Chapter 8: How to Magically Attract People to Your Product, Service or Company

We talked about attracting customers in earlier chapters, the techniques we discussed are all good and I hope you've already implemented the ones that are right for you at this point in time.

The material in this session, however, is all-new and innovative.

You will be operating at the highest level of marketing prowess with this state-of-the-art weaponry at your disposal. 

There are two keys that make magical attraction work, one of them has to do with style, art and fashion. 

The other is about receptivity to influence.

I'll do my best to make it all crystal clear.

Human behaviour especially when it comes to choosing what products and services to buy, is most acute and visible in the areas of style, art and fashion.

Will treat those three things style, art and fashion as one entity and simply call it SAF.

Some products and services are SAF intensive, meaning they inherently have a lot to do with style, art and fashion.

Examples include but are not limited to clothing, home furnishings, automobiles, beauty, music, magazines, hairstyling and other grooming products, restaurants etc. 

Other products and services are SAF light they inherently have little to do with the style, art and fashion.

Examples might be life insurance, dry cleaning, dog food, accounting services, groceries, legal services, power tools and I'm sure you can think of many more.

Even though these products and services have little to do with style, art and fashion, the marketing of them has everything to do with style, art and fashion. Marketing by nature SAF intensive.

In-fact advertising is a form of style, art and fashion expression. You may be the marketer of a SAF light item like a pipe wrench but when you start to market your pipe wrench you're suddenly dealing with style, art, and fashion in a big way whether you ever intended to be or not.

Therefore style, art and fashion has everything to do with the success of your product, service or business regardless of its nature. 

Now let's set the SAF factor aside for a minute or two and discuss the other key to magical attraction. We, humans, are constantly influencing one another to behave in the same manner as we behave. Most of this human to human adaptive behaviour happened subconsciously without realising it you and I are influencing others and were being influenced by others. 

What causes children to start smoking? if a particular child had never seen or heard of smoking in her young life, do you think she will suddenly get the idea to grow tobacco, roll it up in paper, set it up on fire and stick it in her mouth? of course not.

So how did she get the idea to smoke? she saw other people doing it. Adoptive influence may be more visible in children, but it happens just as much in the adult world too.

You may have not stopped to think about it, but you yourself have been influenced to do what you do by having seen other people, doing the same thing.

Remember the old observation "Monkey see, monkey do", substitute the word human in place of monkey and you've got an accurate assessment of it. 

Although we are all alike and that we are constantly both influencing others and being influenced by others, we differ from one another in our receptivity to newness.

As it relates to style, art, and fashion, in other words, some people are very receptive to the new style, art, and fashion and quickly adapt behaviour that displays this receptivity.

Other people are more averse to the new style, art and fashion and are not so quick to adopt the latest trends. All humans fall into one of four categories called influence type based on their receptivity to newness in the area of style, art and fashion. 

As we discuss each influence type, please keep in mind that we're not judging people or attaching any relative values to these four types. There is no right or wrong or good or bad, this is just a way of harnessing influence so we can become better marketers.

In fact, you must keep any personal biases you might have out of this system to use it effectively.

Type #1 people are extremely aware of and receptive to the new style, art, and fashion. Type ones not only seek and welcome SAF newness, they often create it.

Type one's view themselves as people on the cutting-edge, the trendsetters and they thrive on being different and look to display their uniqueness in a variety of ways.

Type ones are about 10% of the population. 

Unlike type 1s and type 2 consumers are also receptive to style, art and fashion newness but unlike type ones who naturally gravitate to the latest, type two find they're receptivity to style, art and fashion newness not so effortless. Type twos have to put forth the effort to maintain an awareness of the latest style, art, and fashion but they do so because the effort is enjoyable.

They also wait for the type ones to adapt some new style, art and fashion behaviour for a while before they adopt.

Type twos constitute about 20% of the population. 

Unlike type ones and type twos who actively seek and display style, art, and fashion newness, type threes exert minimal effort, their awareness of SAF newness is lower and that's fine with them.

Type 3s do not believe it is up to them to reach out and embrace style, art, or fashion newness. Instead, they wait for style, art, and fashion newness to reach them eventually.

Once it's worked its way through that type one and type two segments of the population. Type 3s only feel comfortable at doing something that's been around for a while, something they have grown familiar with overtime. This means by the time type 3s adapt it so much lower level of newness.

Type threes are a whopping 40% of the population.

Type fours are very averse to style, art and fashion newness.

They don't want it, don't need it! most of the time they are oblivious to style, art, and fashion newness because they limit their exposure to it.

Type fours are very slow to let go of old-style, art and fashion. 

Only after something has been around for a long time might type fours adopt. By that time, it is a relatively low level of newness. 

