MAD MARKETING TACTICS™ !: gaining trust

Showing posts with label gaining trust. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Marketing, Trust And Scare Tactics - SCAREWARE?

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Behavioral psychologists and marketing experts would tend to agree that the average consumer (call him "Norm" on the bell curve of demographic life) is much more readily motivated by fear of pain or loss than by opportunity. Frightening 'doomsday' article headlines catch more views than do their positively-framed counterparts. They tend to force a defensive call to action on the part of the reader, who may then become a consumer -- albeit a bit reluctantly or resentfully.

Excessive or belligerent scare tactics or scareware pop-ups and other negatively-oriented defensive calls to action [i.e., threats], while somewhat effective in forcing conversions in the short-run to action will ultimately make your brand a target of loathing, and you will be perceived as either untrustworthy or weak. Weakness may be occasionally forgiven, but a growing sense of mistrust will put your brand, regardless of its quality, in the litterbox. People have a limited appetite for warnings and threats, and, after a fashion will head toward positive information from trustworthy sources.

Take a peak at the article excerpt below, and then hit that "BACK" button on your browser to return here. We'll be waiting with punch and finger sandwiches.

The article excerpt which follows appears courtesy of ZDNet:

Symantec accused of using 'scareware' tactics

Anti-virus maker Symantec is charged in a lawsuit with misleading users into purchasing full versions of its software by peddling 'scareware' tactics.

READ FULL STORY |
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Threats, when employed in marketing should be implicit, humorous or cleverly and interestingly informative. Your Marketing, Branding and Promotion campaigns should be based more upon features, benefits, value propositions and problem-solving than on problem-identification.

Too many of today's disenchanted, skeptical customers (whether consumer-direct or business-to-business) are already suffering from "threat fatigue." The more that they sense that they are being manipulated by fear, the more likely that they will become distrustful of you. Once you've lost trust, reputation repair and re-establishment becomes a very expensive and time-consuming proposition.

Remember what we've learned here today about Marketing, Trust And Scare Tactics...or else you might just be eaten, piece-by-painful-piece by a pack of flying, rabid wolverines...

Douglas E Castle for MAD MARKETING TACTICS!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Beat Your Competitors' "Bargain Price" Tactic.

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One of the greatest challenges for the successful Mad Marketer is battling price competition and competitors' "bargain strategies." The ideal way to do this, of course is through powerful product or service differentiation, strong branding and exemplary customer service... but when these tactics are (for any reason) ineffective or inadequate, you must use a powerful "high road" tactic to place your would-be market share invaders behind you on the preference menu.

Sadly, you cannot insult these other purveyors, or you'll diminish your perceived objectivity and integrity with your prospects. You must gently admonish them with a subtle, seemingly logical argument that will make them question exactly what type of "bargain" they might be getting. Subtlety and the impression of being concerned for your prospect's well-being are the two key ingredients to this helpful manipulation.

You can't be trite and say, somewhat vindictively with nose elevated in the air, "Well, sometimes you get what you pay for," or "They can sell it cheaper because its made of shoddy materials, falls apart, and contains carcinogenic substances." These comments come across as defensive, immature, cold and spiteful. The higher ground approach is infinitely more effective.

Don't compete. Don't insult. EDUCATE! You will come across as much more concerned, professional, respectable and far less desperate if you sow the seeds of doubt about the "bargain" by saying something that includes the following elements:

1) Complement your prospect on his or her ability to be frugal and to conduct such thorough pricing research;

2) Mention how you understand the cutting costs is of the utmost importance, in both the short run, and of course, in the longer run;

3) Woefully mention that because of your quality standards, and in the interest of providing the best warranties and customer support to make an investment in your product or service the best "all around choice," you cannot reduce your price, as this would ultimately force you into sacrificing product or service reliability, and good customer relationships and recurring business in the longer run;

4) Wish your prospect well with his or her "bargain" [try to look very sincere as you do this], and;

5) Ask: "Please email or phone me to let me know how it works out for you. You deserve the best. Also, if you have any difficulties at all with it [the "bargain"] I'll be right here for you.

If you have done this properly, your prospect will be filled with doubts about the "bargain," beginning to have serious regrets about not having chosen your product or service in the first place, and is in the process of devising a means of extricating himself or herself from the bargain which he or she is now perceiving as either a deal with the devil, a trojan horse, or a gift-wrapped time bomb.

This is very powerfully effective at converting customers, retaining customers, and building a trusting rapport. And you can do this without directly insulting either your so-called competitor or the intelligence of your prospective soon-to-be-proselytized customer.

You've simply created enough doubt for your conquest to "seriously reconsider," at no cost to his or her ego, and without lowering your price.

This is a diplomatically optimal customer capture tactic; and all you had to do was to apply a bit of behavioral psychology.

Now: your actionable assignment is to start working with this potent tactic. Please keep me apprised of how well it works. It should be very effective, and you might just wind up owing me dinner.

Douglas E. Castle [http://DouglasCastleRSSFeeds.blogspot.com]

p.s. There are few pleasures in this life to rival the glorious feeling of having righteously 'saved' or harvested a client or customer relationship using a morally-sound and highly ethical tactic. And the wonder of it all is that it is even effective in a try cash-tight economy.