by Chuck McKay | Jun 25, 2012 | Persuasion / Power of Words, Presentation, Psychology and Consumer Behavior, Trophy Catch
Your company is looking at a lot of late night local cable availability, and thinking that a 30-minute infomercial might be appropriate. The boss has just found out that companies which specialize in infomercial marketing will charge tens of thousands of dollars to...
by Chuck | May 25, 2011 | Customer Education, Expectations, and Motivation, Fresh Catch, Psychology and Consumer Behavior
Pattern recognition is quite likely a survival mechanism. As human beings, we naturally look for cause/effect relationships in the things which surround us. “Ogg teased the mastodon. It snatched him up with its trunk and crushed him. I don’t want to die....
by Chuck McKay | Feb 10, 2011 | Fresh Catch, Psychology and Consumer Behavior
Roughly 20 minutes into the Nashville auditions for American Idol, the Lovely Mrs McKay turned to me and said, “These people MUST know how awful they are.” “They don’t have a clue,” I sighed. Have you noticed how often incompetent people...
by Chuck McKay | Apr 14, 2009 | Psychology and Consumer Behavior
One of the things guaranteed to make copywriters (and to a lesser extent media salespeople) groan is an advertiser who claims he needs to reach “everybody.” No ad can possibly reach everybody. The human anatomy prevents it. If you have a minute, I shall...
by Chuck McKay | Oct 19, 2008 | Customer Education, Expectations, and Motivation, Psychology and Consumer Behavior
A couple of decades ago I sat on the invisible side of a two-way mirror and studied the members of a focus group as they watched some television ads my company was testing. One of my company’s most vocal supporters watched an ad that positioned our product as...
by Chuck McKay | Jul 13, 2008 | Customer Education, Expectations, and Motivation, Psychology and Consumer Behavior
Cognitive dissonance. It’s the discomfort caused by two conflicting thoughts. It’s the pain of learning something new, which contradicts what’s already accepted as true. And it’s often strongest when a person believes something about himself,...
