Outsell Inc. recently published a report putting out some numbers. Estimated budget  for advertising and marketing in the USA 2008: $412,400,000,000 (yep, about 412 billion dollar).

To put things in perspective: The Iraq war so far costs the USA: $558 billion according to zfacts.com.

The USA spends about $2 billion a  year for international food aid (but only one third of that is actually being spend on food, the rest is paid for shipping services and other stuff).

In case you don’t know - Thai’s are crazy about karaoke. They LOVE karaoke. So I think it’s a really cool idea, cause this way they’ll have fun learning, and when you have fun learning you learn lightning fast.

Just recently I read about how internet marketers use some of his techniques to get more of their customers to buy their products.

A popular trade magazine offers a subscription to it’s online version for $47, a print subscription for $97 and a combined online & print subscription for $99.

Now looking at it with nothing but “common sense” - it makes absolutely no sense to offer the print-only subscription. Nobody’s gonna go for print-only just to save $2. I guess even people who don’t have an email account would pay $2 more for the “online version”.

But they do offer this “silly” $97 print-only subscription for a reason: because they found that more people purchase the online & print combination than if they only offer the online subscription for $47 and the print & online subscription for $99.

Now does this make any sense LOGICALLY?

Nope.

But LOGIC is usually not the discipline salespeople excell in. And logic has very little to do with persuasion and influencing.

Direct marketers also know that sometimes when they test their prices and sell a product that they have been selling for $27 for the price of $37 people might actually buy more. So they might have had a 2% response rate at $27 and a 2.7% response rate at $37.

Because, to put it in simple words: If it’s so cheap, it can’t be really good. And if it costs that much, it must be really good!

Now, for a marketer there probably can’t be anything sweeter than raising the price and selling more merchandise. Or putting in a “pseudo-offer” and all of the sudden having more people buy your premium-priced product.

But this is a big lesson when it comes to understanding human nature. Because when people tell you what they like with their hard-earned money, that is much more viable information than when they tell you what they like by filling out a survey.

It’s a great example where you can study persuasion techniques and the art of influence. Think about it: it’s an extremely controversial topic (at least in Europe, were I’m living).

On the one hand we have people who are afraid of possible results of GMO (genetically modified organisms) foods. Their arguments are that there is not enough science about the long-term effects on humans and nature. Their worstcase scenarios include a worldwide food-crisis (with hundreds of millions starving), global epidemics with hundreds of millions infected and huge amounts of power in the hands of a very few private corporations. Their mission, so to speak, is to “save the world” and in this group you can find everybody from radical activist, to worried consumer, to scientific expert.

On the other hand we have huge corporations like BASF (the worlds biggest chemical corporation) and Monsanto (annual revenue 2007: $8.563 billion) with very strong economic interests. These corporations spend many millions of dollars on lobbying and other forms of influence. Here you can find businesspeople, investors and scientific experts. They too want to “save the world” and claim that genetically energineered foods could solve the hunger problems of the world and will be necessary to feed the growing world population.

So, obviously on both sides there are strong arguments, opposing views and very smart people involved. No matter what position you hold on this issue, you can learn a lot from studying the discussion that is going on about it. Study how these people use influence strategies and persuasion tactics to “win your minds”.

I don’t know if this debate is going on as strongly in the USA as it’s in Europe, because while in the USA genetically engineered foods are already part of the food industry for many years, in Europe there is until today a very strong resistance against introducing these techniques. So check some European online edition of newspaper for discussions.

My personal highlights from this call:

• Art forgery detectors can tell if a piece of art is a forgery after having just seen it after a fragment of one second, because they subconsciously take in all the information with literally the blink of an eye. -> we do the same thing every day when we judge other people, because it’s the way we are hardwired and socially conditioned.
• Persona = How you look.
• Taller people, prettier people, skinnier people make more money than smaller people, uglier people and fatter people. (Statistically). -> Marketing & business is theather/showmanship.
• How your voice should sound: put a little bit of space in between all your voice, slow down and talk a little bit deeper. (People trust deeper voices with moderate pace more than high pitched fast voices).
• use social media (facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.) to connect with people you like.
• develop effective stories. (What is the story of your business? Does the story lead to an expectation that the experience meets?)
• How can you upgrade your image and appearance?
• Educate yourself - learn, study, advance, develop.

I highly recommend you listen to this interview.

