Persuasion and Influence Part 5: Liking Principle

Rick Henkin

We are more likely to say "yes" to people we like or with whom we want to identify. That seems to be a pretty obvious statement. Unless we have to, none of us "wants" to do business with people we dislike. Consequently we are marketed to all of the time by people who try to get us to like them or show how similar they are to us.

Principle of liking defined

According to Robert Cialdini, Ph.D, in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials) , "...we most prefer to say yes to the requests of someone we know and like." There are 6 key aspects to the liking principle:

Physical attractiveness- without even being aware of it, we automatically assign favorable traits to attractive people. In general, physically attractive people are usually more liked

Similarity- we like people who are similar to us

Compliments- we like those who flatter us

Contact- the more contact we have with someone or something, the more favorably we view them or it

Cooperation- we like people more when we cooperate with rather than compete with them

Conditioning and association- an innocent association with either bad things or good things will influence how people feel about us

Examples of liking in action

A great example of this principle in action is Tupperware parties. Usually, each of the guests feel they need to buy something, because the party host is someone they know and like. This happens even though the host isn't the one making the presentation or writing up the orders. A study by Jonathan Frenzen and Harry Davis in 1990 and published in the Journal of Consumer Research, found that the guest's fondness for their host was twice as important in making their purchase choices than the actual products themselves.

How many ads have you seen where an attractive model (male or female) is displaying or demonstrating a product? The principles here are those of association as well as physical attractiveness. The idea is that because attractive people are more liked and we now associate those people with the offer, we're more favorably inclined toward that product or service. Studies have shown that attractive defendants get lighter sentences, better-looking candidates get more votes, and good looking kids get better treatment from their teachers.

We've all read ads online where the seller is saying something to the effect that, "I was just like you. I didn't even know how to print from my computer, but I made $10 million dollars last month in my online business." This of course, invokes the similiarity aspect of the liking principle.

Here's a situation we're all familiar with- remember as kids, when our Mom told us not to play with the bad kids down the block? She said it didn't matter if we weren't bad, we would be guilty by association?

We often blame the bearer of bad news because of the association principle even though they haven't done anything. Don't a lot of us blame the bad weather on the weatherman or dislike the actors who portray the villains we've come to hate?

How does it make you feel when someone compliments you on something you've done or how you look? As long as the compliment is perceived as being genuine and authentic, you're more likely to view that person favorably.

Applying this principle to your business

There are several ways to use this principle in your online marketing:

Find something that you genuinely have in common with your audience and communicate it to them through your landing pages, your website pages, your emails, newsletters and all your marketing campaigns. Not only will your audience like you more, you'll like them more because of the similarities between the two of you

Let your prospects know that you like them. This is even more important than focusing on having them like you. Let them know that you genuinely like and care about them

Try to get your prospects to like you

Communicate to the audience that you're on the same side and working toward a common goal with them

Find ways to praise and compliment your customers on their achievements

Be sincere, be honest, empathize with your customer's issues, treat them the way you would like to be treated, and act with integrity. In essence, be someone with whom they'd want to identify. If you've achieved a certain level of success, by identifying with you, your prospects know that level of success is attainable for them as well.

According to Robert Cialdini, "One of the things that marketers can do is honestly report on the extent to which the product or service- or the people who are providing the product or service- are similar to the audience and know the audience's challenges, preferencesand so on

ARTICLE DATE: 2009-03-22
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