Marketing, Sales, and the Art of Persuasion » Fear

It’s not all bad news in economic development

Paul Lorinczi — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:08:58 +0000

It’s not all bad news in economic development

My friends and family who are all Cable TV junkies are always down and out about where the country is headed. I even have one relative preparing for the upcoming revolution, if it would happen. (Note: He is not participating in any group, he is just preparing himself to protect his property). This is all foreign thought to me.

I was asked, what do you think? I pointed out that there are a lot of smart people in this country always generating new ideas for business. Business is happening. The problem is Cable Television is not reporting on it because good news does not conform to the “economy of fear and anger” ruling our flat screens. I conveyed a story about a friend who I had not seen in a while. Last time we had met, he was involved in a startup dealing with medical informatics. I asked him how it was going, he says, “I sold that company. It got bought by a big company recently. I am now onto building a new company.”

And, this weekend, there was the Startup Weekend at Purdue. It was a marathon event where 60 bright people came up with several ideas to start a new business. Out of Indiana, one idea has made it to the Global Battle.

Startup Weekend Indianapolis

“StartUp Weekend Indianapolis has brought together people with ideas and people with skills. A mix of seasoned vets, and lots of rookies are spending the weekend, building something truly exciting. .. The weekend is filled with opportunities to learn new things, try new things, and possibly even build something. Check out the Schedulee .. Busy this weekend? Join us for just the Pitches Sunday night and see who goes on to compete in the Global Battle.”

It is a national program where hope is ever present. Let’s take some ideas and build a new company from it.

It really is time to turn off Cable TV and the “Economy of Fear and Anger.”

Look around your community and I am sure you will find an economy of Entrepreneurs in your area. People who live to turn ideas into action. These people are your leaders. They are the ones that turn ideas into jobs. Here in Indianapolis, there are several groups specializing in supporting their industries. Techpoint, Indiana Venture Club, and Bio-Crossroads to name a few. These groups support new businesses and ideas in our community.

Now, we have Startup Weekend. How cool is that? Turn off Cable TV, look around, you will find there is Gold in your community. Join the real revolution – Entrepreneurs building new industries. It’s the American Way.

Paul Lorinczi is President of Professional Blog Service.

Media coverage of Earthquake in China

Paul Lorinczi — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:08:24 +0000

Media coverage of Earthquake in China

An earthquake in China took place today. It was a doozy that registered over 7.0 on the richter scale.

Image is a copyright of the Associated Press

As I am going through and reading the reports, the news media are focused on the death and destruction of the event. Reports are 400 dead and possibly 10,000 people injured. The usual suspects causing the death and destruction – poorly built houses that are not earthquake proof.

Yet, in any of the reports, there is no explanation as to why there is an earthquake in the region in the first place. See, the region where it has occurred is not on the edge of a tectonic plate. So, why is the media not educating us why it happened and reporting on the geologic changes that are occurring underneath us? The earth is one big puzzle of pieces that collide and move. Could the earthquake in Chile have transported energy to the Indian plate which then has pushed itself up against the Asian plate?

I guess we will have to wait for Pat Robertson to give us the explanation. I am sure there was some ancient deal made where the Tibetans shunned Christianity to follow the bald headed guy in robes. The earthquake is obviously a punishment from God.

With these natural events happening all over the world, couldn’t we put the death and destruction angle down for once and talk about the science behind it happening? Not only are we a nation of geographically challenged, we are also a nation who are geologically ignorant.

Come on media, put some of the shock and awe away and include some education in your reports. If you need the shock and awe at the beginning to grab attention, fine. Put the education into the article to make us smarter for reading it.

Paul Lorinczi is President of Professional Blog Service.

Is Fear Being Used to Hack People?

Paul Lorinczi — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Is Fear Being Used to Hack People?

My colleague, Mike Seidle has writtien an excellent post on the use of fear in marketing. It is a topic I sometimes bring up in my own posts. He has nailed some good ones here. You can read his post at his site:

http://mikeseidle.com/blogs/indymike/09-11-04/fear-being-used-hack-people

Courtesy of www.howstuffworks.com

Ever wonder why the news cycle keeps getting more and more fear-centric? Why do political special interest groups spend so much on creating alarm? It’s pretty simple:

Marketers, the media and politicians are hacking your brain.

Before you get out the tinfoil hat, let’s discuss the security hole they are exploiting:

Your built-in capacity for all-or-nothing responses to fears and pre-wiring to overreact to threats.

Randolph Nesse, provides quite a bit of detail on this phenomena in is an evolutionary biologist who has spent considerable time researching all-or-nothing defenses. All-or-nothing defenses are very costly and appear to be like overreactions to a threat that is statistically unlikley to result in harm. Nesse has found that overreactions happen to work well in nature when analyzed over time. Even though a bird may abandon hundreds of meals because of passing shadows, the response kept the bird alive the single time the threat was real.

Overreaction is tough to unlearn. Animals continue to overreact for generations even when the original
threat has been gone for generations. This is why birds born in
captivity at the zoo still fly away when a shadow passes overhead despite a zero chance of being eaten by a predator.

So what about people? Here’s where it gets interesting. People have a capacity for overreaction to threats, too. How about our response to swine flu? It’s not hard for marketers to use Nesse’s “smoke detector principle” to manipulNoted security guru Bruce Schneider uses the example of a hotel evacuation because of a fire alarm, which as it turns out isn’t very to be likely to be caused by an actual fire. According to Schneider:

We tend to be poor judges of risk. We overact to rare risks, we ignore long-term risks,. We get risks wrong — threats, probabilities, and costs
– all the time. When we’re afraid, really afraid, we’ll do almost
anything to make that fear go away. Both politicians and marketers have
learned to push that fear button to get us to do what they want. – Schneider on Security

Schneider has understated what is going on. People who make a living influencing others have changed how they do their job because it’s just far too easy to push the panic button. People will respond predictably 99% of the time: react to avoid the perceived fear. Here’s how it works:

1. Paint picture of security.
2. Inject an easy to identify threat to the picture that gets the right flavor of fear.
3. Provide an easy safe place to find security.

Here’s one you’ve seen:

The picture: life with an attractive mate.
The fear: failure to perform.
Provide an easy safe place to run to. (Male enhancement pill)

Political Version:

The picture: Successful children.
The fear: Supporting jobless bums for a lifetime.
The safe place: Increase your taxes, build new Taj Mahal school

It’s so easy, a marketing script kiddie can do it. And unfortunately, it works.

Paul Lorinczi is President of Professional Blog Service.