6 Principles of Compliance That are Used in Marketing
“Buy one – get one FREE!”, “Closing down sale!” “Up to 50% sale on selected items!”. Techniques used by marketers are all around us everyday, whether we’re surfing on the web, walking past advertisements, or asking employees for help in a store. Marketers aim to make an implicit request with one goal: for the consumer to say ‘Yes!’ (as in ‘Yes, I need that!’ and ‘Yes, I want that’). However, there are many other tricks that marketers use in order to make us spend money on their brand. Most of us have found ourselves paying for a service or a product even though we didn’t really want it, for example; because the salespeople spent time helping us, we felt like we owed it to them, or because they gave us a free sample of their product. Understanding the principles behind marketing is the best defence against it.
Factors involved in whether we say ‘Yes’, are based on that us humans want to be accepted by the people around us. We look at others to help guide us to make the right choices, and sometimes to fit the groups we want to belong to. In some cases, we’re aware of this, but mostly we aren’t. Compliance is different from obedience, as no one makes us do anything, it is simply making a request in a way that makes the individual feel the need to comply. In advertising, the request is implicit, which can make it deceiving. The social psychologist, Robert Cialdini, identified six universal factors influencing whether an individual will comply with a request:
6 Factors influencing Compliance:
- Authority People respect and tend to listen to authority, and there has been many studies showing the effects it can have on individuals, such as the famous Milgram experiment in 1963. The likelihood of individuals complying to a request is influenced by factors giving it more credibility, such as expensive cars and business titles, as well as clothing. If authorities give testimonials to a product or service, it increases the chance of people purchasing what is sold.
- Commitment/Consistency: According to Cialdini, individuals strive for consistency. If we agree to something, we tend to stick to it. The older we get the more we value consistency, so especially older people are affected by this.
- A specific technique using ‘commitment’: The Low-Ball Technique:
If a customer agrees to buy something at a given price, it is more likely he or she will still buy it at a higher price. So, if an individual agrees to a request and afterwards the original terms are changed, having already said ‘yes’ makes it difficult for them to say ‘no’.
- Liking In general, individuals are more likely to comply to requests made by people they like, whether an attractive stranger or a close friend. This explains why marketers often use celebrities in their advertisement and why they try to make their brand relatable to their customers.
- Reciprocity If a store offers a free sample, they have given you something and will make you feel like you need to give back by buying a product from them. Even just information about a product can work, as they have spent time helping you by giving you that information.
- A specific technique using ‘reciprocity’: The Door in the Face Technique This technique focuses on a major request that is expected to be turned down in order to make a second smaller request. It is difficult for individuals to say ‘no’ a second time as we feel like we owe the person by say yes when the make a smaller request to accommodate us. It is necessary for it to be the same person who made the second request as the first one to produce high levels of compliance.
- Scarcity Simple supply and demand is very effective. If there is less of something it is more valuable and it leads to more people wanting it. This includes limited number, limited time and one of a kind specials. Marketers are likely to, instead of advertising the benefits of their product, to advertise the loss of a wasted opportunity.
- Social proof It is in human nature to look at other people when in doubt. In marketing, this is used by giving testimonials from happy customers and showing numbers of how much of their product has been sold. If everybody else buys it, surely it’s good.
Conclusion:
There are certain marketing compliance standards in order to protect consumers, but since advertisements are extremely effective when using the above factors and techniques, it is important as a consumer to be aware of them. I have studied these but I still find myself buying products that I don’t really need due to marketing techniques, which indicates how powerful they are. If you want to read more about the topic, including reading the studies conducted for each factor and technique you can do so in Cialdini’s book ‘Influence’ (5th ed).
Images from: Social proof // Image source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/ceblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/examples-soci… // Image source: http://www.spamdex.co.uk/image/2831062.jpg, Reciprocity // Image source: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/d9/c9/33/d9c933635fbba8cc8e5b0… // Image source: http://www.proactiv.com.au/awms/Upload/Images/Magazine%20Mentions/002_GF… and http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/sites/ito/files/argument-from-authori…