Intuition and Digital Marketing Strategy
Seventy-two of the eighty-three Nobel Laureates in science and medicine implicated intuition in their success.
I extend my gratitude to Professor Bershad, Glazer, and so many others for the passion and motivation they radiated. University of California – Irvine (the best)
“You’d better learn secretarial skills or else get married.” Modeling Agency, rejecting Marilyn Monroe in 1944 (what if Marilyn did quit trying after hearing this?)
“22 year old Marilyn Monroe was fired from Columbia Pictures saying she just didn’t have what it takes to be an actress”
“You ought to go back to driving a truck.” Concert Manager, firing Elvis Presley (what if Elvis actually did return to driving trucks?)
“Walt Disney’s Idea to build DisneyLand was rejected by investors 302 times.” (what if Walt actually quit on his 300 or 301 rejections?)
“Can’t act, can’t sing, slightly bald, can dance a little.” A film company’s verdict on Fred Astaire’s screen test.
“We don’t like their sound,” Decca Records said in turning down a recording contract with the Beatles. (what if Beatles agreed to this and just quit singing?)
“The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” Western Union Memo
“The telephone may be appropriate for our American cousins, but not here, because we have an adequate supply of messenger boys.” A British expert group evaluating the invention of the telephone
“The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty.” A Michigan Banker advises investing in the Ford Company. (what if most investors actually stopped investing in Ford?)
At that time (1984) the CEO of Apple, John Scully, said about the 1984 Apple Super Bowl Ad: “The members of the focus group just looked at each other with dazed expressions. Most of them felt it was the worst commercial they had ever seen.” Hence The Apple Board of Directors canceling of the 1984 Super Bowl ad and firing the ad agency. See the details below. Think about it. These is a multimillion Dollar salaried CEO, Multimillion Dollar salaried board of directors relying on 12 out-of-touch focus group. How stupid is that? John Scully and the board are paid to be intuitive.
In 1984, the Apple Board of Directors included the following individuals:
Mike Markkula (Chairman of the Board)
A. C. (Mike) Markkula Jr.
Delano E. Lewis
James F. McGuire
J. A. C. (Jean-Louis) Gassée
Arthur Rock
Del Yocam
Frank T. Cary
Burrell Smith
Gil Amelio (famous for being a womanizer at Rockwell). I worked for Gil at Rockwell. He was a narcissist. Even though he was a great engineer, he could not identify other people with talent like Steve Jobs could. I also knew Steve. Steve was not only a never-again-found-genius but also was the best at identifying talents. Once Steve was back at Apple, he fired Gil based on my advice.
By pure luck, the manufacturer of the Club anti-theft device (for the steering wheel) approached me in 1992. Club was interested in manufacturing my patented invention – the famous Ultrasonic Blind Spot Back-Up Alert that is installed in almost every car today. The club sold it for $79.99. I received $7.99 in royalties. We sold approximately a million backup alarms worldwide between 1993 and 2000.
I, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, the Beatles and Mr. Ford were truly lucky!! I want you to think about this a bit deeper. I wonder how many talented individuals were denied or passed by companies, bosses or managers who did not have enough intuition to appreciate talent. Let me give you an analogy. In the United States, people waste 80 million tons of food every year, which equals 149 billion meals. They throw away over $444 billion worth of food annually. Shockingly, they waste 38% of all the food in America. Do we also waste 38% of talents in our corporations and companies? Think about it deeper!!
Some of you might think “I am not smart enough to be intuitive”. You are wrong. The next practice proves to you that you can.
In fact, happiness requires creativity as the fundamental component. We believe everyone is creative. What’s important is to cultivate the creative spirit from the inside out. We’ll show you how.
Please adhere to the guidelines for the illustration below. This is neither a trick or an attempt to deceive your mind. Looking at it scientifically, your brain uses your intuition to identify the appropriate pattern. We’ll explain why and how.
Guidelines:
1) Take a moment to unwind and focus on the four little dots in the center of the image for around 20 seconds.
2) Next, look at a nearby wall (or any other flat, one-color surface).
3) A circle of light will start to form.
4) Start blinking your eyes a few times, and a figure will start to appear.
What can you make out? Additionally, who do you see?
What creates the right image?
Once you realize the correct image by blinking, your peripheral vision, and the power of your intuition have already processed the image. When you blink or close your eyes, your mind is relaxed and you are no longer focused but engaged. You transfer the correct image to your mind using your intuition. This is how intuition aids in the creative process. In this practice, practically every part of the creative process is involved. It addresses everything from concentration and focus to being engaged in the activity while yet reaching creativity. The key to creativity is concentration, followed by mental relaxation and absorption so that intuition can do its job. The above practice exercises a variety of mental processes, such as attention, awareness, intuition, curiosity, the subconscious mind, and lastly the creative mind.
Do the exercises in the following video. This is the exact opposite of the first practice you just did. In the video below you must focus on the + sign between the two images. The Guidelines are at the start of the video.
These practices all require peripheral vision. In our first practice all of the patterns of the picture were present but jumbled. We didn’t add any irrelevant pattern to the picture. We allow your peripheral vision to correctly concentrate on the image and put it together properly. Even though it was jumbled, we provided accurate information (but jumbled) to your peripheral vision. In essence, we altered the reality of the patterns rather than changing them. This is significant, which is why I’m highlighting it. Have you ever played with jumbled words? This is kind of the same. Next time you play with jumble words, close your eyes and check to see if you can solve it better.
In the second video, we fed (or coerced) extraneous or irrelevant information into your peripheral vision by the speed of the video. Your peripheral vision didn’t have any issues with intuition in our first practice. However, in the second, your peripheral vision was unable to appropriately interpret your intuition. In other words, your intuition will not be able to properly assist you once you have given your brain information that is unclear or irrelevant.
