Sales, branding, and a lesson from history

Hi Becky!

Wow, what an interesting (yet controversial) topic!

One thing that scares me about Hitler is that he apparently did have some kind of great charisma, despite how evil he was. The scary thing about that is that this kind of thing could happen again.... Remember, Germany was a democracy, and he was first *elected* into office through popular support.

I think his strength of appeal was a kind of ultra-nationalism, he knew the German people were proud of their country and heritage, and he tapped into that feeling, and twisted it for his own ends.

I guess the lesson here is this.... People do have strong emotions about several topics. Some of them are things like patriotism, their love of their family and children, their sense of justice, and so on. Politicians tap into these feelings all the time, of course, with careful campaign strategies designed to appeal to the electorate....

But not only politicians, many advertisements also tap into these genuine feelings most of us share....

Joseph Sugarman says (in his book, "Advertising Secrets of the Written Word") that people buy based on emotion, but justify their purchases with logic. Sugarman is a highly successful direct response marketer. He's probably best known nowadays for "BluBlocker sunglasses," though in the 1970s and early 1980s he was best known for his JS&A catalog.

Anyhow, if his statement is true, then clearly emotion is an important key in inducing people buy purchase something. And these issues -- such as patriotism, family, and even money -- are some of the most emotional issues around!

- Dien Rice