Hello, and welcome back to English for Marketing and Sales. In the last video, we shared three of Cialdini's six principles of influence, reciprocity, social proof, and consistency. In this video, we'll discuss the final three, liking, authority, and scarcity. The fourth principle is liking. In short, we prefer to do things for people we know and like or find attractive, and that's probably obvious. What's less obvious is that this also includes people who seem similar to us and people who give us compliments. Even something as simple as having the same first name can influence your decision in their favor. Just yesterday, I caught myself falling into that name trap. I was reading reviews of a restaurant online, and my eye locked on a review by someone who shared my name, Andrea. Almost before I could recognize it, I was giving more credibility to her review, simply because we shared a name. That's crazy. An example of how liking is used in marketing is the About Us section of any company website, where they tell the story of the company and its key people. Or the salesperson in a clothing store who compliments you on how great you look in the suit you're trying on. Any social media presence a company has is designed to establish connections and conversations with customers. How can you use the liking principle ethically? Don't fake it. Look for real similarities. Identify areas of common interest and offer genuine praise. The fifth principle is authority. In general, people respect and follow authority. Authority can be represented by titles, uniforms or other indicators of power such as expensive clothing or cars. Arguably, the most famous example of this was Stanley Milgram's findings in 1974 based on experiments where participants were asked to give gradually increasing shocks to an unseen individual in spite of screams of pain. A shocking 65% continued to give these shocks even after they expressed distress and concern about the task. They continued simply because a man in a lab coat told them they must continue. An example of authority as it applies to power was a study done in 1968 which discovered that half of the cars that were stuck behind a luxury car at a green light would wait patiently. On the other hand nearly everyone stuck behind an economy car at a green light would honk their horn. An example of authority in marketing today is curation. Curation is when an expert will select, organize, or present material. A bookstore may have staff select books and display them on a special shelf called Staff Picks to help customers decide on which book to buy from the thousands in the store. Another example of authority in marketing is Bio-Dent may advertise that dentists recommend their toothpaste. Or a financial adviser might decorate his office with luxurious, expensive furniture to make you think well, this guy knows how to make money. Authority can be tricky to implement personally. Declaring your expertise to your colleagues can appear boastful, but legitimate expertise is very beneficial to an organization. But others are often unaware of it. So look for informal encounters like a work dinner or some other getting-to-know-you opportunity as a way to establish expertise in the course of casual conversation. The sixth and final principle is scarcity. Very simply, this has to do with supply and demand. The less there is of something, the more we want it. The marketing tactics used with scarcity are deadlines and limited number. So a sale may end at a certain time. Or there may only be a certain number of items for purchase. Get yours now. I was fooled by a going out of business sign in a shop while I was on vacation in another city. I bought a number of items that I thought were really well-priced. A few years later, I happened to be in the same city, and I noticed the same store still going out of business three years later. Another example of scarcity is when I go online to purchase airline tickets. As I'm deciding on which flight to choose, I can see only two tickets left, and I think, I better buy now before I lose my chance. A final example of scarcity is the seasonal availability. In the United States, in the fall and only in the fall, Starbucks offers pumpkin spice lattes. People go crazy for it, and then it's gone for another year. So how do you use the scarcity principle ethically? Very simple, don't lie. Be honest about the scarcity. Share exclusive information when you're able as a means of helping keep others informed. Let's quickly review Cialdini's last three principles. The liking principle means we like to do things for people who like us. The authority principle means we defer to the expertise of those who know more. And finally, the scarcity principle means we want more of what we can't have. Going forward, look for examples of these principles of influence in action. And share them with us in the discussion boards. Perhaps you were influenced, or perhaps you were able to implement a principle with success. Either way, sharing your experiences can help deepen our understanding of how these principles work. Thanks for watching English for Marketing and Sales.