So in real life what do you need to do? Get rid of the information that is holding you back. Most successful people are able to focus on the important facts and avoid letting extraneous information cloud their judgment or cause them to make poor decisions.
John Scully and Apple Board of Directors allowed extraneous information from an out of touch focus group cloud their judgement. Hopefully you, after reading this page, will not.
The practices above are commonly known as optical illusions. That’s accurate. But, looking at it scientifically, there isn’t any deceit or trickery going on. Even though they are optical illusions, they have a sound scientific foundation that specifically includes the brain and peripheral vision.
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein
Before we discuss Digital Marketing let’s examine the concept of intuition. What is intuition?
Intuition is a skill that can be learned and developed through life experiences. Here is an example. In an experiment, chess grandmasters and beginners were both given a sample chess configuration (from an actual real-world game) and instructed to duplicate it. With 95% accuracy, the chess professionals duplicated the pattern. The accuracy of the beginners was barely 25%.
The identical process was repeated in the second trial, except this time the chess pieces were placed at random and not from an actual game. Both experts and novices scored approximately 25% in this second testing for memory accuracy. Why is that? Why did the masters fail just like the beginners?
Chess grandmasters retain not simply a collection of patterns but also knowledge of the patterns’ importance. Masters get 25% when chess pieces are placed at random since it has no meaning for them. In other words intuition cannot help them. Using random pattern, it becomes irrelevant information as we said earlier in our first practice.
The vast array of patterns stored in long-term memory is a major contributor to an expert’s intuitive ability. Grandmasters in chess, for instance, save 50,000 real patterns from real games in their long-term memory.
The ability of experts to quickly connect salient environmental signals to often recurring patterns and react in ways that result in efficient problem solving and decision-making is another source of their intuitive ability.
Intuitive decision-making involves the use of experience to spot important patterns that suggest the anticipated dynamics of a particular circumstance.
Experienced decision-makers are able to forecast how the present will change into the future by actively visualizing persons and things and “transforming those objects through several transitions.”
The goal of this guide is to establish the mental frameworks necessary to make it easier to obtain fresh patterns for creativity in any circumstance.
How much do we rely on our intuition? Sadly, the answer is not much. It all begins in the classroom. Unfortunately, intuition is not something that is taught in schools. We acquire a kind of absolute knowledge instead. We are taught to search for accurate information or the proper response. However, in real life, there can still be a gap even after you compile all the necessary data. You must next use your instincts. When faced with a gap, most individuals give up. But, ideally not you or you in the future! You come to cherish these gaps after you understand about our strategy.
“It is through logic that we prove It is by intuition that we discover.” Henri Poincare
Bach spoke about how musical inspiration flows naturally. When asked where he got his melodies from, he said, “The problem is not finding them; it’s—when getting up in the morning and getting out of bed—not stepping on them.”
People that are creative either inherently are or learn to be:
1) Self-learners who are naturally inclined to learn new things, mindful, find the activity to be noble and righteous, and have amazing concentration and visualization abilities.
2) Possess uncommon, unconventional abilities for observation and focus.
3) The desire for challenges; the constant quest for virtue and nobility in the work (it must be a noble task). If not, it is not right or noble, and it is not something that should be done.
4) Refuse to accept “no” as an answer.
5) Takers of Risks; Intuitive.
6) Are intelligently eccentric.
7) Face challenges head-on rather than avoiding them.
8) Sincere; liberated; inquisitive.
9) Accepting their vulnerability and not being afraid to show their vulnerability or to feel shame.
10) Childlike; quickly bonds with like-minded individuals.
11) Capable of mental reprogramming.
12) Complete control over what should be brought to their attention (again, observation), as well as how to interpret it properly for creativity.
13) Imagination and vision make it simple to foster creativity.
Now Let’s go back to Digital Marketing. Frankly, to be in this industry – Digital Marketing, for me, is a source of happiness. Seeing conversions daily is a source of happiness. I like to share this source of happiness with you.
The “WOW” factor should be present on every webpage. When your website or landing page visitors think to themselves, “WOW, I can’t believe this”, that is the “WOW” factor. It is either from graphics or other persuasive elements. It should also be professional and create a sense of credibility and trust. Very rarely, the visitor buys only after the WOW factor.
Online selling and marketing are more about making a promise and delivering a fulfilling experience. The notion of UX/UI Design is vast and perhaps best explained by examining an array of advancements in the fields of social psychology, persuasion, and economics. We believe the majority of purchases on the Internet are based on visitors intrinsic motivations, and hence understanding the theory behind intrinsic motivation is vital to a good design. We will discuss the theories behind intrinsic motivation.
This document discusses an effective Digital Marketing Strategy. The material in this document is original and is based on extensive research and practical experiences in the fields of Social Psychology, Internet marketing, and Social Media.
When I interview a potential employer or agency client, they usually ask me to prepare a preliminary business plan. This document can serve as a qualifying business plan. The best business plans introduce new methods and concepts. This is such a plan.
I have been researching and studying Branding for the past 30 years. Branding is one of the most impervious marketing concepts. How do you effectively brand your product using online tools? I believe a better question would be “What can be branded to begin with?”. I believe I may have made a dent!
Promoting a website is exactly what I do, and I do it in the most effective ways. If you create a website that has all the ingredients of a good user experience (and high conversions), SEO and optimization happen naturally. I have witnessed this fact time after time. The Google algorithm credits your website for good content and the fact that it keeps people engaged (naturally). Google measures all of these in its algorithm.
Marketing does not mean promoting bad products. This guide is not a plan to market bad products successfully. On the contrary, marketing means making sure good products or services have a fair chance to succeed.
