The Psychology of Consumer Behaviour
Have you ever wondered why millions of Nigerians fall victim to Ponzi schemes even when we are considered some of the most socially intelligent people in the world? These Ponzi schemes ‘crash’ every six months and we are ready to invest our money in the next one as soon as they promise us 50% interest on our investment or show us a couple of screenshots from people who are making massive profits from their platforms. Impressingly, Ponzi schemes do more than legitimate businesses in using Robert Cialdini’s principles in his book titled ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’ to shape and influence consumer behaviour to patronise their product or services.
Author and psychologist Robert Cialdini often finds himself in situations being persuaded to buy products he didn’t need but suddenly wanted. He tried to research the reasons why he was so easily persuaded to buy a product and came up with six powerful persuasion tactics that marketers use. They are; Scarcity, Social proof, Authority, Liking, Commitment & Consistency, Reciprocation.
Scarcity (Fear of Missing Out)
Many marketers leverage the persuasive power of scarcity by convincing customers they might lose their chance to buy something valuable.
I think it’s time I shamelessly admit that I have fallen victim to a ponzi scheme before. I had heard about how other ponzi schemes crashed and how my friends lost money. I even laughed at them. ‘Come on, how could you be so gullible?’ I thought I was invisible, until I surrendered to the strategy of ‘Scarcity’. Your regular ponzi schemes never tell you that there are limited slots to sign up. Anyone familiar with their business model, will know how they need as many people to join to keep the business alive and more cash flowing. This particular scheme however, announced that they were migrating to another site and the platform will be closed for new registrations at the end of that week. I thought to myself; ‘A ponzi scheme actually refusing money? They must be real’. So I emptied my already starving bank account to follow the bandwagon.
The money either eventually disappeared into thin air or sponsored Micheal Chidebere’s trip to Dubai. The bottom line is that the money’s gone and I am not really sore about it. Part of me already had low expectations because it did look like a ponzi scheme, but their tactics of ‘scarcity’ was enough to convince me to join.
The whole essence of this quite embarrassing story is not to motivate you to establish your own ponzi scheme using Robert Cialdini’s strategies, but to show how you can basically sell anything by using these principles. Once you can promise reasonable value to your customers at scarce quantities, their chances of buying are higher.
Social Proof
An excerpt from the book, quite relatable to everyone who breathes, says that ‘when we are uncertain, we are willing to place an enormous amount of trust in the collective knowledge of the crowd’. A similar quote from Bernard Kelvin Clive says that ‘Man is a social being; it’s not surprising we love social proofs, it sells brands fast’. We are very influenced by popular opinion and what our close friends or family think, so we subconsciously use that to assess the credibility or quality of a brand. Maybe I fell victim to the ponzi scheme after seeing a picture of the CEO with Davido. Davido has a lot of fans and influence, so his endorsement of the brand definitely swayed many people to join the platform.
Authority
I don’t know about you, but I am more likely to pay thousands of naira for a business advisory service from someone who says he has a masters degree in business and twenty years experience in consulting than someone who has 2 million streams on spotify. Both have achieved great things in their respective fields, but as a seller, people will respect you more when they see you as a figure in that industry or as someone who is knowledgeable in the field. According to Cialdini, in determining the worthiness of any authority, we tend to rely on three external symbols—titles, clothes and trappings.
Enough of the embarrassing ponzi examples. My mum owns a store that sells children’s clothing, toys and accessories. She herself who has raised five kids comfortably is able to use this tactic to persuade her customers to buy more products. Take this scenario ; A customer walks in planning only to buy a shoe for her three year old son. The customer starts a regular conversation with my mum just for fun’s sake then talks about how her son does not allow her to focus anytime she is in an online meeting. Then my mum suggests ‘Oh well, why don’t you buy him this toy to play with whenever you are in a meeting. I used this for all my kids when they were growing up and it kept them busy whenever I didn’t want their disturbance’.
The result of this was that the customer bought the toy and my mum made extra sales that day because the customer saw my mum as a person with knowledge and experience in that field, so her recommendation must be right. The external symbol my mum used was her title as a mother of five.
Liking
According to Cialdini, ‘Liking’ affects the chances of you being influenced by that individual. The more you like someone, the more you will be persuaded by them.
In 2020, Big Brother Naija’s recently disqualified housemate—Tacha launched a new power bank product called ‘Power Tacha’. This product made 7.5 million naira in just two hours. People were astonished by the amount of sales, but it became easy to conclude that she sold that much in a short period of time because of the liking people had for her.
The author nicknamed this strategy ‘The Friendly Thief’. He also goes as far as saying that physical attractiveness, similarities, compliments and so on, influences one’s liking for someone and the extent to which that person could be persuaded to buy their product.
Commitments & Consistency
The principle of Commitment & Consistency states that people will do as much as possible to appear consistent about their words and actions even to the extent of doing things that are basically irrational. In Cialdini’s research, he discovered that not only will people go out of their way to behave consistently, they will also feel positively about being consistent with their decisions even when faced with evidence that their decisions were ridiculous. Although commitment & consistency affects us on a more personal level, brands and especially fundraisers use this weapon of influence to drive sales or raise money.
The ‘Black Lives Matter Movement’, started in 2013 to affirm the humanity that many fail to prescribe to African Americans require finances for their operation. They source for finance mostly through fund-raising and are able to raise millions of dollars from celebrities, corporates and other well to do people. This organisation as well as other fundraisers make celebrities or global brands commit to their cause publicly, which means they would definitely try to be consistent with their commitment when they are asked for donations or else face backlash from the public. When you think about it, it totally works. It’s harder for Justin Bieber to refuse a donation to the BLM movement after making an instagram post about his support for the movement.
Reciprocation
When we receive something of value, we feel morally obligated to return the favour in some way. Robert Cialdini titles this principle ‘The Old Give and Take’. Rabbi Abraham Heschel says, ‘There is a built-in sense of indebtedness in the consciousness of man, an awareness of owing gratitude, of being called upon at certain moments to reciprocate, to answer, to live in a way which is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living.’
I’m not a heavy coffee drinker especially when coffee shops sell it for 200 naira per cup. But at a point in my life, I found myself going to this coffee shop about four times a week. My actual motive was not to buy the coffee but to watch the fiercest football teams battle it out in the europa league and champions league. This particular fancy coffee shop aired these games I couldn’t access by myself and it felt like I always needed to buy something anytime I showed up to watch these games. The coffee shop offered me and others like myself, something of value we couldn’t ignore. No wonder they sell a lot on champions league night.
My Thoughts
The essence of this article is to propel you to take this book off your shelf and dust the dirt away, because I have hardly done justice to the insights that Robert Cialdini laid forward in this book. His book provides a solid foundation for better understanding sales, marketing, and persuasion in almost every situation. I personally learnt that if you want to persuade someone or yourself, it is not done by manipulating the conscious mind but the unconscious mind.