and vague. Because of these characteristics, many people find the concept of schema difficult to grasp.

Marketing landing:

The application of schema theory in advertising and marketing is mostly at the copywriting level. The core is to connect the information you want to convey with the information already in the user's memory.

For example, Apple’s classic copywriting: Put 1,000 songs in your pocket

This sentence is simple and pure. I believe that everyone can immediately have a sense of picture and make mental associations based on past experience. This is also about using things that users already understand to explain unknown things.

Therefore, when we are introducing products or writing copy, we might as well think about the connection between our products and things that users are familiar with. This is definitely a good approach.

Users are more likely to remember things that are meaningful to them or that they are familiar with, and tend to see what they want to see. The closer it is to their own experience, the safer they feel and the easier it is to accept.

In short, use things that users already understand and are familiar with to explain the unknown. It is powerful and can enable users to understand various unknown things, unknown products, unknown concepts or unknown functions in a short period of time and produce concrete pictures.

5. Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The cognitive dissonance theory holds that: Under normal circumstances, an individual's attitudes and behaviors are consistent, so there is no need to change attitudes and behaviors. If there is an inconsistency between the two, such as doing something that contradicts your attitude or not doing what you want to do, cognitive dissonance occurs.

Marketing landing:

The most classic application of cognitive dissonance theory is one of Ogilvy’s masterpieces: The Man in the Hathaway Shirt.

The core of the advertisement is to use the inconsistency between the eye mask and the shirt to attract the audience's attention and highlight the personality of the men wearing this brand of shirts.

6. The Decoy Effect

The "decoy effect" refers to the situation where when people make a choice between two equally good options, the addition of a third new option (decoy) will make one of the old options appear more attractive. The option being aided by the “bait” is often called the “target”, while the other option is called the “competitor”.

Marketing landing:

The key point is that the rational use of the decoy effect can effectively drive user decision-making, so everyone must learn the decoy effect thoroughly!

The most classic case can be found in The Economist’s pricing strategy.

Like most other magazines, The Economist offers an annual magazine subscription service on its website, which includes both full-year electronic issues and full-year paper issues. But rather than simply offering two separate subscription packages, The Economist offers the following three options:

① Subscribe to the full year online version of the magazine for $59

② Order a full year's print edition of the magazine for $125

③ Order a full year's print and online version of the magazine for $125

The existence of the second option seems almost comical.

However, the survey found that if there was no second option, 16 people would order only the electronic version for $59, and no one would order only the print version for $125; but when the second option existed, the number of people who chose to order the online version + paper version soared to 84!

In addition to the Economist case, we can encounter many other applications of the decoy effect.

For example, in the design of fission posters, in order to encourage you to share to your circle of friends or social groups, the product is often priced. For example, if you don’t want to forward it to your circle of friends, you need to pay 9.9 yuan, etc. Such a strategy will increase users’ motivation to share on their Moments/social networks, thus expanding the reach of the campaign.

Common specific methods include:

Invite X people to help and you can get a cash bonus;

Share to X WeChat groups to get a chance to win a prize;

Invite X people to register and you can get team rewards;

Invite X friends to follow and you can get free lessons and free materials;

Invite X people to buy and you can get a distribution commission.

7. Loss Aversion Theory

Loss aversion refers to the phenomenon that when people are faced with the same amount of gains and losses, they find the losses more unbearable. The negative utility of the same amount of loss is 2.5 times the positive utility of the same amount of gain.

Marketing landing:

The theory of loss aversion penetrates into every aspect of marketing.

Application in e-commerce scenarios:

1. Limited time sale/return to original price after xx hours

2. Double 11/Double 12/618 and other platform promotions create a situation where you will suffer a loss if you don’t buy.

3. Free shipping or paid shipping to give users a different shopping experience.

4. When shopping in a group, the group price is often lower than the direct purchase price, which encourages many people to be keen on group shopping.

5. When users are bargaining, a prompt message will appear indicating that they are almost successful, encouraging users not to waste money, because they have already paid a lot of sunk costs, which will lead them to attract more users to help them bargain.

