EP 1: The Psychology of Persuasion

The guest discusses the psychology of persuasion, including different techniques used, ethical considerations, and the role of persuasion in advertising. Persuasion techniques include appealing to emotion, social proof, and scarcity. Ethical considerations involve transparency, avoiding deception, and responsible targeting. Advertising contributes to brand loyalty by creating emotional connections and reinforcing positive experiences. It also shapes perceptions and creates brand awareness through persuasion techniques. It's often created by stating that the product is available for a limited time or limited quantities. Welcome, Francisco, to the show. We're super happy to have you here today and to learn more about the psychology of persuasion. Could you tell us a bit more about it? Yeah, of course. The psychology of persuasion comes in many forms, but when we're tapping into it, there's different persuasion tactics that are used, ethical considerations in persuasion, and we actually tap into advertising in persuasion, too, as well. Interesting. Could you tell me a bit more about the different persuasion techniques that you mentioned just now? Yeah. So what is persuasion? Let's start with what is persuasion? As we all know, it's trying to convince another person to either do something for you, get you some water from downstairs when it's cold and you're tucked in your bed, right, or get you to buy something or sell something. The goal is always to get someone to do something. Would you agree? Absolutely. There we go. So in persuasion, we have three main things we look at when we're discussing it in communication. One is the techniques that are associated with persuasion, two is the ethical consideration, and three are the roles that persuasion plays in advertising. So we're going to start with persuasion techniques and how we actually appeal to emotion, social proof, and scarcity. What might an advertisement use to appeal to the emotion technique? Yeah. An advertisement might use scenes of family enjoying a meal together to evoke feelings or happiness or warmth associated with those emotions with their products. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Can you provide an example of the social proof persuasion technique? Sure. An online retailer might display customer views like ratings of the next product to show that others have found it useful and satisfying, kind of like the proactive commercial you used to see back in the day. You used to have people on there and kind of like, you know, this guy's like, oh, this works for me and so on. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. One more on the topic of persuasion. How does the scarcity technique work in marketing? So scarcity is often created by stating that the product is available for a limited time or limited quantities, encouraging customers to make the purchase before it's too late and they miss out. Yeah, like FOMO. Correct. You mentioned ethical consideration. Could you explain more about that too? Yeah, of course. Ethical consideration refers to things like having transparency with an individual you are trying to persuade, avoiding deception, and being responsible on who you are specifically targeting. I love that. Why is transparency important in persuasive communication? Transparency builds trust with your client and credibility by ensuring consumers have accurate information to make an informed decision. Yeah. Okay. How can marketers avoid deception in their advertising? Yeah. Marketers can avoid deception by ensuring that their advertisements are truthful and do not mislead consumers about the product's features, benefits, or any potential outcomes. Yeah. No one wants to hear a client complaining to them about how the product or item didn't work. What is responsible, would you say, for responsible targeting? Why is it important? Yeah. Responsible targeting involves avoiding vulnerable populations and ensuring that advertisements are not harmful or offensive. It's important to protect customers' well-being and privacy. I completely agree. Why would you try to offend someone if you're trying to earn their business or get them to do something? It makes no ethical sense. Yeah. I don't know why people do that, but some people just want to get some money and kind of dip. You know? Okay. Now, what are the different factors in advertising that persuade people? Well, there's multiple ways that people and companies persuade individuals using advertisements, but there are three main ones we'll touch, which are brand awareness, shaping perceptions, and brand loyalty. So how does advertising contribute to brand loyalty? Yeah. Advertising contributes to brand loyalty by creating emotional connections with the consumer, reinforcing positive experience, and reminding them of the benefits of a particular brand. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like Nike, what they're saying, just do it. They reinforce the same positive experience. Mm-hmm. Okay. Can you explain how advertising shapes perception? Yeah. Advertisement shapes perceptions by framing the product or brand in a certain way, influencing consumers' aptitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Okay. Okay. What role does persuasion play in creating brand awareness? Persuasion techniques are used in advertising to capture consumers' attention, to make them aware of the product and brand, and establish positive associations that encourage future purchases. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is why some people go out of their way and buy Apple products instead of Samsung. Brand awareness is a huge, huge issue or selling point in this century. Wow. That's a lot of information. Thank you so much for this info. I feel like I've gotten a whole new insight to what persuasion really entailed, aside from the basic understanding you mentioned when we started. Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me, giving me the opportunity to actually talk about this. Absolutely. Yeah. If you have any questions, feel free to comment, and hopefully we can't get you a right response. Like always, don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll see you guys next time.