During the past twenty years, I have implemented this plan on many websites, social media accounts, and/or landing pages. I have to admit that this plan is partly the result of research and learning from past results. I have many references from my past agency clients that, in fact, it does work. A Santa Monica hair transplant surgeon was doing only 2 or 3 hair transplants weekly. By following my own guide, I was able to get him booked three months in advance. As a case study, we will analyze the marketing for Hair transplants in more detail. At the start, a Santa Monica Dermatologist was seeing only 5 or 7 patients a day. After implementing a successful Google Pay Per Click campaign, he also achieved a record of 35 to 45 patients a day.
After reading this plan, you will get a better idea of what marketers do and what they try to achieve. Those TV commercials you see take a long time to make. Many long hours go into planning them. Those copies you read take a long time to write. And once they deliver for the client, it’s most gratifying.
And finally, a bit more about me: I have never felt more motivated. I feel lucky to have been able to serve not only great businesses but truly good people, and I am very upbeat about the future of Digital Marketing and Social Media. My greatest joy in life is to see your business phones ring nonstop and your business grow like crazy. I am extremely confident that it will happen. Here is how and why:
How to increase sales and conversion rates:
If there is a visitor on your website, this is mostly because of his or her intrinsic motivations. Google calls this Intent. He or she intended to be on your website by finding it and clicking on it. This type of motivation is different from seeing a TV commercial. TV and Radio commercials work on people’s extrinsic motivations. In most cases, intrinsic motivation is when you truly need something, and extrinsic motivation is when you are enticed by an advertisement or a coupon. Those of us who remember Yellow Pages can identify with running and borrowing neighbors Yellow Pages when you had plumbing or electrical problems. This is or was an intrinsic motivation search.
Intrinsic motivation is when you are motivated from within. For example, you need a bike since your car is broken. Extrinsic motivation is when you are motivated by factors outside of your own true desires. TV commercials and coupons are great examples of extrinsic motivation.
In the past (prior to the Internet), we used to shop mainly through persuasive ads in newspapers and/or TV commercials. This was mainly extrinsic motivation shopping. TV commercials persuade us that we can use a better Vacuum Cleaner with better suction or never-ending suction (Dyson), a better TV, a new mattress, a refrigerator, etc. This was extrinsic motivational selling. All good! When you are on Facebook and you see an ad, this is also extrinsic motivational selling. Each time you search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo for a keyword, this is intrinsic motivation shopping.
I also like to emphasize that I am not at all against extrinsic motivation, such as selling or shopping. Some ads or commercials are actually very informative and can foster the original or initial intrinsic motivations. extrinsic, as creating awareness is beneficial. As we will show, some extrinsically motivated sales or TV commercials actually foster the intrinsic motivations of the buyer (ex: TV commercials for the IT school described below). For now, we discuss intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for shopping separately to make the concept easier to understand. Later, we will show that most shopping is actually a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
The Internet changed things for the better. In a dramatic way, the Internet has made us more intrinsically motivated and better informed. If we are searching on the Internet using Google or Yahoo, we are mostly intrinsically motivated. But the implications of intrinsically Motivated and extrinsically Motivated Shopping are very different for the marketer or website owner, as I will show. Let me give you two very different examples.
First example: You loved the TV commercial for the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner even though your current vacuum cleaner is only a year old and has not completely lost its suction. You found out that Home Depot is selling it. You make a trip to Home Depot. Once at Home Depot, you find out where they are located or stocked. You pick one, you pay, and you are done. Simple! Since a very persuasive commercial or ad was involved, this was extrinsically motivated shopping.
Let’s look at our second example: imagine you need new shoes for rainy days. Once inside one of the shoe stores, you describe the type of shoe you want. If they have the shoe, you pay and go home. Awesome! The second example relates more to Internet shopping when you are intrinsically motivated. You saw no commercials, Newspaper ads, or coupons. You just intrinsically need shoes for rainy days.
Analysis: In our first example, the seller or marketer had to make sure they had enough Dyson Vacuum Cleaners in the distribution store (for example, Home Depot). That is all! True? And your job was to find out where the Dyson was stocked. Simple! Most of the marketing was done through persuasive TV commercials.
In the second example, when you are intrinsically motivated, the marketer will have a more challenging time. He is lucky if the shoe is right there in the store window. What if the shoe is hidden in the back of the store? Things are not as easy as our first example suggests. The seller has to understand what you need by answering your questions or asking his own questions. The sooner he understands, the better. This is the essence of Intrinsically Motivated Shopping. Please try to see things from the seller’s point of view. Try to figure out what the seller should do (marketing-wise) if someone enters with intrinsic motivations. Giving what the visitor wants quickly and effectively is the answer. But only one of the answers!
Since the second example directly relates to conversion optimization of a landing page or website, let’s make the second example (intrinsic motivational shopping) a bit more interesting. Let’s name the type of shoe you like: JAZY. You had JAZY shoes previously, but they are now old and worn out. You believe it is a good shoe, and that is why you want to purchase it again. Now imagine the helper saying, We have JAZY in stock, but before I get it for you, let me tell you all the good things about the new JAZY Style. Now your eyes twinkle. It seems you have always been right about JAZY. If you bought it in the past, you have made the right choice, and you are about to make another correct decision by buying JAZY again. Perhaps not even knowing it, the store assistant is fostering your intrinsic motivations. The more he or she tells you how good the newer jazz STYLE is, the better you feel. The example also assumes that JAZY is actually the best on the market.
Usually, we have more than one intrinsic motivation. In the case of shoes, another intrinsic motivation might be that they must have Gore-Tex. Gore Tex stops rain from getting inside, and yet the shoe is breathable. Awesome technology! Let’s say the store assistant said the new style of JAZY has Gore-Tex material that covers all the shoe and not just the tip of the shoe as it was before. He or she just fostered your second intrinsic motivation, perhaps not even knowing it.