8. Barnum Effect

People often believe that a general and general personality description accurately reveals their own characteristics. In psychology, this tendency is called the "Barnum effect."

The Barnum effect is very common in life. Take fortune-telling for example. Many people who have consulted fortune-tellers believe that what the fortune-tellers say is "very accurate." In fact, those who seek help from fortune-tellers are themselves susceptible to suggestion.

When people are depressed and frustrated, they lose a sense of control over their lives, and their sense of security is also affected.

A person who lacks a sense of security will have greatly increased psychological dependence and will be more susceptible to suggestion than usual. In addition, fortune tellers are good at guessing people's inner feelings and can understand the feelings of the person seeking help to a certain extent, so the person seeking help will immediately feel a kind of spiritual comfort. The fortune teller will then say some general, irrelevant words to make the person seeking help believe it.

Marketing landing:

The Barnum effect is often used in various psychological tests to vaguely describe each person's personality traits in order to gain the trust of users.

A recent classic case is the personality test case of NetEase Cloud Music, in which the copy about user testing used the Barnum effect.

9. Proportion Bias

Proportion bias means that in many situations, people are more inclined to consider changes in proportions or ratios rather than changes in numerical values ​​themselves. In other words, people are more sensitive to proportions than to numerical values ​​themselves.

Marketing implementation

The core of proportional bias lies in the "sense of multiplier", and its specific application in marketing is mainly in the expression of price.

The same pricing strategy expressed differently will result in different consumer perceptions.

Exchange

Compared with buying a 1,000 yuan pot and getting a 50 yuan spoon for free, buying a 1,000 yuan pot and adding 1 yuan to exchange for a 50 yuan spoon is more attractive.

In the first scenario, the customer will compare a 1,000 yuan pot with a 50 yuan spoon, which is a 5% discount;

The second situation: The customer will have a feeling that he has bought 50% of a 50-yuan product with one yuan.

By using the exchange method, consumers can psychologically focus on small commodities with large price changes, which will create a feeling of being a good deal.

Discounts and promotions

Clothing store promotion, 20% off for one piece, 30% off for 2 pieces, 40% off for 3 pieces.

The customer originally planned to buy a certain piece of clothing that she must wear, but ended up buying 2 more pieces because of the increasing discounts.

Price reduction

A 20% discount on a 50-yuan item is marked as a 20% direct discount; a 20% discount on a 500-yuan item is marked as a 100-yuan direct discount;

During promotions, low-priced goods can be discounted to make consumers feel more of a bargain, while high-priced goods can be discounted to make consumers feel a bargain; that is, when the price is low, the ratio is used, and when the price is high, the number is used.

10. The Sleeper Effect

The sleeper effect, also known as the sleeping effect, refers to the phenomenon that the communication effect under the credibility of the source will change over time. That is to say,

Some time after the communication ends, the positive effects brought by high-credibility sources are declining, while the negative effects brought by low-credibility sources are turning into positive effects. Some people also call this phenomenon the information amplitude effect theorem.

Marketing landing:

The advertisement launched by Mafengwo during the World Cup, "Go to Mafengwo before traveling", was criticized by many people when it was shown to the public. The creative idea of ​​the advertisement is very simple, which is to repeat the sentence "Go to Mafengwo before traveling".

When people see Mafengwo ads, their brains actually generate two kinds of memories:

One is "emotional memory": "Mafengwo's marketing ads are so disgusting that they will be repeated brainwashing."

One is "fact memory": "Oh, so I have to go to Mafengwo before traveling."

At first, the power of emotional memory far exceeded that of factual memory, which led to a lot of opposition from many people - "Mafengwo is too low"

But emotions fade much faster than factual memory.

This means that after a period of time, the public's negative emotions towards Mafengwo will disappear, but people will remember the feature of "visit Mafengwo before traveling", so it is very likely that Mafengwo will still benefit.

11. Endowment Effect

Owning something makes you overestimate its value. After people own something, they tend to think that what they own is more valuable than the same thing owned by others.

