Influence has become a buzzword now in the social media and marketing industry. There were always influenecrs around us. From celebrities to those few kids in our school. With people hanging out on social media networks, many have become mini celebrities who influence our decision and we don’t even know how and when it happens, the authors call this invisible influence.
Yeah . . . yeah . . . I hear those objection and cries of “I am not influenced by what people do”. Do you just outright throw out an option just because someone else in your group has bought or done something. Isn’t that influence too? One way or other, you are influenced.
In Invisible Influence, Jonah Berger shows us how we are influenced by those around us. And this doesn’t mean you go and buy or do something immediately, just because your friends have. He shows us how life changing decisions like choosing our careers to more mundane things like buying a phone are made because of what others around us do. Jonah Berger is a Marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and author of New Your Times bestselling book Contagious.
Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior
Author: Jonah Berger
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 14, 2016)
ISBN: 1476759693, 978-1476759692
Invisible Influence packs loads of data and research that shows us how bias works. Advertising has long worked on how influence works, you will see celebrities and successful people personas selling luxury products, a peer of the target audience selling a more functional product, and kids doing the job when it comes to emotional connect.
Familiarity breeds contempt, well, not when it comes to visual cues. The author shows how people make a visual connection and then out of a sea of unfamiliar faces, select the one they are most familiar with. And this happens not just with people but also with products. A logo or packaging that is familiar to the audience will get picked up more frequently off the shelf than a label that the buyer is not familiar with, although both products are of same quality and price.
We like to think of ourselves as independent thinkers. But when it comes to expressing an opinion or answering a question in front of a group, we tend to resign to the safety of numbers and go with the most popular one. With various everyday examples – like whether to wear a jacket or not – Berger shows us how we are influenced by those around us in different ways and how we are wired to imitate.
Invisible Influence documents several ways in which we are influenced by external factors and the world we live in. Jonah Berger shows us how these subtle psychological cues affect our thinking and drive us to make decisions.
“Birds of Feather Flock Together” or more like “Those who flock together become birds of feather”.
The book is a useful resource for anyone who works in the business of influencing. It is an interesting read if you like to understand how influence works. There is a lot that goes into a decision-making process, but little things and events can nudge people in the direction you want to take them. Invisible Influence can show you when people tend to mimic, when they lean to the safety of numbers, and when they try to differentiate themselves from the masses.