A good marketer will attempt to identify all of your intrinsic motivations before you walk into the store or visit the website. We will show how. What if you see the commercial for Dyson and want to know more about Dyson technology? You go on the Internet and search for more information. Say you want to know the Wattage of the Dyson (power of the motor). The commercial did not say anything about the wattage, but from past experience, you know that the higher the wattage, the better and more suction power there is. This is pure Intrinsic Motivation. If the Dyson commercial creator knew that Wattage was an important Intrinsic Motivation, he would have put it in the commercial. In fact, If Dyson’s Wattage is the highest, this is an excellent factor in selling Dyson.
Sometimes there are ingenious slogans that foster our intrinsic motivations.
1) Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?”
2) Wheaties’ “Breakfast of Champions”
3) Maxwell House’s “Good to the Last Drop” (ingenious)
Who wouldn’t want his coffee to last to the last drop? On our Plastic surgery landing page, we said: Plastic Surgery is a triumph over Adversity. We got an extra 20 calls that week. Why did it work so well? This means that nature did not intend for a person to have a small chin or a funny-looking nose. This is just an adversity that a person can overcome easily.
The strategy of fostering the intrinsic motivations of the buyer or website visitor is crucial. But every website is different. Finding exactly and completely all those intrinsic motivations is the challenge.
If a visitor goes to your website or landing page and leaves without calling you or buying your product, he feels disappointed. You might think he wasted your advertising money.
Of course, each website is different, but the same science applies to every type of intrinsically motivated shopping. All these seem very simple. However, in practice, it is an art to make sure the website is doing what it is supposed to do. We call it the art of User Experience design, which helps increase conversion rates. Marketing is more of a mix of art and science than guesswork. When I started consulting for the hair transplant doctor, I absolutely had no idea what a hair transplant was or how it was marketed. I had no clue that it was actually a very sophisticated surgery. But in less than a month, I realized visitors were more interested in the intrinsic factors described below. All Simple!
1) How complicated is the surgery? What is the process of a hair transplant?
2) Is this my own hair? Can I color it? Can I get a regular haircut? Can I wash regularly?
3) Can I swim with it? How long will it stay on my scalp?
4) How much is it per hair graft?
Since none of the competitors gave out the cost or price on their websites, factor 4 was the breakthrough. You actually had to set up a consultation appointment with the competition (Bosley) to get the price. We created a page on our website with an analysis of the cost. This raised the conversion rate by 100 percent.
5) Are they in touch with my attitude, my current general mood, and my perception of social reality? For a Hair Transplant doctor, this factor is very important and vital to understand. Some of the candidates for Hair Transplants are Transgender (males trying to become female). This is their social reality. Being sensitive to their needs and also fostering their intrinsic motivations are vital.
The website was also effective in portraying that the future was bright for hair transplant candidates, and it brought them success in their profession, social events, and perhaps even more fulfilling relationships. In summary, the success of any website or landing page depends on several main intrinsic motivational rules.
1) Does the website get me? Does it understand what the visitor wants? In effect, he or she must see himself or herself on the website.
I like to give an example. Couple of years ago an injury law firm asked me to create a landing page for “Mold Lawyer” as the main keywords. I decided to include symptoms of mold illness on the landing page. Every person who called the law firm from the landing page just read through the symptoms one by one. Since Google algorithm recognized that visitors are engaged on the page, the page got to the first page of Google for the same keywords (mold lawyer).
2) Does it Create Trust? Create Credibility?
3) Does it address and foster the intrinsic motivation of the visitor?
4) Does it let the visitor imagine or get the feeling that the future is bright after they buy your service or product?
5) Does it remove the obstacles (address resistance) to buying your service or products?
6) Is your website or landing page persuasive?
7) Use of storytelling and narratives
8) Being in touch with the attitude and perceptions of your website’s visitors, their current general mood, and their perception of social reality This is not bad advice for politicians, either.
9) Most importantly, if you do not have it, do not advertise it.
“Tell me, why do you roar like a fool?”
Said a tiger to his lion friend as they drank beside a pool.
“I am not a fool,” replied the lion with a twinkle as reflected in the pool.
“They call me king of all the beasts because I advertise.”
A rabbit heard them talking and ran home like a streak.
He thought he would try the lion’s plan, but his roar was a squeak.
A fox came to investigate the squeak and had his lunch in quick.
The moral: When you advertise, be sure you’ve got the goods! (Fable)
Recently, I saw a commercial on TV for a well-known IT school in Los Angeles. The commercial did not show the IT school, its building, the labs, or the staff. It did not show the thickness of the IT books. This awesome commercial began by showing a relaxed young man in a seated position, as if he were talking to Larry King. He was complaining that in college he could not register for all the courses he was interested in.
He continued to discuss the IT school he attended with enthusiasm and a smiling face. While he was talking, the commercial showed his kids in a nice house. The commercial showed them playing with nice (kind of expensive) toys. Then it showed a huge power boat parked in his driveway. Then it showed his wife (an attractive woman) talking about his success.
Just An Awesome Ad! The future is bright!
I could not find the TV commercial that I described above; however, the one below is very similar.
Notice he says, “I am confident about the future.” Also notice he says “feeling free.” The word “free” that creates “autonomy” is the cornerstone of Intrinsic Motivation.
Unchanged:
Notice he says, “I am confident about the future.” Also notice he says “feeling free.” The word “free” that creates “autonomy” is the cornerstone of Intrinsic Motivation.
Here are more examples : Unchanged: Here are more examples :
If you are intrinsically motivated to attend or go back to school, making you imagine the bright future after school was the essence of the commercial. It certainly fosters your initial intrinsic motivations.
