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Emotional Boosting - Englische Version
Hans-Georg Häusel
Verlag Haufe Verlag, 2013
ISBN 9783648040867 , 230 Seiten
Format PDF, ePUB, OL
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1 No emotions – no money
1.1 Why only emotions create value and values
What is in store for you in this chapter:
Alchemists have always dreamed of turning water into gold. Something that was impossible back then is now practically a reality. By means of emotional boosting, the value of water is increased by a factor of 75,000 for example. Someone who wants to be successful in sales and marketing must say good-bye to the image of the conscious and rational customer. Instead, he must systematically press the countless purchase buttons in the unconscious of the customer's brain.
Would you, dear reader, pay a thousand times more for a product than it is actually worth? „Never,“ you would say. Just the idea that you could act so unreasonably is almost insulting. Ultimately we perceive ourselves as people who act in a rational and conscious manner, or in this specific case: consumers. We believe we make our decisions consciously and intelligently. Pay more than a product is worth? Never! But let's take a look at the world of everyday consumption for a shocking example. Certainly the most commonplace product one can think of is water. If you live, as I do, south of Munich, you are fortunate that your tap water comes directly from the Bavarian Alps. 0.75 liters of this good quality water costs 12/100 of one cent including wastewater charges. Now go to the supermarket and buy a 0.75-liter bottle of a brand-name water. You pay about 80 cents for it after deducting the deposit for the glass or plastic bottle. The bottled water, food chemists assure us, is not better and not healthier than the water coming out of my tap. So for this regular, brand-name water you have already paid 650 times as much as it is worth. Why? Because obviously a brand label was sufficient to open the wallet in your brain. But we have not yet reached the end of our journey. Now you go out for a nice dinner in the evening and, with your wine, you order a bottle of San Pellegrino or Perrier. On the bill you find the price for this water is 7 Euros. Now calculating it based on our starting point of 12/100 of a cent, this is an increase of a factor of 6,000! Why did you pay that? On the one hand, because it was a premium brand. On the other hand, because the water was served in an elegant environment by a distinguished waiter. You are probably stunned – but our journey with the water has yet to come to an end. After dinner you and your dining partner go to a club that is an absolute hotspot. Everything is very stylish here and the financial elite of your city meet regularly at this club. You order water here as well. The bartender asks whether you would prefer Bling Gold or Voss water. You aren't familiar with either one. The bartender says that Bling Gold is selling like hotcakes and is totally „in“ and so you order a bottle. The bartender brings the bottle to the table and removes the metal cap, in the same manner as with a bottle of wine, and then he opens it with a corkscrew. He pours you a glass and then leaves you with the bottle. You are astonished. The frosted glass feels delicate and precious and the label is made of Swarovski crystals (see Figure 1). You drink the water in awe. But to be honest, you do not notice a difference compared to regular water. The only thing you notice are the curious looks coming from the people at the next table.
Figure 1. How to turn water into gold: Bling H2O (reference/photo:M.Strachwitz)
But the difference on the bill, which soon follows, is dramatic compared to your tap water: 90 (ninety!) Euros. That is an increase in value of 75,000, although you don't taste a difference at all! You are speechless. How could something like that happen to you, the consciously acting consumer? Already your willingness to pay 650 times the value for the supermarket brand-name water caused you to pause. And now this fiasco of logical reasoning. Even the bartender's comment that Paris Hilton's dogs drink this water every day brings little comfort. But now we are interested in a different question. How are the American makers of Bling able to turn water into gold? Using emotional boosting. In the course of chapters 3 and 4 we will look at Bling more than once and will become familiar with the many small details of its emotional increase in value.
1.1.1 How a taxi driver makes his customers happy
Let's depart this glamorous world and return to everyday life. A few weeks ago I called a taxi to take me to the airport. The taxi, a very well cared for Mercedes, was punctual. The driver of Persian origin stowed my luggage and opened the rear door for me. I got in and sat down. Next to me, on the back seat, I found an up-to-date newspaper and several magazines, plus an opened tin of hard candy on the center console. Because I am a somewhat taller person, the space in the rear is somewhat cramped when the front seat is in its regular position. I had barely gotten into the car when the driver immediately moved the seat forward, a procedure which only takes place in most taxis when specifically requested.
The driver turned around and said, „The newspapers are there for you. Help yourself to the candy, and have a nice start to your day.“ After a brief pause he asked, „Would you like to hear music? Pop, classical or folk music? Or would you prefer peace and quiet?“ When you are treated in such a friendly manner, of course it is easy to start up a conversation and I asked him (in the midst of the recession) how business was. He answered, „I am very satisfied and I am constantly booked.“ I had asked a different taxi driver the same question several days earlier. His answer? „Crummy.“ But back to our driver. I asked him why he was so satisfied with his business. His answer was, „I get the same amount of money per kilometer as my colleagues, but I have a lot more personal reservations for my services. I have a great deal of regular customers and they often use my services to drive to the far-away airport. I am at full capacity, and many of my colleagues are not.“ What is the reason for our taxi driver's success? Emotional boosting. In Chapter 7, Sales Boosting, we will deal with the topic of service.
When compared to our water example, an important insight becomes clear: While the price of the water multiplied by means of emotional boosting, the taxi driver's price remained the same. What did increase, however, was the number of customers and the customer loyalty. Both examples have one more thing in common, and that is that the money is rolling in!
1.1.2 Don't negotiate with the government spokesperson, but instead with the government itself
Perhaps you are asking yourself what is really behind this new term „emotional boosting“? Very briefly: Emotional boosting is marketing and sales from the brain's point of view. But what makes it different from conventional marketing? What differentiates emotional boosting from „customer orientation“? While classic marketing including customer orientation is based on a conscious and rational customer, whom one asks what he or she wants, emotional boosting follows a completely different path altogether. Because purchase decisions are made to a great extent unconsciously, based on emotional programming in the customer's brain, it is the goal of emotional boosting to very consistently press the thousand small purchase buttons in the customer's unconscious. Emotional boosting departs from the conscious and rational customer, and utilizes the findings of modern brain research. Namely, the customer generally has no idea why he or she decides the way they do, even if he or she believes they do. Brain research calls this illusion „user illusion.“ Or freely adapted from American neuro-philosopher Daniel Dennett: „The consciousness of a customer (in Dennett's words: „people“) is like a government spokesman who has to announce decisions he or she a) did not participate in and b) whose true decision-making reasons are also not accessible to him or her.“ So someone who wants to be successful does not approach the government spokesman, but instead the government itself. And who is the government? The emotion systems in the customer's brain!
Now critics could say, „But that's nothing new – creating value through emotion. Every advertiser has that hammered home during his or her first year of education.“ Whereas an advertiser understands emotionalization as showing a couple in a TV commercial lovingly gazing into each other's eyes while enjoying yogurt, or his or her colleague who organizes events, who, when asked to get more emotion in the room, gets the bass thumping and pushes the disco lights as far as they can go, we will discover that this form of emotionalization certainly is justified and can work. But emotional boosting goes much, much farther and deeper. And with that we have already reached the first principle of emotional boosting.
1.1.3 Principle No. 1: Emotional boosting is a strategic and practical approach
Especially creative professionals believe that emotionalization must always be associated with a ‚wow’ effect. Admittedly,‚ wow’ effects, which a lot of people talk about in the short-term, can certainly be...
