Kevin Hogan

This is a newly validated step-by-step solution for getting YOU attention.

You don’t need to tell anyone else about this…

Cutting-edge research that you haven’t seen that you can apply to almost all influential situations including sales, marketing, and PR.

• Why does one person pick Fidelity and another Vanguard?
• Why does one person pick Folgers and another Gevalia?
• Why does someone visit Starbucks and another Seattle’s Finest?
• What causes someone to decide on Snickers instead of Kit Kat or Reese’s?

You’ll know the answer in 12 minutes and you’ll be able to DO IT.

How do you *cause* someone to choose YOUR company or YOU and cause the person to PICK YOU instead of the dominant market leaders? Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz are in a room filled with 100 other women. How does any other woman become part of the math of someone walking in the door interested in connecting with someone?

I’ve never written about this before and all the research is pretty straightforward.

This is good stuff, but it isn’t Kindergarten, so I’ve brought all of this to the level of being able to apply it.

Legend Key:  Understand how the brain decides what or who to buy, and then, design our product, service and it’s promotional and sales strategy to fit INSIDE of the process.

The easiest way to understand this is to use an example and follow it through from beginning to purchase.

I know nothing about beer. I never see it in the store. I see wine. Wine I get. Beer I don’t get. Don’t see. I’m ignorant. But I’m going to spend my hard earned money and pick the “right beer.”

And here is our setting….

I need to get beer for your family reunion. Ugh. How the heck do I choose beer for a bucket load of Hogan’s? I wouldn’t have asked my family to pick out hotels…ah well…

I walk into the store and see all these different types of beer. They line a wall. (Coincidentally and unbeknownst to me, they are listed in order of year 2018 market share. The numbers to the right are the share of the total market each beer has. )

Sidebar: Of thousands of kinds of beer….The Top 10 beers in the United States have more than half of the entire market. More impressive about branding?

Bud Light ……………………15.4
Coors Light …………………..7.7
Budweiser …………………….6.2
Miller Light …………………..6.1
Corona Extra …………………4.1
Michelob Ultra ………………3.6
Modelo Especial …………….3.3
Natural Light ………………..3.0
Busch Light …………………..3.0
Busch …………………………..2.2

Back to the store…

Now, I have no idea what beer tastes good or how to pick a beer. And there are no promotional ads in the store at all.

The Awareness Set

For the sake of our story, let’s say that these are the only beers in the store. They are what we will call, “The Awareness Set.” These are the beers I am aware of.

I see them all. They all look about the same.

Oddly there is no one in the store to ask how I should pick a beer and I am not seeing any store promos or ads. Ugh.

So I have these 10+ cases of beer set in front of me and I have a forced choice sale.

In other words, I AM going to buy beer today. And now, I am AWARE of the 10 beer choices in front of me.

I have no idea what to do.

The first thing that comes to mind are the names I recognize from TV ads during football games and just names that strike a chord in my mind. Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors. I remember someone telling me that Michelob and Heineken were the best beer. Why I remember this I have no idea. How would they have known anyway? There is no Heineken here. And I recognize most of the names but Busch gives me a local feel (St. Louis) but I’ve never gone for that kind of stuff. Local rarely means best. It means closest to me.  An interesting thought.

I’ve never heard of Natural Light. Probably some environmental beer or something. If it’s light it might have less of an eco footprint? I don’t know. Sounds too somethingish to me.

All the rest I recognize by name.

Michelob Ultra sounds….weird.

I don’t know. But whatever, I’ve now unintentionally, some consciously and some unconsciously, eliminated a number of the beers into what is called a:

CONSIDERATION SET

It’s a subset. There’s all the dishes in the cupboard and then there are the nice dishes for company or holidays.

The Consideration Set:

Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Light, Coors Light.

So what IS “considered” in the mind of the consumer at THIS point?

Pioneering brands, and not the followers that come afterward, are the most likely to make the consideration set. Those with high exposure that have personal relevance or importance to the buyer.