If your website or social media can successfully show that the future will be bright (or make the visitor imagine that the future will be bright) after buying your product, your website or social media has done it. In reality, accomplishing this is truly a mixture of art and science. I sometimes use images, video, content, and testimonials to achieve this effect.
I believe Branding has a direct relationship with portraying a bright future, and vice versa. If you think about it, every successful brand has done this in our imagination with its own unique personality that we call Brand Identity.
For example, If I wear a Rolex, it brings a brighter future. If I drive a Ferrari, it will guarantee a brighter future. AND VICE VERSA, meaning I also buy Rolex knowing the future is bright anyhow.
This is the essence of Bidirectional Logic. Imagine that next week your boss will give you the best news: “You will be Promoted“. How many of us rush to buy those Rolex or Louis Vuitton Handbags? Imagine you have inside information that the stock of the company you own and/or work for will split, and you will be making $100,000 immediately. How many of us will rush to buy that Ferrari? You will not buy a Hyundai, will you? Nothing against Hyundai; just knowing that Ferrari is a better-recognized Brand than Hyundai All good!
Guaranteed Bright Future → Rolex Brand
Or, we buy the Rolex because we believe it guarantees a brighter future!
Rolex Brand → Guaranteed Bright Future
I believe that is why Brands are so powerful.
They have logical bidirectional or duplicate effects.
Brands ← (bi directional) → Guaranteed Bright Future
When you try to brand your service or product, it starts with proving it will bring a brighter future. The hardest part is the other way around, meaning a guaranteed brighter future, but you still buy the Brand.
By now, we hope that we agree that Hair transplants will bring a brighter future, at least for those who believe in them.
Get Hair Transplant → Guaranteed Bright Future (job promotions, social success)
Now let’s examine its duplicate or bidirectional effect to see if it can become a Brand. To make Hair Transplant a real brand, we know for a fact that the future is bright, but we still get the transplant. Am I clear?
Guaranteed Bright Future → Do we Get Hair Transplant?
Notice that something is not quite right. Not many of us prize ourselves with Hair transplants, or do we? That is why Hair Transplant might have a challenging time becoming a Brand. Look at the Bosley Hair Transplant. Is it really a brand? Have you ever heard someone praise himself with a Bosley?
To lighten things a bit, let me give you a light-hearted example. Say you are planning to get married next Year. Your future wife is persuading you to get a hair transplant for the wedding (shallow, but just keep going). The future is bright anyways. Do you pick Bosley? Or you pick a doctor less known but perhaps with a better cost. My experience with hair transplants showed that people chose a good doctor at a lower cost.
Is there really no hope for Hair Transplant?
Let’s first examine the cosmetic industry. Notice:
Use Cosmetics ——> Nice Look, Pretty
No doubt the condition above holds beautifully. Now let’s examine the reverse:
Nice Look, Pretty ——> Use Cosmetics
Notice the condition above also holds. Why? Please see images below:
So using beautiful actresses to brand the cosmetics proves that cosmetics can be branded.
Please notice the purpose of these practices and examples is to show that math or logic plays an important role here. We are not trying to teach or establish the methods for branding. We will do that after proving our formula first.
Now let’s go back to Hair Transplant. Dr. Chaffoo, a hair transplant doctor in Newport Beach, in his ads says he is the hair transplant doctor for actors.
Now let’s see:
So the jury might still be out there for Hair Transplant.
How about ITT Technical School. Obviously future is bright if you attend ITT as several videos above have mentioned. ITT Technical schools portray a bright future. Now suppose the future is bright anyhow. Imagine the student is super wealthy. Will he choose ITT? Most wealthy people choose Harvard, Stanford, MIT,….. See my point? So ITT might have a hard time to be a brand like MIT, Harvard or Stanford.
Let’s pick a simpler example. How about Tide? Obviously:
Tide ←→ Brighter Clothing
Do you see the bidirectional effect? Meaning you buy Tide to make sure your shirt gets brighter, and it does not matter if it is bright or semi-bright. This means
Tide → Brighter Clothing (makes any type brighter); this is just because of the power of Tide
But any heavy duty detergent can also give us:
Any Heavy Duty Detergent → Brighter Clothing
So why do we buy Tide?
How about when you own delicate and bright clothing? Do you still use Heavy Duty Detergent? The answer is obviously NO!
Delicate and Good Quality Bright Clothing → Tide
Aren’t we a bit more careful when we want to clean bright clothing, especially when it is of good quality? That is why:
Tide ← (bi-directional) → Brighter Clothing
The Tide example says if Tide were a heavy-duty detergent that only made clothing brighter but might damage good-quality clothing, it could not be branded. Since Tide is powerful yet gentle on quality clothing, it is a great Brand. The logical Bidirectional effect holds for tides beautifully.
The Tide example is a bit more complex. Notice Tide has a Branding Formula. By Branding Formula we mean the brand also relies on a successful strategic plan.
Absolut Vodka
Swedish Absolut Vodka was able to create a very successful brand in the late 80s and early 90s with the Yuppie crowd as a sign of higher status (the look of the bottle helped). You drink Absolut because it is a good-quality Vodka. No doubt! It has been filtered several times compared to other Vodkas. This is a fact. Let’s just say, for simplicity, that drinking Absolut Vodka makes you feel good.
Drinking Absolut Vodka → Makes you feel good
Here is a good question to ask when thinking of branding: Let’s say you feel good today and are in a good mood anyway. You got good news or you are just happy today. Do you choose Absolut or Stolichnaya (another brand of vodka) at happy hour next to your high-status Yuppie friends? Absolut made sure:
You feel good today → You choose Absolut and not Stolichnaya vodka with Your Yuppie Friends
It seems Absolut has been able to create a Bidirectional logical condition or:
Drinking Absolut Vodka ← (Bi-Directional) → Makes you feel good
Every product demands its own personality (Brand Identity) and a bright future.