The endowment effect means that once an individual owns an item, his evaluation of the value of the item will greatly increase compared to before he owned it.

Marketing landing:

The shadow of the endowment effect can also be seen in product design.

For example, at the end of each year, Internet companies such as Meituan, Keep, Zhihu, and Douyin will launch an annual summary of users, recording every detail of the user's life through the collected user behavior data.

For example, you are the nth user of the product, how many times you have checked in using the product, what is the song you have listened to the longest time in a day, what is the latest short video you have watched, etc.

These annual summaries give us a real sense of ownership by putting ourselves in their shoes. We believe that this is our own, unique annual summary, so we will have enough motivation to save this ritualistic report and share it with people around us. For the product, this is also an opportunity for secondary dissemination. This is the same as the Starbucks case, both are due to the endowment effect.

12. Peak-End Rule

After we experience something, all we can remember are the experiences at the peak and the end. The proportion of good and bad experiences in the process and the duration of the good and bad experiences have almost no effect on our memory. The quicker the end appears after the peak, the more impressive the event will be.
The "peak" and "end" here are actually the so-called "moment of truth" (MOT). MOT (Moment of Truth) is the most shocking and influential management concept and behavior model in the service industry.

Marketing implementation

Businesses should subconsciously create critical moments.

For example, Haidilao’s high-quality service and the souvenir snacks after checkout, IKEA’s ice cream and Sam’s Club’s beef rolls, etc. These are the key moments of user experience created by merchants.

Especially in the era of social media, users will actively share their experiences at critical moments on major social media platforms to promote new ideas. For businesses, it is a valuable social asset.

For specific examples of the Peak-End Rule, you can go directly to Advertising Encyclopedia https://www.socialmarketings.com/bk/theory/603

13. Operant Conditioning Theory

Operant conditioning: named by American psychologist Skinner, it is a behavioral change caused by stimulation. Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning in that operant conditioning is concerned with voluntary behavior, whereas Pavlovian conditioning is concerned with involuntary behavior.

The organism must first make the desired response and then receive a "reward," a reinforcing stimulus, to strengthen the response. The essence of learning is not the replacement of stimulus, but the change of response.

Skinner believed that almost all human behaviors are the result of operant reinforcement, and that people can change other people's reactions through the influence of reinforcement. In terms of teaching, teachers act as designers and architects of student behavior, breaking down learning goals into many small tasks and reinforcing them one by one. Students gradually complete learning tasks through operant conditioning.

Marketing implementation

The design of Pop Mart blind box

For blind box buyers, opening the blind box and getting the desired image is a "reward", which will positively reinforce the behavior of buying the blind box. Uncertain purchase results are like food that drops with a certain probability, which makes it impossible for the buyer to judge the relationship between the behavior and the result, so the behavior is likely to continue indefinitely.

Probabilistic positive feedback makes it impossible for consumers to quantify the relationship between the money they spend and the rewards they receive, that is, it is possible to obtain huge positive feedback at very little cost.

In order to obtain positive feedback (such as a rare toy with only a 1% chance of being drawn), consumers have to repeatedly consume blind boxes, just like a mouse that does not know when it will get food and can only keep pressing buttons in the hope of getting positive feedback. At this time, humans and mice are at the same IQ level.

If a POPMART direct-operated store has had rare items appear multiple times, or if multiple people who have won rare items in different branches have common behaviors, and this news spreads, then people will flock to the store and infer the reasons - such as speculating that the store is a flagship store and has an advantage in supply, or that blind boxes that arrive in the morning are more likely to have shipping batches of rare items.

14. The Curse of Knowledge

The curse of knowledge refers to the fact that once we know something, we find it difficult to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge "curses" us. It becomes difficult for ourselves to share our knowledge with others because we cannot easily recreate the mindset of our audience.

Marketing implementation

The fundamental reason for the curse of knowledge is that the amount of information between the two parties is not unified, that is, there is an information gap.

When we convey information to others, we ignore the extent to which they understand the context of the information. So for advertising, the goal of ad creators is to eliminate this information gap.