Legend Point: 70% of Consumer Choice is dictated by CONSIDERATION. (Hauser and Wernerfelt)

10 beers, I threw four in the consideration set. Pretty close. So, exactly what is consideration!??!?!?!

Legend Point: Consideration is thinking, evaluating and feeling about the few options left. The more liked or memorable and easily retrieved from memory, the greater the probability the brand will be purchased.

I look at Budweiser.

Seems like a safe (it’s been around FOREVER) and logical choice and it’s the only one that is NOT a lite beer of the consideration set.

(And please remember, I don’t know that I even HAVE a consideration set, this is simply how the human brain filters out  less interesting or polarizing options and then keeps a few possibilities that are manageable!)

Budweiser is going home for sure. I pick up a case.

But then I look at the others.  A few of the people in my family need fewer calories. I am not bringing home three light beers. No way.

Of the remaining three unconscious choices, Bud Light is out because I’m already buying Budweiser and I don’t want to hear whining when I get back that I didn’t get other choices. Done.

Budweiser brings back lots of memories, like the frogs saying, “Bud-Wise-Er”…and the Super Bowl/Bud Bowl games. But I already have the Budweiser and I already knocked out Bud Light. All that’s let is the light Coors and Miller choices. Miller is a nice name but Coors sounds cool. Probably no coincidence. I’m grabbing the Coors Light.

The guy walks in, takes my order and doesn’t seem to think I’m an idiot. I’ve made my purchase and Coors Light and Budweiser have made a sale!

The Consideration Set was influenced solely by my attitudes (memories and random scattered thoughts) and the strength of those attitudes.

Attitudes: Brands with STRONGLY held attitudes are most likely to be considered.

So what was the order of the choices that were made?
(Write this down and use this FOR YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES)

1. There was an AWARENESS SET of all options available.
2. There was a reduction to a CONSIDERATION SET based on memories of commercials and name recognition.
3. There was an ELIMINATION of choices because of “feelings.” These are ATTITUDES toward and against options. The strongest attitude was the SECURITY and SAFETY of Budweiser as a choice followed by the cool Coors Light.

1. COGNITIVE ELABORATION(!) which means thinking about what is important to me and the situation causes a strongly held attitude that seemed cemented now. ELABORATION happens when someone scrutinizes information and it is the process whereby an attitude is formed or changed as the result of the thoughts an individual has in response to information about the product (or object or service).
2. The choice was easy. Budweiser and Coors Light.

I know nothing about beer. Nothing. I bought two cases and felt fine.

Legend Point: Now, notice that ADVERTISING and BRAND are JUST AS EFFECTIVE as personal use in changing attitudes and the accessibility of attitudes. I don’t use ever, but I bought!

and

Legend Point: If the consumer ELABORATES (scrutiny that causes strong attitudes) on the brand because of advertising or remembered experiences, it’s not the exposure, it’s the psychological process by which it is received. (If you are NOT familiar with my work on the 16 core human drives and desires, consider the Covert Hypnosis CD program in the Covert Hypnosis & 16 Hidden Desires CD Program ).

Now, if I really liked racing cars, I’m sure I would have picked something else because there is probably a beer that racing car fans drink. Same for Nancy Pelosi or Donald Trump fans, or basketball or knitting teams. It’s not the number of ads I see, I see a LOT of ads for Budweiser.

It’s about the filters of the consumer. The DRIVERS that the product or service will be seen through.

And this is how choices are made by consumers in virtually EVERY situation they have choices in!