Dan Ariely’s book takes an in-depth look at some of these issues about irrational human behaviour, specially to the fact that the “irrationality” isn’t nearly as unpredictable as it seems. In fact, there are structured patterns of irrationality. There’s also an interest article on why cautious people make poor decisions about sex when aroused

If so, the next question is: what’s the point of all this? Sure, it’s interesting to know, but how can this information help you to influence your own life and the life of others for the better? What are some of the most important lessons of the Paradox of Choice for Influencers?

• If you DON’T want people to make a decision, increase the number of choices.
  The more choices somebody has, the less likely that they will make any decision at all.
• If you DO want people to make a decision, reduce the number choices.
  Studies have shown that if you offer people less choices, they will buy more. The only exception of this case is when people already know exactly what they want (which is almost never the case).
• If you know what’s best for people, overwhelm them with options and give them the option to do nothing (or postpone the decision) - and let “doing nothing” be the default option that will most likely be best for them.
  • And example of this can be found in public policy. In both the US and Europe people have similar attitudes towards organ donors - they thing it’s a good thing. However, in Europe much more people actually ARE organ donors than in the US. The reason is not that Europeans are more benevolent, but that in many European countries you have to opt-out if you don’t want to be an organ donor when renewing your drivers license, while in the US you have to opt-in if you want to be an organ donor. So the difference is - in Europe you have to take action to NOT be an organ donor, while in the US you have to take action to BE an organ donor.

• As an influencer you now know that the easier the decision process is for a person, the happier that person will be with the outcome. That’s why outsourcing decisionmaking is a good idea in many cases. This is very counterintuitive, because people generally WANT to be included in the decision making process - but they are happier with the end result when they are not!

Let’s think you would want to use this to positively influence someone else to…

• Fitness: If a friend or spouse has a very sedate lifestyle, he will definitely benefit from engaging in some kind of physical activity. Now you could suggest them: “Hey, why don’t you start to do some sport? There are so many things you could do, running, squash, kung fu, going to the jim, pilates, yoga, nordic walking, rowing, karate, cycling, hiking, hockey, tai chi, swimming, diving, volleyball…”
  But that’s not a persuasive setup. Instead, better spend some time before you talk to your friend and think about what would best fit his situation:
  What could he incorporate in his schedule? Some people work in shifts and can’t really attend training sessions on a regular basis at the same time. They might not be able to show up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5pm for karate because the change shifts. So something they can practice anytime would suit them more.
  What would he probably enjoy most? What fits his personality?
  If it’s a competetive, action oriented person, diving or tai chi might not be the most attractive choices.
  What would be realistic for him?
  If someone is obese and hasn’t really done anything physically for years, downhill mountain biking will not be the right place to start. Swimming would be a better choice.
  Now, once you have your act together, present this one option to him, with all the reasons you came up with, hammer him from all sides. Sell him on this one thing, but sell this one thing from as many sides as possible. This way, you’re much more likely to get him to take action than if you present him the full spectrum of choices.
• Diets and eating habits: I don’t know how many diet systems are out there right now, but it must be hundreds, if not thousands.
• Social activities: bars, dancing, joining organizations, clubs, cafes, networking, etc.
• Education options: distance learning, college, seminars, home-study courses, books, teleconferences, apprenticeship, etc.
• Buying decisions: what kind of handy, laptop, car, printer, stereo-system, etc.

Watch this video and if you enjoy breaking down false assumptions. If you are short on time and want to get all the learning experience without having to watch the full 1 hour 4 minute video, you can also just study the “Paradox Of Choice MindMap”.

If you want to dig deeper, you can also get Barry Schwartz’ book “The Paradox of Choice”.

Now what’s the point of all this? Sure, it’s interesting to know, but how can this information help you to influence your own life and the life of others for the better? Think about that or just wait for the next post.

The World Food Programm (WFP) launched a video game called “Food Force”. They call it “the world’s first humanitarian video game “, aimed at children aged 8 to 13. Kids learn about the realities of hunger in the world and what problems we run accross alleviating it. From what I’ve read, the game really braeks down this complex issue in an entertaining manner that gives kids a pretty good understanding of the situation. Food Force now has been downloaded about 5 million times since 2005, a huge success.

I’m not into computer games, but if you have a kid and want to check it out, you can download Food Force for free here.

Another videogame reduces stress-hormone levels in the body by 17% according to this article. It’s a social intelligence game that is designed to boost the players self-confidence.

You can also play this game for free at MindHabits.org.

Here are also two very interesting articles on the power of positive video games:

• Do-Gooder Games, Time Magazine
• Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time by New York Times