The 6 Weapons of Influence - Essay Sample

Introduction

Human beings feel obliged to pay back to others for good deeds, gifts or service that was offered to them as a way of appreciation. Reciprocity is characterized by a feeling of moral obligation to help an individual or a friend who has ever helped in one's past life. One of the best examples of how reciprocity works is when an individual invites his friends to his wedding party, and they turn up with gifts during the event. In this context, the host may feel a moral obligation to attend to any of the friends who turned up in his wedding day when their turn comes, and he is invited in their party. If one receives favor from a friend, then such turns to be a source of influence when the same collogue is asking for different favor in future.

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At a personal level, I have experienced the reciprocity as a weapon of social influence through one of my colleague whom I had previously invited to my birthday party. The same friend had a thanksgiving service in their family and requested me to grace their event as part of the distinguished friends. I felt compelled by her generosity and commitment that she expressed during my birthday to pay it back by gracing their family event. The fact that I had a class to attend did not make me find an excuse to skip the event, but I felt morally compelled to make the sacrifice of postponing my daily activities to give her the attention and assistance she required. The fact that she has stood with me in the past influenced my decision to commit myself.

Scarcity

The principle is derived from the human desire for things that are hardly enough. Scarcity increases value and demand by people hence can be applied as a weapon of influence. The principle is highly applicable to sales and offers by the business people especially when terms such as "limited offers up for the grab" are used to advertise products. Opportunities will always seem attractive when they are portrayed as limited. The potential of an individual to lose have a significant impact on the human in making their decisions. The marketers must not only tell their potential customers about the benefits of the products and services offered but also what they are likely to lose if they fail to consume what is being provided to them. When people know that the product or service is in limited supply, they perceive it to be more worth, and that increases the demand.

My experience in life with this principle is when I was forced to buy three pairs of shoes from my local outlet after the sales people announced that they were going to offer 40 percent discount for all the products in one day. I bought the three pairs not because I needed all of them, but I was compelled by the fact that the offer will soon be over and the opportunity to buy at the pocket-friendly prices was minimal. The psychology worked for the seller since they were able to create more demand for their products yet they kept extending the offer period until they settled for lower prices permanently.

Authority

People are likely to be easily influenced by those perceived to be experts, knowledgeable or, credible in certain spheres of life. The health expert who displays her registration number and practicing license on her consulting office is likely to be more influential than the one who does not display. The expertise, knowledge or experience may not have to be real but how a person is introduced makes others perceive that they can be trusted and their views can be easily borrowed. For instance, making an introduction by mentioning a person professional title, years of experience and awards can influence people to buy into his consultancy services in any area such as accounting or construction. People are likely to be more affected by what they perceive as an authority emanating from years of experience, knowledge and presentation in their decisions. It is easier to make decisions based on an individual who presents herself as a lawyer when such decisions have legal dimensions and the individual making the decision is convinced that the advice is coming from an expert.

My experience with the principle is within the school where the advice was given by the instructors to a large extent influence my decisions in life. I tend to believe that given the years of experience, knowledge gathered and seniority in age the professor and other academician's expert opinion is very crucial in my life. They can easily influence my decisions and influence behavior change in my life primarily due to the perception about their capacity in giving expert advice. I consider them to have more authority in knowledge and can guide me towards good career and social life even after school.

Liking

People are easily persuaded by those people they like. According to this principle, the persuasion arises from people that we share much in common goals, those who complement and those who corporate in life. Before getting down to the business of advertising, it is good to look out on areas that one share in common to the target group to establish rapport. When the marketer win the souls and the eyes of the target audience they can easily buy into the products or services they are marketing to them. People who are appealing and communicate effectively make good marketers. They can easily fit in the social set up of their target audience, and that can quickly generate sales through persuasion.

I experienced this principle in my life through a close friend of mine who is into business fashion clothes. Any time I pass through his business premises, there is a high likelihood that he will persuade me to check in and buy the latest fashion arrivals. I always find it difficult to resists even when at times my budget is too tight but purely on the basis that we have created a strong friendship bond and like each other. There is a feeling we share a lot of common goals in life and can quickly identify with him. He always has an easy time to persuade me since I admire his character, attitude to life and sense of fashion. He can easily convince me to try something new whenever it pops up in the market and given that I like him there is always a high probability that my buying decision would largely be influenced by his advice and trust that we have built over time.

Consensus

Most people would look into behaviours of others for conformity especially when they are about to indulge in uncertain actions. The business people can use statistics such as "70 percent of the national population use our Dettol products. Business uses testimonials mainly from celebrities or other consumers to influence others to buy similar products. I always find myself being influenced to use a certain brand of toothpaste based on the recommendations from various dentists in the television adverts.

Consistence and Commitment

Individuals are more persuaded when they commit themselves to a goal or idea. Consistence and commitment. There people who have a certain style of dressing and would like to look consistent. Such people will easily get persuaded to buy products that rhyme with their taste of fashion. Consistence and commitment arise from earlier good experiences such as the case of return customers. People would be inspired by continuity and commitment to buy products and services. Consistency builds trust hence people would be easily influenced. Most of my products I purchase from the same outlets and this shows the impact of the principle of consistence in my life. I am always a loyal customer to the businesses that I have ever committed to buy a product or procure a service. Customer loyalty is a product of commitment and consistence.

Conclusion

The most influential weapon of influence is reciprocity based on my personal experiences. I have practiced it quite several times within my social circles of influence, and it has worked quite successfully. People tend to pay back good acts and often when I want to influence my friends or family members I first ensure that I support them in their lives. They feel obligated to reciprocate good acts I extend to them such as honoring my invitation to social life events. It has always worked in my life especially when I need favors from my close social circles. I can trust reciprocity hardly fails me and I feel it is the most influential of all the weapons discussed in this paper.

References

Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: Science and practice (5th Ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.