The most famous marketing case is the advertising master Hopkins writing copy for Heineken beer.

When Hopkins was communicating with his boss, he discovered that there was a serious information gap between him and the consumers. The beer manufacturer assumed that consumers knew this information gap, but the fact was that consumers did not know it.

Therefore, Hopkins used this information gap as the selling point of the product and wrote the classic copy: Every bottle of Schlitz beer must be blown with high-temperature pure oxygen before being filled to ensure a clear taste.

In the theory of curse of knowledge, we also listed many classic cases. This theory is very suitable for scenarios where we need to gain insights into consumers when looking for product selling points.

Advertising agencies communicate with brands and consumers, discover the information gap between the two, and extract the information gap as a selling point for the product. Finally, they carry out a series of creative extensions, which can solve the problem of brand marketing self-satisfaction to a certain extent.

15. The Zeigoni Effect

The Zeigernik effect, also known as the Zeigernik memory effect, refers to the fact that people are born with a drive to complete things from beginning to end. The reason why people forget the completed work is because the motivation to complete it has been satisfied; if the work has not been completed, the same motivation will leave a deep impression on him.

Marketing implementation

When I was in school, all the students in my class were keen on collecting Water Margin cards of Little Raccoon Instant Noodles, and the boys were particularly enthusiastic. In order to collect the Water Margin cards of 108 heroes as soon as possible, the students spent most of their pocket money on Little Raccoon instant noodles. As the number of purchases increased, gradually, there were more duplicate cards, but these duplicate cards could not dispel our desire to collect, because we always felt lost when looking at the incomplete set of cards. Then try various methods (such as exchanging, purchasing, etc.) to get a complete set of cards. The crazy collection led to a surge in sales of Little Raccoon.

Little Raccoon instant noodles utilize the Caigony effect for marketing, firmly grasping consumers' memories and making them obsessed with "completing the collection of hero cards", thereby increasing consumers' purchase frequency and boosting product sales.

The Caigoni effect does not mean that everyone should give up halfway when doing something. The fundamental reason for giving up halfway is the fear of failure, while the fundamental reason for the Caigoni effect is leaving blank space. The two are fundamentally different.

In terms of marketing applications, in addition to leaving appropriate blank space to retain a sense of mystery, it can also be applied through other means, such as suddenly stopping an activity that has lasted for a period of time, calling on everyone to collect limited packages or cards, etc.

16. Veblen Effect

The higher the price of a product, the better it will sell. It refers to the degree to which consumers demand a good because its price is higher rather than lower. It reflects people's psychological desire to engage in wasteful consumption.

Marketing implementation

The higher the price of a product, the better it will sell. It refers to the degree to which consumers demand a good because its price is higher rather than lower. It reflects people's psychological desire to engage in wasteful consumption.

For example, vitamin C has the same effect but the price is very different.

17. Birdcage Effect

The "birdcage effect" now specifically refers to the fact that after people accidentally acquire an item, they will continue to add more related things.

Marketing implementation

In business, many businesses take advantage of the "birdcage effect" to make consumers buy a lot of things they don't want to buy.

Merchants will continue to send "cages" to users. There are two types of good "cages":

One is the “complementary product” that is given away for free. In simple terms, it means being strongly related to the product, which makes it easier for users to buy it, such as fish and fish tanks, switches and game cards, etc. So, if you want to increase the sales of fish, you can give away beautiful fish tanks; if you want to increase the sales of switch, you can give away game cards, etc.

The second type is related recommendations + free coupons. For example, when you are browsing Tmall, Taobao or JD.com, the system may automatically recommend some products to you, but these products are not pushed randomly, but are based on your browsing history.

Or the order situation. But it is not enough to just recommend. Users are not the type to buy everything they see. However, when you give them the finishing touch by offering a coupon, they may be tempted.

TIPS

When giving away cages, it must be of good quality to stimulate customers' consumption. I heard a story before that if a wine seller gave a corkscrew to a customer, it was just a gift and did not have the effect of a birdcage.

