Techniques for persuasion and for getting people to do what you want them to do can prove to be quite useful for individuals. This is exactly why psychologists have been trying for years to come up with effective personation techniques that help people get what they want in a constructive way.
Among these techniques for getting the people you are interacting with, to exhibit the behaviors that you want them to exhibit, the technique that has been widely accepted and being used by almost everyone is reverse psychology.
Let’s see what reverse psychology is all about and how it is applied to marketing.
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What is Reverse Psychology?
In clinical terms, reverse psychology is the assertion of a belief or a behavior that is opposite to the one that you desire, and you expect the other person to do what you actually want them to do.
It is the subtle art of persuasion kind of thing where you get someone to do what you them to do by asking them to do the exact opposite of what you want and then you expect the other person to disagree with you.
It sounds confusing at first, but you’ve probably been doing it or at least have someone seen doing it in your life. For example, let’s say you have done something that you are not so proud of, like being late from your office. And you don’t want to be called out for that. So, what do you do? If you follow the procedure of reverse psychology, you’d start acting like you are disappointed at yourself for being angry and you’d admit it in front of everyone with aggression.
The result would be people would either don’t say anything or they might even ask you to don’t beat yourself up because of being late. This is kind of what Reverse psychology looks like in action. (Although we don’t recommend using it for this purpose, because it is kind of not fair, but you get the gist)
How Does Reverse Psychology Apply to Market?
Businesses are now beginning to realize the power of reverse phycology and they are incorporating it in their marketing efforts to increase their business profits.
There are some pretty amazing applications of reverse psychology in marketing. Most prominent ones being
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Getting People Interested in your Products
If you start your marketing or product promotion campaign with statements that start in a negative way like “If you are not a mountain climber, then these shoes are not for” then what that does is, it encourages people who consider themselves mountain climbers to get the product for themselves. That is because they have tied their identity to be mountain climbers. And by subtly attacking their sense of identity, you can get them to buy your products.
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Pros & Cons of Contrast
When you market your products, if you present the cons of your product then it really highlights the benefits that your product has to offer. What this does is, creates a better contrast of the benefits and disadvantages of your products. How does this help? You can right the cons in a way that they feel acceptable considering the pros of your product. This is what reverse psychology helps you with.
Reverse psychology in the marketing and sales domain has shown prove results. And there are numerous examples of it that you can find in your daily life, now that you are aware of the phenomenon. Here is a good read for Reverse Psychology that you can check out to make sure that you stay on top of things.
You can use reverse psychology techniques in other fields of your life as well. You just need to know the behavior that you want the subject to the exhibit. After that, you just act out the exact opposite of it and fine-tune the process in a way that the subject automatically disagrees with you and does what you initially wanted them to do. Reverse psychology, when done right, gives you an excellent power of persuasion and of getting what you want. We have already seen massive examples of it in the business marketing strategies being adopted by some of the top brands in the world.