As you know, I travelled recently around the southern tip of South America on a mission to reach the 'end of the world' otherwise known as Cape Horn. On my journey I have had the chance to discover a little bit more about the power of suggestion and how it can be applied to help achieve your sponsorship goals. Before you get carried away thinking this is all crazy stuff I'm about to share, let me first of all break down what I mean by the power of suggestion. It's actually something we do in marketing every day – it's also called influence and persuasion.
Influencing or persuading someone is nothing to do with having power over or controlling them. It is simply the power of suggestion. When you make the suggestion often enough, people start to believe it, they start to see it, feel it, hear it and want to experience it enough to want to act on the suggestion. It's simply the power of suggestion and this is exactly what entertainers known as hypnotists do on stages across the world. They simply relax people using the same breathing techniques as meditation and start exerting the power suggestion. I've witnesses hypnotists perform this trick and each time at least half of all volunteer participants succumb to their persuasiveness. They do exactly what the hypnotist asks of them from sniffing each other to dancing on cue to denying their marriage. It's incredible how easily influenced people truly are. The illusion is that the hypnotist has control over the participants. The reality is they don't have control at all. The subject is voluntarily allowing themselves to be influenced – they are willing participants, they are simply allowing their subconscious mind to be shaped by the words and instructions of the hypnotist and they act on suggestion.
It's easy to apply the same power of suggestion to leveraging sales from sponsorship. The point is, when it's so visibly possible to use the power of suggestion to drive sales through sponsorship, why don't we use it more often? Surely this is preferable to bashing event participants over the head with loud signage and logos that do nothing to convince them to invest in your products or service.
There's three steps to using the power of suggestion:
- 1.Right leverage
- Firstly, attach pleasure to the process. Take away the pain and reinforce the long-term pleasure your target market will gain from the association. It's the meaning that your target market applies to your product or service that counts. Make sure the meaning you give it is positive and pleasurable. Your target market also has to have a compelling reason to use your product or service. When you base the use of your product or service on pleasure and you attach a reward of value as the outcome you are creating the right leverage.
- 2.Accountability
- This is where you bring in the notion of 'pain' if the product or service isn't used. What will your target market personally suffer if they don't take action? This is the point of accountability – there has to be a pro and a con.
- 3.New meaning
- And lastly, what new meaning is created for your target market when they purchase from you? When participants follow through and take action by purchasing your product or service, you will be giving them new meaning.
- This same three step process can be applied to any change you are wishing to initiate in the minds of your consumers. After all, this is exactly what sponsorship is all about – influencing the perceptions and behaviours of your target market.
- I hope this is has made you think more about the power of influence you can have through sponsorship. For more, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/eventsponsorsAU or register on our website www.eventsponsors.com.au for all the tools and techniques of best practise sponsorship.