But if you give a wine rack as a gift, the effect will be achieved.

18. Occam’s razor

"Do not add entities unless necessary." Because he was from Occam in England, people called this sentence "Occam's razor."

Marketing implementation

In the scenario of visual design, ensure that everything is available and choose the design with the least visual interference.

Remove as many elements as possible without sacrificing functionality.

Finally, keep the remaining elements to a minimum without sacrificing functionality.

Note: Occam's razor does not mean that simple designs are good, nor does it mean that all complex and implicit designs are bad.

Its core is "simple" design, which emphasizes that when two design options can achieve the design goal, the simpler one should be chosen.

Because "simple" design is easier to understand than "complex" design, has better communication effect, and can achieve great results with small efforts.

19. Miller's Law

Miller's Law, from a psychological perspective, humans have limited ability to process information. According to Miller (1956), the human brain has a magic number limit of 7 (plus or minus 2) when processing information, that is,

The human brain can process at most 5 to 9 pieces of information (chunks) at the same time. The reason is the limitation of short-term memory storage space. If there are more than 9 information groups, the probability of errors in the brain will be greatly increased.

Marketing implementation

Too many choices can cause people to suffer from decision paralysis, so especially in the navigation bar design, we can find that WeChat’s navigation has always been 4, because too many options will reduce efficiency.

When we conduct marketing activities, we must consider the user's mental capacity and not design too many options for users to refer to, as this will instead dampen their enthusiasm.

20. Multiple Viewing Effect

The multiple viewing effect is also known as the exposure effect, exposure effect, contact effect, and simple exposure effect.

It is a psychological phenomenon, which means that we prefer things that are familiar to us. Social psychology calls this effect the law of familiarity. The more familiar something is, the more we like it. As long as it appears frequently, the degree of liking it will increase. This phenomenon of liking something more the more familiar it is is called the "re-viewing effect" in psychology.

Marketing implementation

If you see something more, you will want to buy it, so the repeated viewing effect plays a natural role in advertising.

For non-consumers, the role of advertising is to cultivate awareness and let users see more through exposure, which is the "information and reminder" of the role of advertising;

For light consumers, the role of advertising is to cultivate a good reputation, and the more they watch, the more they like it, which is the "persuasion" role of advertising;

For heavy consumers, the role of advertising is to cultivate loyalty, which is the "reinforcement" effect of advertising.

21. Shortage Principle

The scarcity principle states that when people feel they are about to lose something, it will have a huge impact on their decision-making. The fear of losing something is more motivating to people than the hope of gaining something of equal value.

Psychological basis: protection of vested interests, competition for scarce resources, when you realize you might lose something, you may find that you like it very much.

Marketing implementation

Perhaps the most direct application of the scarcity principle is the "limited quantity" strategy, which is to tell customers that a certain product is in short supply and cannot be guaranteed to be available all the time. The limited amount of information that is out there is sometimes true and sometimes completely fake.

However, in either case, the intention is the same, which is to make the customer believe that something is rare and thus immediately feel that it is worth a hundred times more.

Marketers' use of the scarcity principle is frequent, extensive, systematic and varied.

We know from past experience that whenever this phenomenon occurs, the principle itself must contain a force that drives people to take certain actions involuntarily, and the same is true for the principle of shortage.

The copy often contains words such as "limited", "until XX date", "limited quantity XX", "seasonal limited", and "limited item".

22. Marginal Effect

The more goods a user buys or uses, the lower the cost he is willing to pay per unit of goods (because the utility brought to him by the goods purchased later is reduced). Of course, there are a few exceptions, such as alcoholics who become happier the more they drink, or philatelists who collect a set of Cultural Revolution stamps. In this case, the marginal effect of the last stamp collected in the set will be the greatest.

Marketing implementation

When we go shopping, we almost always buy a cup of milk tea, and the negative effect model of the marginal effect is used here. They use the method of half price for the second cup to increase consumers' greed for the product for the first time, that is, the "desire value", and at the same time increase product sales, but the marginal cost remains unchanged.