How do you do this on a website? Testimonials create a bidirectional effect.
Have you ever seen a commercial for Google on TV? Radio? So why is Google such a powerful Brand if branding is only achieved by TV advertising, as is taught in marketing textbooks? It is now no secret that Google is by far the best search engine.
Google → Will always give Awesome Search results
Notice the Bidirectional effects as we defined it exist.
If you want Awesome Search Results → Choose Google?
How? This is mostly done through testimonials or the viral effects. Google example shows that you don’t need TV commercials to create a brand. You just need an awesome website, landing page, or other Twitter or Facebook posts that can create the same viral effect as Google, Amazon, eBay, etc. did.
If you have a Gem like Google or eBay, creating a viral effect is easy and almost automatic. Once you have a more competitive service or product, such as plastic surgery or addiction recovery, creating a viral effect is very hard. The more creative you are, the better.
Here are two examples of creating a viral effect:
In the winter of 2001, I created (and tried to patent) an organic cleansing liquid whose main ingredients were powerful Chinese Herbs (Example: Wormwood or Artemisia annua, Black Walnut, etc.). In 2001, at the very start of Google AdWords, I paid only 5 cents per ad click. Actually, I was selected as a beta tester. I sold a unit after every 30 or 40 ad clicks. Hence, the cost of advertising was approximately $1.50.
Since the product was selling for $9.99, $1.50 was too much advertising. I changed the website overnight (through A/B testing), hoping for a reduction in advertising costs or better conversion rates. I was targeting a sale after 5 or 6 ad clicks, not 30 clicks.
Changing the content of the website did not reduce my advertising costs. I changed it again, again, again, again, and again… None of the A/B/C/D/… testing worked. I remember the best I achieved was only 25 clicks minimum. Very disappointing!
I could not scale the business. I totally gave up! I called my lawyer and canceled the patent.
I was not trying to use the website for monetary gain, but just to be a kind person, I changed the homepage to divulge the ingredients and give away the secret.
For every herbal ingredient, the website also showed evidence of their effectiveness from an old Chinese herbal medical book. It also showed what pathogens they were supposed to eliminate. No scary parasite images, no fancy graphics; it became a simple yet professional landing page.
Meanwhile, I forgot to stop the pay-per-click advertising with Google. Google ads kept running. Checking the backend of the website after two or three days, I noticed 40 new orders. Most interestingly, I also sold based on 6 or 7 advertising clicks.
The new landing page, by mentioning the main ingredients and also providing evidence of their effectiveness, created credibility. Now (in 2022), this might seem like a solved issue, but in 2001, this was a revelation. I sold the formulation to a new company called “Nature’s Answer” for $200,000 even without the patent.
A/B testing works only if you have a preliminary intuition about what can work. As a marketer, you have to have good intuition about what the B test should be.
Not too long ago, I was given another opportunity to increase the conversion rate for a dermatologist. The original conversion rate was only 2 percent. After a little research on Google, I realized that our dermatologist taught at Columbia University. I dedicated a section of the landing page to the fact that he was a professor. After this, the conversion rate increased to 12 percent. After a bit more research, I realized he had done some aesthetic work (Juvederm or Restylane) on a Miss Universe or Miss New Jersey. I added this to the landing page. The conversion rate reached 25 percent.
For the Gold-for-IRA-Account-Website, I placed the video of Alan Greenspan. He promoted Gold. His image and his recommendation created instant credibility and trust. Even better is the video below that I put together after extensive research:
For a home security system (simplisafe.com), the logo images of the Boston Globe, NBC, or Wall Street Journal and also Jack Ramsey worked and created credibility and trust. The security system from simplisafe.com is truly unique, ingenious, and beneficial. It is actually the brain of a Mobile Phone in the middle of a room that covers the house. It is reliable.
For a Hair Transplant Surgeon, his awards, the name of the school he graduated from, or the number of Hair Transplants he has done over the years (experience) create credibility and trust. More important are the images of before and after hair transplants. Are the after images full of hair or just a little hair? A little hair did not do it for us. In some images, you could almost see the scalp under the new transplanted hair. We made sure our Doctor doubled the number of hair grafts he applied in future surgeries. It worked! That is why he was booked three months in advance.
If they are out of touch, even the best marketer can go wrong. This is one of the main reasons why Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were truly geniuses. They were in touch with their computer users and the pulse of a society that appreciates innovation, beauty (calligraphy), freedom (to work from home), empowerment, and maybe even a bit of nonconformity.
In 1984, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Apple defined the Super Bowl Commercial as a cultural phenomenon. Please Watch:
Before 1984, nobody watched the Super Bowl just for the sake of the commercials. Ridley Scott’s epic Apple TV commercial, however, changed that. This is the story of the Super Bowl commercial that rocked the advertising world.
Although Jobs and his marketing team loved the new Macintosh commercial, Apple’s Board of Directors hated it since it did not show the computer itself. After seeing the commercial for the first time, a board member suggested that Chiat (the responsible advertising agency) be fired.
CEO John Sculley recalled the reaction after the commercial was screened for a focus group. He said, “The members of the focus group just looked at each other with dazed expressions. Most of them felt it was the worst commercial they had ever seen. Based on only 10 or 12 out-of-touch people, Mr. Sculley instructed Chiat to sell off their airtime to other advertisers such as Pepsi, Coke, or whoever wanted to get it out of their hands. Scully fired Chiat from future advertising. But Jay Chiat, the genius behind the concept, quietly resisted.
