Besides rewards, what else are users interested in?

We want users to take action, but when inducements don’t work, what else can we do? You can try to "awaken the user's sense of identity."

Suppose your company plans to hold a new product introduction meeting and wants to invite old users to attend. So I called a user who lives nearby:

"Hello Mr./Ms. So-and-so, I am..., and you can get a set of tableware for free if you come."

As a result, users rejected it one after another: “Not interested.”

What should I do?

This situation can be summarized as: trying to use rewards to drive users, but in the end users are still not interested.

In other words, what should we do if the bribery fails? (Seduction…? Ugh!)

Some solutions that may come to mind are:

• If funds permit, use a bigger bait;
• At the same cost, change to a more attractive bait based on crowd preferences;
• Change it to a sweepstakes event and take advantage of the anchoring psychology;
• Cooperate with other companies to get more gifts.
• …

However, the above still falls into the category of inducement. If we don't use this method, what else can we do?

Today, I will tell you a new trick: awakening your sense of identity.

1.

How do people make decisions? There are two ways:

• The first is a weighing of the pros and cons. Based on your own interests, analyze which option is most valuable.
• The second is to make decisions based on identity. It is not based on personal interests, but on the interests of the group. How will people like me choose? Even if it may harm one's own interests, one will make decisions that match one's identity.

This conclusion was discovered by James March, a professor at Stanford University in the United States.

In fact, this phenomenon does exist, even in the very profit-seeking political sphere.

There is a political science professor at the University of Michigan named Donald Kinder.

He analyzed legislative proposals over the past 30 years and found a puzzling phenomenon: voters do not firmly safeguard their own interests when voting for proposals.

• People who need medical assistance are not necessarily more supportive of Medicare for All than those who have health insurance;
• Parents of public school students are not necessarily more supportive of government funding of education than other citizens;
• Working women are not necessarily more supportive of policies that benefit working women than housewives;
• …

It can be seen that the influence of one’s own interests on political propositions is not 100%.

So, how much influence is there?

Donald Kinder said: "Insignificant!"

He found that when people form political opinions, they seem to ask not "what's in it for me" but "what's in it for my group."

Political groups may be divided along race, class, religion, gender, region, party, industry, or other dimensions.

This is completely counterintuitive and confirms that humans do have different ways of making decisions: weighing pros and cons and identifying with one’s identity.

2.

Back to the question at the beginning.

Since personal interests cannot drive users, how can we use identity?

This is a new question: Which identity of the user should be awakened to make him feel that he should participate in the event?

Let’s try it together.

If the product at that new product launch event was an air purifier, perhaps we could awaken our sense of identity as parents.

“Air pollution in China kills XX children every year.”

"We, like you, hope that children can have a better environment to grow up in."

“That’s why we’re holding this event and you’re invited to attend. We’ll take you to see the latest achievements in air purification and let you experience a purified space.”

"And before the end of the event, a small amount of charity money will be donated to the ×× Children's Fund in your name."

If you introduce the activity in this way, I believe the success rate will be significantly higher than giving away tableware.

You can try it again. If the product is a smart speaker, what methods can you come up with?

Think about it in private.

3.

However, identity is not a new idea.

When Confucius talked about "gentlemen" and "villains", he already used the concept of identity.

Products such as Xiaomi, Douban , Zhihu, and Bilibili also have obvious identity attributes.

Leveraging a sense of identity can increase user loyalty , sense of belonging, and inspire action. There are so many cases like this that I won’t give any more examples.

But there is another case that is more clever.

They use identity in reverse to reduce the number of times they use the product.

What is going on?

It turns out that in order to encourage smokers to reduce smoking, Australia requires all cigarettes to be packaged in uniform:

• The extensive use of olive green has been called "the ugliest color ever" by smokers;
• The brand name should be minimized, using the specified font and size and placed in the specified corner;
• Print warning photos and warning words over a large area (this has existed before).

The aim is to eliminate packaging differences among cigarettes. If you don't look carefully, it is difficult to tell the brand of cigarettes.

Does this trick work?

The survey shows that 10 months after the policy was implemented, the number of people calling the anti-smoking hotline increased by 78%, and the number of young people smoking has dropped significantly. However, old smokers still smoke and it is difficult to quit the addiction.

A more intuitive effect is that one year later, many countries began to follow Australia's example.

Why does a unified packaging change produce obvious results?

Because consumers have lost brand awareness.

Originally, cigarette brands were matched with status, and the cigarettes smoked by rich people were different from those of poor people. However, after the unified packaging, it is no longer possible to distinguish cigarette brands from their appearance.

Moreover, the packaging is so ugly that its appeal to smokers is greatly reduced.

What’s more interesting is that although the cigarette factory has not lowered the quality, many people feel that the taste of cigarettes has deteriorated, which is also affected by the packaging image.

From this case, we can see that once the sense of identity is eliminated, the attractiveness of the product will be reduced.

4.

Talent belongs to a few, but routines belong to everyone. ——Kangxi's Master

To summarize today’s article:

We want users to take action, but when inducements don’t work, what else can we do?

You can try to "awaken the user's sense of identity."

This is because there are two basic ways people make decisions:

• One is to weigh the pros and cons. Decide which option is most valuable to you.
• The other is to make decisions based on identity. Based on the interests of the group, what choices will people like me make?

The sense of identity can be used to arouse user action and increase brand loyalty; it can also be used in reverse to reduce the number of times users use the product, and can be used in public welfare projects.