Additional factors in consumer choice that you need to know today:

1. Attitude strength is more important than attitude. Attitude strength is the combination of attitude attributes that add up to “strength.” They tend to PERSIST OVER TIME!
2. One person’s self report of a strong attitude of say, “I feel very strongly about X” is a very different TRUE strength compared to someone else’s exact same statement. In other words, people are terrible at self report for why they buy something or knowing what caused them to buy something. You MUST observe the behavior of the consumer and NOT WHAT THEY SAY OR EXPLAIN TO YOU. They do NOT know WHY they buy.
3. Strong attitudes (like not getting yelled at by family and cheerleaders) come to mind faster, persist over time and RESIST counter-persuasive attempts.Priester, Nayakankuppam, Fleming and Godek have come up with the following formula based upon all of this research:THE FORMULA: Attitude x Strength Interaction ==> Consideration ==> Choice
4. Brands that are VERY memorable are much more likely to be considered than those that are not, REGARDLESS of attitude strength toward the brand!

Now….that took a bit of thought. You had to apply it to your product or service…but now you see just HOW you can get YOU and/or YOUR product or service onto the list. Start focusing on the process by which it is received! (The drives, desires…the filters of your future customer!)

Oh and please don’t tell anyone how much I avoid getting yelled at by family.

Never before this in the field of persuasion….not by anyone…anywhere…

Sophisticated Persuasion

The Science of Influence: Vol. 37-48

It took 19 months to put this together because the research was so in-depth and it was crucial to make sure it was right.

• Consistency?
• Psychological Distancing?
• Expectancy?
• Time?
• Resonance?

I’ve never been able to answer this question…but now I can with certainty:

Which of the first 20 Laws of persuasion is the most effective?

Better…
Which is more effective with women…?

and…
Which is more effective with men?

Then, based on detailed research you’ll find out which are the second and third AND fourth most powerful laws for influencing both men and women…in order of effectiveness.

Can I give you more?

The research says there are 8 “personas” of persuasion.

I’ve never talked about this with you before.
(Of course, I didn’t have all of this until early last month…)

Personas are the valences people “wear” when influencing. They include characteristics, attitudes and valence of salespeople.

Some salespeople are passive. Others are client-centered. Still others? Solution focused and so on. There are 8 clear cut defined types of salespeople and influence personas.

So what?

Here’s what you are going to learn:

1. What are the 8 personas?
2. How to identify them.
3. Which one sells the most, and, which ones sell the LEAST.
4. Which single persona sells 53% more than ANY of the other 7 styles.

In other words, you are going to learn what SPECIFIC characteristics can CAUSE you to sell 53% more of your product than ANY OTHER set of characteristics.

Better?

Only 4% of all salespeople have chosen to adopt the characteristics of the winners…and 81% of all salespeople have the characteristics of the two LOWEST producing people.

You’ll find out all!

Scientifically proven. No opinions, guesses, theories, or maybes.

This is THE answer.

The content herein is second to nothing I’ve ever done before and I have no idea how it can ever be beaten as for the “wow” value factor. I don’t want to put a percentage of sales increase out there for you. (Let’s just say that I feel REALLY good about it.)

As I listened to this set, I realized that I’ve never had as many final solutions as are in Sophisticated Influence (SI 37-48). And now they are YOURS.

Here’s the rundown of everything that is in this, well it really is…, content masterpiece.

• Selling Value with Persuasion
• Intentional Subtle Influence
• The Power of Your Story
• 5 Factors for Attention in a Crowded Marketplace
• Astonishing Perceptions of Morality
• Self-Confidence, Personal Mastery & Persuasion
• Transformational Persuasion Techniques
• 8 Techniques to Build Persuasive Messages
• Advertising That Works
• The Landscape Effect
• Power of Perception
• Hedonic Choice Influence
• Influencing Decisions
• The Three Powerful Emotions in Influence
• 7 Persuasion Strategies That Sell
• Proven Most Effective Techniques in Selling
• 4 Techniques of Influence
• Covert Selling: Jump on the Hottest Trend in Advertising
• The Person of Influence
• They Don’t Know What They Know
• Marketing Your Face
• You Can Be the Next I-pod
• Persuasion with False Memory
• 7 Action Points for Sales Success
• 5 Little Known Factors of Influence

More Information or to Order