Why Would You Stand In Line 48 Hours To Get A Playstation 3? The Marketing Psychology Is Working...

You know it's Christmas time when two things happen...

1) People stand in line for 48 hours camped outside Best Buy for 48 hours waiting for the latest PlayStation release, or...

2) The Internet giveaway fever really heats up - More about this later.

The current Playstation mania is an incredible lesson in marketing. But I missed the importance of what was going on until a friend smacked me in the face with it this morning...

DUMB LIKE A FOX...

Our friend -- I'll call him AJ -- reported this morning that he and his wife had just come back from Wal-Mart where they'd been camping for 48 hours to get one of 4 available PlayStations 3 when they went on sale...

Unbelievable! I thought he was insane when he told us this. Who wants a PlayStation bad enough to stand in line 48 hours?

Well...

He said with a smile, "We got two!"

So! It was still 48 hours in front of a store, right? Do your kids really need PlayStations THAT badly?

"Oh, they're not for the kids! We listed them on ebay within an hour," he said, still smiling. "And they're averaging 5 to 7 thousand dollars. Some have sold for more than $14,000." Search for "PlayStation 3" on ebay. I was blown away at the prices.

I was stunned. Not because of the price (people pay extravagant prices for just about anything), nor because my "insane" friend actually made about $390 per hour if he sells them both for $7000, but because I had totally missed the entire marketing lesson expertly laid out by Sony and Wal-Mart.

The six basic marketing persuaders from Robert Cialdini's classic book, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion", are in full view!

** Authority -- Wal-Mart. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are the big kahuna in mega store retailing. If they advertise that they have 4 PlayStations in stock...they've got 4 and only 4 in stock. But they promise they can get more because...well, they can.

** Liking -- People practically live at Wal-Mart. Convenience and service translate into customers with an undying loyalty to them, often because they've become the only game in town.

** Commitment with Consistency -- Let's see. Stand outside in November in the rain for 48 hours to be the first in line for the release of a new product. That's serious commitment!

** Reciprocation -- Wal-Mart provides a free (and massive) PS3 buyer's guide on their site that provides all the information you need to make a decision between the $500 and $600 basic units, and all the accessories required. Giving such complete information not only sets up the authority persuader but also makes you value the content and feel indebted to the retailer. That's called reciprocity.

** Social Proof -- The press has been lapping up Sony's press releases about the PlayStation launch date and the lack of product. And the gaming blogs can talk of nothing else.

** Scarcity -- Sony is really smart! They do this every year. release only enough of the hot product to create an insatiable appetite for it. They may have warehouses full of PlayStations, but they won't release them until the market begs for more.

HOW DID I MISS THIS!

AJ knew -- before he invested the time to stand in line --that the market was clamoring for the product. And he saw an opportunity.

He had no intention of keeping the PlayStations himself. His research on ebay confirmed that PS3 fans were rabid and would pay any price!

Like any good marketer, he remembered the first rule: Determine what the market wants and sell it to them. As Mark Hendricks, a master marketer, and creator of the Christmas season giveaways, likes to say, that's the difference between "marketing" and "selling" -- it's much easier to make money when you're providing a much-wanted service.

Selling something no one wants is hard work, indeed. Marketing is easy.

I should have seen it too. I've studied with some great internet marketers. Most teach the basic principles of Robert Cialdini's book.

CHRISTMAS MADNESS...

During the Christmas season, online marketers flock to the Internet to collect gifts -- usually informational products and software tools. Always free, hence the name giveaway, the purpose is to drive traffic. All of Cialdini's six persuaders are used to create the buzz, exchange the gifts for e-mail addresses and names.

The 12 Days of Christmas is the granddaddy of the online giveaway extravaganza and Mark Hendricks is the father of the concept. For several years now, Mark has brought together more than 75 top marketers to giveaway hundreds of products during the month of December.

Because the concept worked so well and has become an Internet marketing staple, a gazillion giveaways pop up. It's now a standard tool in every marketer's toolkit. Why does it work so well. It's based on one of Cialdini's persuaders -- reciprocity.

I give you something and you'll feel obligated to give me something back. It's a technique used everywhere. When you go to the grocery, clerks stand at sample stations offering everything from cubes of cheese to portions of spaghetti and meatballs. Why? If you take a sample, chances are really good that you'll buy the product.

But at Christmas...Whew! It's tough to keep up and maintain enough free disk space on your computer for all the online giveaway opportunities.

The six persuaders (all included above) are real. Until I got involved in the Internet, I had no idea I was being "persuaded" at every turn. We all react to them, will forever, and have ever since the first caveman tried to sell the first hunk of meat to his neighbor.

It took a PlayStation 3 and AJ to point me back to the "real" world to see it in action there too.

David Perdew is an enthusiastic Internet Success System student (http://www.the60dayexperiment.com/recommends/iss.htm) and contributor to 12 Days of Christmas (http://www.the60dayexperiment.com/go/12Days.htm). You can read about how he incorporates Mark's marketing techniques on his blog (http://www.the60dayexperiment.com/blog/12day.htm).

