6 types of user psychology that you need to know for insightful copywriting

I have read a lot of articles about insight, and most of them are quite general. Everyone is emphasizing that copywriting must touch the other party’s heart, and everyone is arguing the importance of insight. So what? And then nothing happened...

There are also many articles telling us that insight means observing more, experiencing more, and thinking more. Isn't this nonsense? My third grade Chinese teacher told me this truth. Is it necessary to spend thousands of words to analyze it?

In the process of collecting copywriting, the author constantly tried to figure out the psychology of authors and users, and slowly summed up the following methods to share with you.

What are insights?

See through, observe thoroughly, understand and inspire the source of emotion.

In other words, insight means not just looking at the surface, but seeing the deep psychological needs of the target audience.

For example: suppose you are advertising a toothpaste and want to highlight its ability to whiten teeth. A typical copy would say: Whiten your teeth all day long. Or maybe: white teeth are the most beautiful.

If you dig a little deeper, think about who this toothpaste is for? We will locate groups of people in our brains, such as: "young white-collar workers", "students", "retired elderly people", etc.

After positioning the crowd, you need to enter the character's setting scenario and think about what benefits whitening teeth will bring to you in a certain scene, or what impact dark yellow teeth will have. Gradually I got the idea:

You prepare carefully for your first date with her. Your clothes are exquisite and your speech is polite, but your dark yellow teeth make her impression of you drop to zero.

This sentence captures the common fear of being disliked by others.

So to put it bluntly, insight is actually about understanding the psychological needs of target users.

Who do you want to understand?

A top copywriter in The Way of Creativity said:

You have to write for one person, a specific consumer, put his impression into your mind, get into his body, only in this way can you communicate with him.

Therefore, the object of your insight must be specific enough. The smaller the individual, the better, at least it should be a person of a certain type with obvious characteristics. Only in this way can you enter his heart, experience his true emotions, and gain stronger insight into your copywriting.

For example, the famous "I am afraid of people who read":

The copy tells the inner voice of a person who doesn't like reading in a first-person tone. The positioning is very small, just one person's inner monologue, but it is very representative. It gives people a feeling of "Isn't this talking about me?" This copy takes advantage of people’s psychological fear of falling behind and being outdated.

Which user psychology plays a role in the consumption process?

We said before: Insight is to understand the psychological needs of target users. So what user psychology plays a role in the consumption process?

1. Pursuit of psychology

People will always pursue beautiful things, or hope that they can reach the level of a certain idol, so they will be full of yearning for some beautiful things. This is the "pursuit psychology." For example, when advertising Nike running shoes, they rarely emphasize the performance of the shoes themselves. Instead, they start from the consumers and depict how handsome they are when they wear Nike shoes to play basketball. This captures the boys' desire to look handsome.

Similarly, this is why well-known sports brands such as Adidas and Nike are scrambling to sign big-name NBA stars. It is to take advantage of fans' pursuit of stars. This implies to consumers that if you wear our equipment, you can play as well as your idol.

Another example is the copywriting of Taiwan Eslite Bookstore:

1,000 yuan can’t buy you a pair of good glasses, but it can buy you Bill Gates’ vision.

At the same time, there are many examples of insightful insights into the “pursuit psychology” in life, such as:

2. Herd mentality

Herd mentality refers to the fact that an individual is influenced by the outside crowd and behaves in the same way as the masses.

We can think back to our usual shopping situations. When a friend tells us about the excellent performance of a certain product, we may not be that excited, and we always worry in our hearts whether it is really that good to use. What if there are other risks? But when he adds at this time: "Everyone around me has bought it, only you are missing", our urge to buy will be much greater.

We always believe in the choices of the majority, after all, the risk is the smallest.

So, this is why many big brands emphasize their industry-leading position in their advertisements.

There are similar ones like Xiangpiaopiao:

For five consecutive years, the transaction volume has been far ahead, and it can circle the earth ten times.

