In this week’s show, we interview Maria Gardener @ Psycology Works and cover off a number of Psychology topics:
We spoke
about how you’re a psychologist interested in marketing and any good marketer
should be interested in psychology, what interests you in marketing?
* As a psychologist I’m eternally fascinated in understanding
what makes people tick and why people do what they do* My work as a business psychologist takes my interest in this
and applies it in a work context, i.e. to find someone who is the best fit for
a job, and a company – as well as how to help people be better leaders through
how they think, what they do and what they say* It was out of that came my deeper interest in communication,
influencing and persuasion* For me, marketing is the application of understanding what
people do and why they do it for a specific purpose – to influence our behaviour
towards something – usually to buy something* In particular, the 2003 book The Power of Persuasion: How
We’re Bought and Sold by Robert Levine really caught my attention* It’s a fascination study – a personal journey by Robert
Levine – looking at all the ways we are persuaded to do things. He literally
learnt how to be a car sales man, door to door Tupperware seller, etc, as well
as looking at how Hare Krishna’s and charities encourage donations, and how and
why people get drawn into cults* As well as using my interest in marketing as part of my day
to day business development responsibilities, I also took on organising one of
my industry’s biggest conferences in 2013 – which then led to spending a
subsequent two years as their Head of Communications – responsible for all
comms and marketing (website, emails, events promotion, social media, branding,
etc)
How can
learning more about psychology help your marketing efforts?
* In my personal opinion a basic knowledge of psychology is
essential for any marketer. A deep understanding of psychology can give you a
real competitive edge* Ultimately if we know what makes people tick, understand the
basics of how the brain works – we can then look to tap into those insights as
part of our marketing efforts* The brain is set up to be as cognitively efficient as
possible, over time it develops certain rules, short cuts or associations* It uses these short cuts to process the vast amount of data
that comes in via our senses at any one time – to free up our brain power to
focus on the tasks that we find more interesting or demanding* i.e. if we see the colour red when we are driving, we know
without really thinking about it that it means ‘stop’ or ‘danger’* We see someone in a white coat and assume they must be a
doctor of some kind* Its why people are more likely to buy ground meat that’s labelled
as 75 percent lean than meat that’s labelled 25 percent fat* Great marketers applies an understanding of psychology and
crafts their marketing efforts around it – using what they know about their
target audience (beyond the demographic stuff) to influence them towards the
service or product that is being sold* I remember seeing an advert for a dishwasher about 10-15
years ago which had Kelly Brook dressed up in a white lab coat – and for me
this was a really great example of applying an understanding these mental
shortcuts to help sell a product* i.e. power of ‘celebrity’ plus ‘authority’ via the white lab
coat to sell a product – logically it shouldn’t work but it does!
You’ve