Denise Austin Pilates And Yoga Trainer

PART 2 - The Tao of Da Vinci Code-Can Eastern Philosophy Contribute to the Da Vinci Code Controversy

[Recently published in Qi journal - Winter/2006] Part 2 of 2

What good is such practice? Some might ask in our busy yang energy go-get-em world. Creativity and inspiration come from the unseen, the yin, the receptive, the intuitive. Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important that knowledge." Einstein didn't devalue the masculine or yang consciousness, for he also defined success as "10% inspiration and 90% perspiration." However, he did exalt the yin, feminine, intuitive consciousness as the MOST important. For without that all important "spark" of awareness or inspiration which can only come from quiet contemplative thought, the 90% perspiration would be as purposeful as a "busy" hamster running around its endless wheel that leads nowhere. Just as many of the world's actions today are resulting in environmental and political messes that could easily be avoided, if preceded by deep "contemplation" before action occurs. Too often our endless business (busy-ness) is not purposeful at all as far as solving our global problems, but to the unaware observer the decision makers look "very important" and "very busy."

Mind/body sciences like yoga, and tai chi, and qigong (energy exercise), are designed to allow the flow of life energy to permeate the mind and body, and to create a "receptive/open state of mind in the practitioner," a passive alpha state of awareness. Qi, life energy in Traditional Chinese Medical science, is a subtle unseen power that emerges from the very fabric of the subatomic field that makes up all matter, and permeates all things including human beings. Acupuncture, and Chinese herbal medicine, as well as physical exercises like tai chi & Qigong are designed to open the flow of life energy through the mind and body. Yoga and Ayurvedic practices are designed to do this as well.

In this field of life energy all things are connected, and therefore insights from this pure consciousness can be powerfully complex solutions that seem simple and elegant and obvious, once they come to mind. Yet offer more comprehensive communally beneficial solutions to challenges facing the practitioner cultivating this "field" awareness in themselves through these ancient practices. tai Chi may help cultivate such intuitive, receptive states of mind if taught to that end. tai Chi, incorporated with gentle deep breathing, and physical loosening, and mental images of constantly "letting go" of everything enables this unseen force of the universe to flow through us, emanating from every cell and atom of our being, and expanding effortlessly from each airy fold of the tissues of our mind. We can allow every atom of our being to glow with and be permeated by this energy of life as we move through the flowing motions of tai Chi "without purpose," "without analysis," "without grades, or self judgments." But rather, only for the sheer pleasure of being, while experiencing the thousands of wonderful sensations tingling and percolating through the body. tai Chi becomes an effortless "self massage" that flows through the yielding heart, mind, and body. This state is not "directed" by the mind, but allows the mind to let go and be massaged by the pleasant sensations flowing through it, holding on to nothing, not analyzing or even naming the sensations caressing, washing the mind as they flow through receptive awareness.

Today's current knee jerk reactions which get us individually into such trouble on crowded freeways, or in global trouble as a nation in an increasingly crowded world, have been cultivated over centuries of under-developing our feminine or yin consciousness. Our television pundits automatically react and narrow dialogue without even being conscious of it. In a three month period leading up to the Iraq war, Fair Media did a study of major news networks coverage of the impending conflict. They found a disturbing reality, that over 90% of the talking head guests on their news shows were already assuming there was a war to be fought, and discussing war strategy. Only less than 5% of the talking heads were opposed to, or even skeptical, about the idea of going to war. This hard charging into action, rather than "contemplating", is an example of the result of centuries of male energy being accepted and extolled, and yin or feminine energy being dismissed and considered "indecisive" and "weak minded."

The pool of "receptive" sensation that tai chi or other ancient transcendental technologies can bathe us in again and again, day after day, enables the subtle possibilities and gentle power of the yin and feminine to permeate our being and consciousness, and through that, affect our actions in the world. It can change the way we function, so that rather than charging into personal, or social, or national decisions, we instinctively "contemplate" and "intuit" all the possible outcomes of that action "BEFORE" taking that action. This could keep us out of costly wars, and reduce futile quests to find where on earth to dump thousands of tons of highly toxic nuclear waste that will be poisonous for tens of thousands of years. It may open us up to more subtle "yielding" approaches to international relations, that can get us the desired results through the subtle dance of negotiation which entails "listening" before "acting," which is a very yin or feminine quality. It may draw us more to "passive" energy solutions like "solar" or "wind" that could easily solve all our energy needs, and we would never need to fight anyone anywhere over the sun or the wind, which is available to all equally.

Transcendental mind/body technologies like tai Chi, yoga, transcendental meditation, chi Kung, etc. can today be made available to billions of people worldwide at a time when the world desperately needs to learn to find a balance in the deepest part of our being, a balance that extols the subtle and quiet power of the feminine or yin aspect of who we are individually and as communities and nations. tai Chi and Yoga, for example, are now taught in virtually every nation in the world, and can perhaps now contribute to solving humanity's hunger for balance between the "male" and "female," between the "yin" and the "yang."

Generations may look back and see that tai Chi & Yoga teachers of today played a pivotal role in human history. Or perhaps the changes they are making in the world are so subtle and gentle, that they will never be recognized but nevertheless . . . will ease the world into its next wave of evolution enabling it to survive the weight of six billion plus inhabitants, without creating chaos through rash actions.

Bill Douglas is the founder of World tai Chi & Qigong Day, and author of the best selling tai chi book, "The complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai chi & Qigong" (Penguin Putnam), and presenter in the world acclaimed DVD instructional "Anthology of T'ai chi & Qigong: The Prescription for the Future."

Contact Bill, or learn more about World tai Chi Day at http://www.worldtaichiday.org

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