Once consumers purchase the beverage, negative effects may occur because they may not be able to finish it. What is reflected here is that the value of a commodity depends on human desires and the proportion to which those desires are satisfied.

23. Prospect Theory

Prospect theory holds that people usually do not consider issues from the perspective of wealth, but from the perspective of winning and losing, and are concerned about the amount of gains and losses.

Marketing implementation

According to prospect theory, the sum of the pleasure from experiencing two gains separately is greater than the pleasure from adding the two gains together; and the pain from two losses combined is less than the sum of the pain from experiencing the two losses separately. Therefore, the following operations should be paid attention to in marketing promotion.

1. If there are several marketing measures to be introduced and promoted, they should be introduced and promoted separately.
2. If there are several charging items with price increases, they should be launched and announced together.
3. If there is a big good news and a small bad news, they should be released together so that the happiness they bring outweighs the pain they bring.
4. If there is a big bad news and a small good news, they should be released separately so that the joy brought by the good news will not be overwhelmed by the pain of the bad news.

24. Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion effect states that what people think and believe in their hearts will determine what they will achieve.

What you expect is what you get. What you get is not what you want, but what you expect. As long as you have confident expectations and truly believe that things will go smoothly, they will definitely go smoothly. On the contrary, if you believe that things will continue to encounter resistance, these resistances will arise. Successful people will cultivate a confident attitude and believe that good things will definitely happen.

Marketing implementation

Keep is a fitness app that uses the Pygmalion effect in its copywriting.

The main page carries the slogan "Self-discipline gives me freedom". During use, users can receive cheering voice messages from fans or friends. At the same time, the App will also give users encouragement at appropriate times, such as "You have run 4 kilometers in 40 minutes, come on!"

Keep's motivational copy undoubtedly increased users' enthusiasm for active participation and helped the app attract more fans, gaining 30 million users within one and a half years of its launch.

25. KISS principle

KISS is the abbreviation of "Keep it Simple and Stupid" in English, which means "keep simple and stupid". "Stupid" does not mean "silly", it also has comprehensive meanings such as "dull", "insensitive", "boring" and "worthless".

Another explanation of KISS is: "Keep It Simple, Stupid". Because of the comma in the middle, the meaning becomes "Keep It Simple, Stupid". It is an imperative voice with a teasing tone.

Marketing implementation

KISS mainly focuses on advertising graphic design.

For example, the minimalist design style in recent years.

Negative space (also known as white space) is the most important feature of minimalist design, and it is also the feature that makes minimalist design the most attractive. It is also very helpful in guiding the user's visual flow:

The more negative space there is around an element, the more attention that element will draw.

Little color change. Minimalist design only uses color elements to increase visual appeal, without adding other design elements. The fewer colors, the better, so be creative when designing visual hierarchy.

The contrast is sharp. Because there are fewer design elements, you need to be creative when designing the visual hierarchy.

The above is an overview of 25 marketing psychology theories and how to implement marketing. For more content, you can go to the Advertising Encyclopedia, which contains more cases and interpretations of marketing implementation.

You may not be able to absorb all of this psychology at once, so I strongly recommend that you save this article and use it as a tool/instruction manual, and read it often after work.

However, we must be careful not to apply theories.

Many students have a bad habit. Once they have learned a theory or a new knowledge point, they try to use this knowledge point to explain all marketing cases. However, a successful case is not only supported by psychology. It is an organic combination of many factors, and there are many unknown but critical factors that we are not aware of.

If we try to apply it, we are likely to fail to achieve the desired results.

The purpose of these psychological aspects is to provide us with more perspectives to help interpret some marketing cases. If we don’t understand these, it will be difficult to understand the real intentions of the team behind the project and it will be difficult to achieve effective growth.

Therefore, when you come across a marketing case that you think is good in the future, you can open this article, read it in conjunction with the project, and break down the copywriting, posters, TVC, and operational strategies, so that it will be effective.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that our Advertising Encyclopedia section can only be opened on PC at present. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to everyone.