Persuasive Techniques

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Whose voice guides your choice?

Persuasive techniques are a… … form of communication … aimed at swaying or influencing your attitude … toward or away from some cause or position.

Influence of Persuasion If you watch 30 hours of TV per week, you

will…– View roughly 37,822 commercials per year

• That’s about 100 TV ads per day You will see another 100 to 300 ads per day

through other mass media

If companies did not think you could be influenced, they would not spend

billions of $ on it!

So … if everyone is trying to influence you how do you ….

How do you decide who is the best candidate…

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or which is the best toothpaste ?

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Who uses persuasion techniques?

• Military• Politicians• Governments• You and I

What are persuasive techniques?• Designed to persuade and to

influence your OpinionsEmotionsAttitudesBehavior

• Persuasive techniques seek to “guide your choice.”

What are some of the methods or techniques used to persuade us?

•Bandwagon•Testimonial•Appeal to emotions•Load language

Bandwagon

oEverybody is doing this. Join the crowd! You must JOIN in to FIT in!

oIf you want to fit in, you need to “jump on the bandwagon” and do it too.

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Bandwagon example:

Everyone in Auburn is supporting Bob Riley. Shouldn’t you be part of the winning team?

Testimonial & Endorsements

•A famous person endorses an idea, a product, a candidate and implies the person uses it and so should we!

Testimonial example:

An important person or famous figure endorses a product.

Testimonial example:

If we drink milk we will all be as famous and as strong as superman.

http://www.spreadingjam.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/superman-got-milk-ad-commercial1.jpg

Appeal to Emotions

•Tells us something to make us feel a certain way – like sympathy, fear, excitement, jealousy

Appeal to Fear example:

If you use Safety Ware, it will keep people from stealing your identity –

Created the idea that you should worry about identity theft and that Safety ware will prevent it.

Guard against Identity theft

Use Safety Ware

www.safetyware.com

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Appeal to Sympathy example:

The picture makes you feel sorry for the cat and convinces you to give to the Humane Society.

Loaded Language

•Words that leave us with positive or negative feelings are used to describe a product, person, or idea.

•We associate those words and, therefore, those positive or negative feelings with the product.

Loaded language (positive) example: luxury, beautiful, paradise, economical

Used to evoke positive feelings

Happiness

Low price

Fun

Flag (patriotism)

Loaded language (negative) example: cramped, disgusting, dirty, faultyUsed to evoke negative feelings

Overcrowded

Faulty