Chiat had purchased two commercial slots. He bought a sixty-second slot to show the full commercial plus a thirty-second slot. Chiat sold away only the thirty-second slot and claimed it was too late to sell the longer one. By running the longer commercial, Chiat cemented Apple’s place in advertising history. When the commercial aired, it spurred a wave of media coverage that involved news shows replaying the commercial as part of their coverage, leading to estimates of an additional $5 million in “free” airtime. All three national networks, plus countless local markets, ran news stories about the commercial.
Chiat wanted the commercial to qualify for upcoming advertising awards, and sure enough, it won just about every possible award, including best commercial of the decade.
More than thirty years later, it’s still considered one of the most memorable television commercials ever made. See more about it:
If you ever get a chance, read the book Twenty Ads That Shaked the World for more about Apple TV commercials. As you saw in the video above, Apple Computer’s famous 1984 Super Bowl Ad was a sixty-second mini-movie for the Macintosh. The story goes that Steve Wozniak gets his checkbook out and offers to pay for the Ad if Mr. Jobs also pays for the Ad. The reason they wanted to pay was the apathy of the Apple board of directors. The creative genius behind the Apple commercial was Lee Clow, executive vice president and creative director of Chiat/Day/Mojo, a Los Angeles-based agency.
Clow has been identified as “the force behind some of the most remarkable U.S. ad campaigns of recent years. In one famous billboard campaign for Nike, he had unidentified Olympic hopefuls in striking poses, such as clearing hurdles at the track, displayed on massive outdoor billboards and the sides of buildings, with only the smallest mention of the sponsor, Nike. He has been described as having a unique ability to spot an idea and know if it will work. In discussing his creative style, Clow argues for the need to generate confidence and to take the lead in sticking to an idea. I call that great intuition.
Back to Intrinsic Motivation
In general, I believe that fostering one’s intrinsic motivations is noble and virtuous. I am not just talking about marketing; I am especially talking about the intrinsic motivations of children who show any sign of ingenuity and originality. It’s just about looking at the bigger picture in life. One of them grew up to become Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak. Hence, in general, fostering any intrinsic motivation is noble and virtuous. Hence, marketing is Noble and Virtuous. Marketing makes the economy work, just like Engineering makes Physics work.
So how do you strive to be more in touch?
Believe it or not, the answer is very simple. Listen to your customers whenever and wherever you can, even when they call for the first time. When I consulted with Igethair.com, I had a small office far from the reception area. Through Google Analytics, I could see in real time if someone was visiting the website, on what page, and for how long. If the phone rang, I knew this might be the visitor since he or she has been on the website for a long time, and I kind of knew what pages might be the phone ringers. I would rush to the reception area and try to listen to the conversation. We did not have a recording at the beginning. Later, I listened to the recorded phone conversations.
Most people asked about the cost. So we created a page about costs. They also asked about the process, so we created a page about the process of hair transplants and so on. I also believe continuously monitoring Social Media, Twitter, Chat Conversations, and competitor websites provides ample market research data. When I was with National Semi, I was in charge of Market Research and Competitive Analysis. In 1999, we predicted the iPad and the Cloud Computing System. This is almost 10 years ahead of when the iPad was introduced in 2010. The National Semi started planning. This was the most progressive and profitable project in the history of the National Semi.
Closer to reality
As I mentioned above, it is very rare that our shopping motivation is 100 percent intrinsic or 100 percent extrinsic. For example, if you have a new Shark or Hoover vacuum cleaner in your closet and you see the Dyson commercial, most of us don’t go and buy the Dyson and return the Shark. But if you have a 6-year-old Vacuum cleaner that has lost all its suction and has been to the vacuum shop several times, we will make a trip to Home Depot. Now you see the variation of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations combined, which is much closer to reality.
When practicing digital marketing, you should always assume that your landing page visitors are only intrinsically motivated and foster those intrinsic motivations. How successful will it be? It will always depend on how much fostering or augmentation is achieved. The next two examples are very revealing.
What does augmentation mean? For example, if you had 10 percent intrinsic motivation, was the seller’s marketing able to augment it to 100 percent?
Assume you just saw a TV commercial for the Ford Mustang that showed a beautiful blonde in the passenger seat of a blue Convertible Mustang on PCH along the ocean. No mention of the longevity of the car or other aspects… You want it (all extrinsic so far except perhaps for blue, which is your favorite color intrinsically)!
Now, because of the commercial, you are debating with your wife if you should buy the new Ford Mustang. You are sitting at the kitchen table, and your wife demands that you write down a couple of reasons why you should buy a Mustang. You understand that she wants rational answers. You can’t say the commercial looked good. Agree?
You come up with two reasons, all intrinsically motivated. Your first answer is that the last Mustang you owned lasted 10 years, and you really don’t remember if you ever had a major service. Second, they now have a special makeup mirror for your wife (passenger side). Now your nearest Ford dealer has to augment these, according to our theory.
You go to a Ford dealer, and the salesperson says, “Mustang users have kept their cars on average for 14 years.” “The mirror has a special light for night use.” Or, “new data show Mustang’s parts do not break even after 150,000 miles.” Even better, “there is an extended factory warranty on parts up to 150,000 miles.” Won’t you buy the Mustang?
Now imagine the salesperson, rather than fostering your intrinsic motivation, replaying the same TV commercial (a beautiful woman in a blue convertible Mustang on PCH along the ocean) for you and your wife. How effective would that be? Of course, she or he will never do that. I am sure you get my point.
Knowing this, don’t you agree every marketer should start by asking you, “Please give me all your intrinsic reasons for choosing Mustang or whatever product?” And then augment your intrinsic reasons. Isn’t this also true for a website? In the case of the website, you need the intuition to know the intrinsic reasons before he or she visits your site!
