Marketers can combine words, and images to spin millions of stories, and communicate billions of ideas. However, you have only 6 possible primary emotions to appeal to, or buttons to push to motivate people to action.
- anger
- sadness
- surprise
- disgust
- fear
- happiness
The ‘only while supplies last’ statement is designed to tap into your fear of missing an opportunity. Images of starving children push your sadness button. ‘Have a Coke and a Smile’ was designed to make you feel happy.
It might be a good idea to figure out just which emotion you’re trying to tap into before you start writing, talking, selling, blogging, or spreading ideas.
Something To Make You Go…Hmm! – Dr. Paul Ekman discovered that human beings are capable of making over 10,000 facial expressions but only 3,000 relevant to 6 universal emotions.
