Three Fascination Triggers that persuaded me to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Recently, I realized that I watched over 8 hours of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies. That is on top of the Avengers: Age of Ultron that I watched on the last week of May.
Even I was surprised. I seldom watch movies at the comforts of my home. I rarely go to the cinemas. It is not that I am not a movie fan; it is just that I felt that there were other things to do than to sit inside the movie house for two hours (aside from the fact that it is bad for my back).
I kept on asking myself why I did that (do not worry; I did not watch the whole MCU in one sitting. However, I will admit, though, that I did a playback to watch some of the movie scenes). For one, I really got many things to do — a portfolio to finish and UpWork credits to empty on my profile, aside from a book to read. I felt so guilty that I told myself I needed to learn something from the Marvel-mania that bit me.
After reading the book of Sally Hogshead, Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, I understood why: Marvel bewitched me.
According to Hogshead’s book, anything and anyone can be more fascinating. There are seven fascination triggers that companies and individuals use to earn attention: power, mystique, alarm, prestige, innovation, trust and passion. Each of the seven fascination triggers that she mentioned in the book has a different purpose and creates different types of response, thus they are shortcut to persuasion.
As I read the book, not only was I able to understand my personal fascination triggers (Innovation and Trust as primary and secondary triggers, respectively). I also figured out which of the seven fascination advantages did the Marvel Cinematic Universe used to persuade me to watch the movies.
Dim the lights and hold on to your popcorns.
Mystique
In mystique fascination trigger, you encourage others to learn more about your message. It doles out information without ever giving anything away. People will be intrigued, thus seek information.
There are four main ways to trigger mystique, and Marvel played on three: spark curiosity, withhold information, build mythology, and limit access.
Blame the promotion tactics for the Avengers: Age of Ultron that I watched the first Avengers movie before I watched the sequel. Sure, I watched the first movie a few months back, but these things and characters never bothered me before — Loki’s scepter, The Falcon, post-scene credits, and so on. Soon, it sparked my curiosity; I was intrigued. Because I had questions that needed answers, I researched and found out that I needed to watch the other MCU movies (hence the total of 10 hours of phase 1 and 2 of MCU).
Marvel’s ability to withhold information also fascinates the moviegoers like me. What is going to happen to Iron Man (will there be a 4th movie)? When will Hulk appear? What is in store for the new Avengers team?
The mystique fascination that MCU triggered also built mythology around their movies. News articles continue to draw conclusions. Even the supposedly Spiderman post-credit scene in the Avengers: Age of Ultron made me believe there was such. It was only when Director Joss Whedon confirmed during the Avengers: Age of Ultron UK press conference that it was not true that I took a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, I need not stay for the whole credits to wait for the post-credits.
I am not sure if Marvel’s move of presenting the MCU phases is good. Just search for MCU Phases and you will see what movies are in store for you in the next few years. For sure, that it not limiting access in terms of the mystique trigger. Well, if their intention is for you to mark your calendars and save money, then they absolutely smashed it.
Alarm
With alarm, you compel others to behave more urgently. To avoid negative consequences, people will have to take action.
Out of alarm’s five pillars, Marvel used these two efficiently: define consequences and create deadlines.
Marvels simplest summarized the use of these alarm pillars to me in one word: scarcity. I was just planning to wait for the DVD of Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, if I do not watch it, I will not be able to understand the other movies (Ant Man is showing in July 2015). To add, as the weeks went by, the theaters were showing less and less of Avengers: Age of Ultron because of the upcoming movies (a negative threat!). If the new movies were shown, then I would lose my chances in watching the movie.
You know what are other negative threats? Not being able to connect with others who watched the movie and reading the news articles yet none of them seemed comprehensible to you.
So thank you, scarcity, triggered by alarm, for not making me wait for the DVD.
Trust
With trust, your message will comfort others, relax them, and bind more closely to you. This trigger guides everyday decision making in a different way: familiarity and comfort. Thus, trust must be established consistently.
Four out of five pillars helped established trust for MCU: becoming familiar, repeat and retell, becoming authentic and accelerating trust.
In becoming familiar, we look for patterns. When we recognize them, we not only rely on them, but also develop preferences based on pattern repetition. This is further explained in the “exposure effect”, which states that the more we are exposed to something or someone, the more we trust it. I bet that if you do not see the names Kevin Paige, Jon Favreau, Shane Black, and of course, Stan Lee, among others, on the MCU movie credits, you will not feel very comfortable.
Moreover, in becoming familiar, we want to know exactly what to expect. Trusted brands, like Marvel, reliably deliver specific qualities. Most of Marvel superheroes mostly rely on these story patterns:
a) They are humans who have the same problems like you and me then something happens to them that will enable them to find out their superpowers; or
b) They are not humans but they found their way to Earth and found humans cool to be friends, thus helping to defend it when trouble comes.
We have not even talked of the celebrity part of becoming familiar. We trusted Joss Whedon to pull out a multi-character movie because he was the guy behind the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer TV series. Robert Downey Jr. has your loyalty back because you can no longer separate him from Tony Stark; and yes, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth were present in any sexiest Homo sapiens list.
Marvel started as a comic book. Soon, it spread its content to TV series and movies. The message of superheroes-help-save-the-world is consistent whichever medium is used. The repeated and consistent message shows the repeat and retell pillar of trust.
In becoming authentic, the more similar something is to our expectations, the more we count on it. You expected Tony Stark to continue to work on the scepter because you felt his fear during the New York City attack in the first Avengers movie. You never doubted Captain America’s leadership (and how he wants to be always positive). You never imagined Thor as less mighty even a bit, did you?
How about the accelerating trust pillar? We turn our heads to Mark Ruffalo.
He was not the original Incredible Hulk/Bruce Banner in the previous Marvel movies (Eric Bana and Edward Norton were the first guys to turn green). It was not surprising when everyone asked, “Will this independent film actor live up to the expectations?”
What Ruffalo did was rely on a value that has been trusted over time. He went back and studied the Incredible Hulk TV series in the 1970s, played by Bill Bixby as Dr. Banner (in the May 2015 issue of Rolling Stone, it was mentioned that Bixby and Ruffalo looked alike) and Lou Ferrigno as The Incredible Hulk. The TV series made the Hulk/Banner character authentic, as the show were viewed many times. By reinventing the character plus the CGI technology that we now have, Ruffalo was able to shorten the time frame needed to develop trust.