But of course, compared to this kind of self-promotional advertising that competes to see who has the loudest voice, some down-to-earth and humane advertisements are more convincing.

For example, Sparti cigarettes:

It is impossible for a hundred people’s choices to all be wrong.

3. Fear

Fear is almost the most commonly used psychology in copywriting. It usually describes the bad consequences of not using a certain product, or the great consequences of using a certain product. For example, the article "I'm Afraid of Reading" mentioned above is an insight into the psychology of fear.

Many public service announcements use fear as a tool.

Smoking is not just suicide, it's murder.

Another example is a public service announcement against the use of guns:

The machine delivers 450 babies per hour.

Both of the advertisements above talk about the consequences of using a certain product. In fact, in commercial advertisements, what is used more often is: what will be the consequences if you don’t use our products.

For example, an advertisement for a training course:

Now if you find a job that pays 30,000 yuan a month but requires English skills, you can only sigh with regret.

An advertisement for a condom:

4. Respect

Maslow's hierarchy of needs tells us:

When people's physiological and safety needs are met, they will rise to the level of "respect needs".

The same is true for consumers. When they achieve extraordinary achievements in a certain field, their need to be respected will become prominent. Many foreign advertisements are worth learning from in this regard.

The Economist magazine understands this well:

The length of a poster should not exceed eight words, which is the maximum amount of information that the average reader can take in at a glance. But this poster is different; it is written for readers of The Economist.

In this way, The Economist magazine distinguishes its readership from the general public and gives its readership more respect and pride.

Leveraging the need for respect also applies to enthusiasts of all kinds of technology products.

For example, Canon’s creative video “shoot my best” begins by talking about some strange behaviors of Canon camera enthusiasts and finally presents their works. Respect and affirm the professionalism of this group of audiophiles.

Such advertisements will resonate strongly with enthusiasts who have these strange experiences, while also enhancing their brand stickiness. Most importantly, they will become opinion leaders for ordinary users

5. The psychology of being understood

Each of us is lonely, and when this feeling of loneliness comes, we especially hope that others can understand us from our own perspective, even if it is just a knowing smile.

Carnegie said:

Everyone wants to be the center of the world.

Therefore, understanding target customers, rationalizing and supporting their behavior is what every copywriter should do. It can quickly make the other person open up to you.

For example, the recent popular advertisement: A moment of benefit, rushing towards the original intention. It tells the story of a young man who sticks to his original aspirations for his dream of becoming a care robot.

Although it seems a bit far-fetched to link "original intention" with a bottle of water, it does stand together with consumers and represents those young people who have dreams but are not understood.

Another example is the classic advertisement of Joe:

By finding excuses to rationalize the behavior of geniuses, we tell the public that Apple was created by such a group of geniuses. Win the favor of the public,

Similar ads Adidas' "This is Me" series of ads:

Understand and speak for young people who are different.

6. Jealousy and vanity

Jealousy and vanity are weaknesses in human nature. Subconsciously, people are always pursuing higher ranks and social privileges, longing to be superior to others.

For example, boys always secretly compete to see whose girlfriend is prettier, girls always compare whose bag is Hermès or LV, and Apple phones are always popular among young people when they are launched. It's all vanity at work.

In the process of advertising and marketing , it is important to give the target audience a sense of superiority. To satisfy their desire to compare and show off.

In this regard, Hua Cheese is a master:

I have to admit that life is really unfair.

It implies that men who drink Chinese cheese wine have a relatively high social status and can win the favor of young and beautiful girls.

Another example is this advertisement, which also exploits the vanity of young consumers:

Similar ads are from real estate developers:

Neighbors and houses are equally important. ——The secluded villa welcomes 18 important owners.

It also takes advantage of the vanity of home buyers to live next to high-status people.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article is @Amateur Copywriter and it is compiled and published by ( Qinggua Media ). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!