In-fact you wouldn't even call it new at all, SAF sameness might be a better term to describe what type 4s prefer. 

Type 4s are about 30% of the population.

To begin harnessing the power of human influence and magically attracting customers, you must develop the ability to match people with influence type. You need to develop the ability to determine what influence type category people fall into. Then you'll be able to determine what influence type your customers are or what influence type you want to attract.

The primary way to equate people with influence type is through constant observation remember the SAF factor, is in constant play you're trying to determine how readily certain people accept style art and fashion newness. A person's appearance is the most obvious indicator, clothing, hairstyle and accessories including glasses can tell you a lot. 

Gender, race, intelligence level and age are irrelevant although that last one raises a question. People I speak to often ask if it's true that type ones are the younger people and type fours are the older people. As people age, the form in which they express their SAF receptivity, changes.

A twenty-year-old type one might wear vastly different clothing than a 50-year old type one who might wear vastly different clothing from a 70-year old type one.

Also, people do tend to drift in the one to four directions as they age. As we get older we put forth less effort to accept and adapt as SAF newness. Despite this one to 4 adrift, the relative proportions hold true regardless of age. Type ones are 10% of the population, type twos are 20%. type threes are 40% and type fours are 30% with even age distribution in each type.

Whilst a person's appearance is a good indicator of influence type, it can be misleading if it's the only indicator you look at.

I once knew a 30-something Teacher who had a traditional hairstyle and wore conservative business suits including wing-tipped.

By his appearance alone you will peg him as a Type 4 but on Friday nights he dressed totally different, goes to any nightclub featuring new wave bands, and would slam around in the market through type one behaviour.

To determine the influence type of certain people start with their appearance but then look at other behavioural traits as well. Observe their entertainment preferences, the music, movies, magazines they prefer.

Consider the make and model of the car they drive how their home is decorated and the restaurants they frequent. Always remember that determining the influence type of any particular person or group is not an exact science. All you need is a general idea that any kind of precise measure. 

Incidentally, the worst way to determine a person's influence type is to explain all this to them and ask them: "What type they think they are". People almost always perceive themselves to be hipper than they really are or they think you're judging them in some way so that gives you the answer they think makes themselves look good in your eyes. 

The secret to magical attraction boils down to these four rules:

Rule #1:Your product or service combined with its marketing, is exuding some level of style, art and fashion newness: high, low or in between. If you sell a SAF light item it'll be your marketing that carries the heavier your load of style, art, and fashion but regardless of which component your product or your marketing delivers what percentage of SAF,  make no mistake about it.  

Your product and its marketing or telegraphing some level of SAF newness either high or low or in between. 

Rule#2: People are innately aware of the SAF nuances of every product or service and its marketing that they are exposed to. This innate awareness is mostly subconscious.

Rule#3: When your level of SAF newness matches a particular influence type, people of that type are magically attracted. It is as though you activated a comfort button in their brain.

They feel your product or service is for them.

Rule#4: When your level of SAF mismatches a particular influence type, people of that type are mysteriously repelled. It says though you set off a discomfort button in their brain.

They feel your product or services for other people not for them.

Now let's look at some real-world examples to see how this actually works out in the marketplace.

I bet there is a particular restaurant in your hometown that you never go to, you have to admit the food may be fine, the price is reasonable the service decent, yet you never go there or if you do find yourself there one day because some friends or business acquaintances arrange the meeting, you notice yourself wanting to just grab a quick bite and get out. You don't stay any longer than you have to and you have no desire to return.

Could it be that the restaurant exudes a level of SAF newness that mismatches your influence type?

Could it be that restaurant made you feel uncomfortable in some way and how did that restaurant's SAF level activate your discomfort button? 

Was it the architectural design colours or decorations? did it have to do with the appearance of employees or that have to do with the background music or live entertainment? I would say it was all of these things and what about the restaurants' location, it turns out different influence types feel comfortable with different sections of town. Type ones like the heart of the city they like to live their work their socialise there. If your hometown has an artist district you can bet it'll be in the inner-city.

Type twos like the outskirts of the city, type threes suburbia,  type fours the countryside. Certainly, there are exceptions and people have to be somewhat flexible to function in the world but by in large, these preferences hold true. Continuing with that restaurant you don't care for perhaps it's located in a section of town that mismatches is your influence type.

You can see why restaurants should consider this when choosing a location I've seen a fine type two appeal restaurant go out of business because it was located in a type four section of down. 

And a fine type four appeal restaurant failed because it was located in a type one-ish, two-ish section of town. 

And let me tell you about a friend of mine Catherine, who was having a hard time selling a house in 2015 during my summer job as a property investor. The house was in fine shape and the asking price was right in the ballpark. A good number of people were looking but no one was buying. I took one look at the place and knew immediately what the problem was. You see the house was located in section 2of town, within the city limits but not downtown. 