This is how augmentation is achieved. Digital Marketing works the same way. Let me give you another example. Recently, your electricity bill has skyrocketed since your son moved back after college. You are debating with your wife if you should get Solar (intrinsic motivation). You can go to these two websites:
https://us.sunpower.com/landing/solar-planet/
Notice both landing pages have bullets. Which one do you buy from? Most likely, you will buy from the one that will foster your intrinsic motivations for saving on your electricity bill better. No?
This is very simple. Yet advertisers still miss this. One recent solar TV commercial actually said “The installers are great roofers”. I’m sure you get the idea. “Installers are great roofers” is absolutely extrinsic to your intrinsic motivation. Instead, he could have said, “We can save you at least 50 percent on your electricity bill.”
Many great products are invented as a result of an inventor trying to foster his client’s intrinsic motivations.
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Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
The intrinsic motivation of people at that time was to get to their destination faster. The invention of mass-marketed automobiles for the middle class helped create a virtue Circle that helped strengthen the US economy.
Conclusion
Persuasive Landing Page Design
A good landing page must persuade the visitor to submit his or her information. Here is how I propose doing it: Usually, educational landing pages work best. Selling has become a consultation process.
Image Selection
Image selection is also part of strategic content. They might be used to show that the future is bright. I like images that provoke positive emotions. Here are several examples:
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Emotions: Justice, Equality, Power, Strength, Peace of Mind, Playfulness, Family, Kids, Innocence, Hope, Bright Future, Active, Friends, Happy, Enjoyment, Diversity, Competition, Colorful, Outdoor, Nature, Ocean, Power, Sunset, Beauty,… (add your own).
One single chess piece facing all other pieces: Dark Horse, Underdog, Long Shot, Daring, Bold, Courageous, Fearless, Gutsy, Brave, Gritty…
Recently, I created a landing page for an Addiction Recovery Referral Center. I am hoping that the images I am using will instill a sense of hope and optimism in the visitor’s mind. http://perfectaddictionrecoverycenters.com/
I Will Never Do Google Ads Again!
Sometimes when I meet with a potential client, they tell me, “I will never do Google AdWords Again” I say why? They say we spent tons of money, but we got Bad Leads or No Leads.
After investigating more, I see the image below in my head. The potential client is in the middle, and their competitors are on the left and right. I cannot show you their website, but the image below is truly a good analogy.
Of course, you get bad leads and lots of clicks if you are the middle image (website). People might just click to find out why those shoes are so crooked, like a freeway accident. Have you ever been on a Freeway where cars slow down to see an accident? I might sound harsh, but this is a real issue. Notice it is not just the look; quality (content) also comes through the images.
Google AdWords is truly the most competitive shopping mall you have ever seen, but believe me, it works. I have seen the analogy above time after time after time.
Appendix: INTUITION IS NEEDED AND NOT LUCK: Mental (A/B) Testing
The Heart has its reasons, which the reason does not know. Pascal Pensees (1670)
Not Everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein
The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller
Seventy-two of the eighty-three Nobel Laureates in science and medicine implicated intuition in their success.
Intuition plays an important role in understanding people’s intrinsic motivations and, hence, fostering those motivations. Acquiring these intuitions for doing marketing is the key. What is intuition, and how can you acquire it?
In an experiment, chess grandmasters and novices were each shown the layout of chess pieces from an actual chess game. They were then asked to reproduce it.
The chess experts did so with 95% accuracy, and the novices with only 25% accuracy.
The same task, when repeated with the chess pieces arranged randomly, resulted in both experts and novices scoring around 25% in terms of accuracy of recall. Notice equally for both novices and masters.
This is evidence that chess grandmasters hold in their memory not only a set of patterns but also information about the significance of the patterns when they are not random.
“We don’t like their sound,” Decca Records said in turning down a recording contract with the Beatles.
“The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” Western Union Memo
“The telephone may be appropriate for our American cousins, but not here, because we have an adequate supply of messenger boys.” A British expert group evaluating the invention of the telephone
“The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty.” A Michigan Banker advises investing in the Ford Company.
Back to the research data: the intuitive ability of an expert is derived in large part from the large number of patterns held in long-term memory.
For example, those chess grandmasters hold 50,000 patterns in long-term storage. These results indicated that the superior memory of experts is not photographic but requires arrangements of chess pieces that can be encoded using associations with the experts’ extensive knowledge of chess, typically acquired over many years or more of experience and practice.
Experts intuitive ability is also derived from their capacity to recognize the main environmental cues (Being in touch, which is perfect for marketing), rapidly match those cues to commonly occurring patterns, and respond in ways that lead to effective problem solving and decision-making.
Intuitive decision-making entails the use of experience to recognize key patterns that indicate the likely dynamics of a given situation. This is used in order to conduct the ‘mental simulations’ required, rapidly evaluate the alternatives (Mental A/B testing), and select a singular course of action. In other words, an effective mental simulation is more important than software doing random A/B testing.
By imagining people and objects ‘consciously and transforming those objects through several transitions’, experienced decision-makers are able to project how the present will move into the future and hence are able to make useful predictions.
The intention is to create mental conditions to facilitate the process of gathering new patterns of intuition for effective marketing and advertising in every situation.
Alex Katiraie
(424) 200-2328
We have been testing our theory on several Websites using evaluative feedback (extrinsic motivation) and informational feedback (intrinsic motivation). Here are the results:
Our research results show that those website visitors who rated themselves as controlled exert significantly less effort to complete the purchase or abandon their search than those buyers who did not. It may be that those visitors who had been controlled superficially complied by doing what was asked, but they also reacted against the controls by putting in less effort on the buying process than the subjects who got informational feedback.
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Most websites are found through Search Engine Searches based on client's intrinsic motivation. Selling and marketing though psychology of Intrinsic Motivation is our expertise.