Yet it exuded a low level of SAF newness. I suggested to Catherine that she paint the walls of the foyer and the living room purple. 

Well, the actual name of the paint is periwinkle it's a vibrant lavender-ish purple. Well Catherine is a type 3, in fact very close to a tight four in some ways and she didn't immediately see the wisdom in painting the walls periwinkle But with a brief explanation as to why she reluctantly agreed to do it.

A couple of months later, Catherine called me so excited she could hardly speak. " You are not to believe what just happened,"  she said. "The first couple to see the house, after I painted it, bought it, how could this happen".

You know exactly how it happened, since the house was located in a type two section of town, the odds were type 2s would be looking to live there. We simply raised the level of the house SAF newness by painting the first two rooms they would see upon entering periwinkle.

When the type 2s entered their comfort buttons were immediately activated. They felt the house was for them. Incidentally, Catherine's brother who helped her paint is a solid type 4  and grumbled during a whole painting process with comments like: "this ugly purple is ruining the house" now no one will ever want it.

He was partially correct, no type 4 would ever want it,  but type twos or even type ones were most likely to be attracted.

I stated earlier that with regard to influence types, there is no right or wrong no good or bad. 

As marketers, we have no biases but people out there in the marketplace do have biases toward one another.

The type ones look over there at that type fours and I see the forces unhip square clueless. The type fours see the type ones, as no grasp of reality and whatever type we are we see ourselves as normal. It's a relative thing like driving along the highway.

If someone's driving slower than usual then they are an idiot, if someone's driving faster than usual then they are a maniac, whatever speed we're going we are correct.

Here's something that has nothing to do with business at all but since you now understand how magical attraction and repulsion works, I thought you'd find this helpful.

Consider this a bonus section:

What about two people who might get together romantically, if they're the same influence type chances are they will feel a deep and strong level of comfort with one another.

They'll probably agree on where they live, how the house should be decorated how the kids should be dressed even what movies they might want to watch.

What about when the two are different influenced types but adjacent like a type 1 and type 2 or type 2 and a Type 3 or a Type 3 and type 4, one of them will be introducing newer style, art and fashion behaviour into the household which shouldn't be a problem as long as they both understand what is happening.

It would be like a dance in which one person leads and the other follows. Let's say that people are one influence type apart.

A type 1 and type 3 for example or a type 2 and a type 4.

The danger light is blinking on this one.  

I once observed a type 2 male grow increasingly dissatisfied with the relationship he was in. Seems he and his girlfriend a type 4, spent a lot of time arguing about the appropriateness of each other's dress code. Aso they constantly disagreed about where to go for dinner or entertainment. One day he met a new girl and had an instant rapport, instant bond of some kind. In a flash, he backstroked out of that first relationship and dove effortlessly into the new one. 

They were everywhere together, never questioned how the other dressed. He told me that and I must say he did seem happier and more energetic. What happens when type 1 and type 4 get together? First of all the odds are they wouldn't get together.

Their worlds would never cross but if they did get together somehow like a blind date or something, it wouldn't take long for each to accuse the other of being from another planet.

I'm sure it would be all over in 15 minutes or less.

Now back to business here are the implementation steps to magically attract buyers to your product, service or business. 

Step#1: Decide which influence type you want to appeal to.

Avoid the temptation to choose more than one. I will illustrate appealing to more than one influence type in the next chapter.

For now, just choose one influence type as your target. 

Step#2: Design your products or service to match your target influence type. Even a SAF light item like that pipe wrench we mentioned, could be altered in design if the marketer wanted to appeal to a different influence type.

Think about the products that come from both Apple and Sony, as opposed to the products that come from Dell and HP. Apple and to a slightly lesser degree, Sony is pretty artsy and innovative when it comes to product design.

That would be type 1 and type 2 appeal.

On the other hand, Dell, Lenovo, or Acer products, exude a much lower level of SAF newness which would be type 3 and 4 appeals. Notice I'm not talking at all about the technical workings of the products, just the style, art, and fashion factors.

Step#3: Design your marketing to match your targeted influence type. Think about FedEx vs UPS, their colours alone is drastically different levels of SAF newness.

FedEx's purple and orange colour scheme would be of type one and two appeals. Well UPS's is brown would be a type four appeal.

What about the look and feel of your packaging promotions and advertising every aspect of your marketing should be controlled to appeal to your chosen influence type. 

By applying what you now know about the SAF factors and influence types you can quickly cause your target type to become magically attractive. In the next chapter, we're going up and use these two keys the SAF factor and different types to cause demand for your product or service to spread widely throughout the population or throughout your target market.