The Pygmalion Effect in Digital Marketing
The Legend
Pygmalion was the King of Cyprus who had a very refined ability for carvings and art. The Greek mythology says that among his creations; was one, so exquisite and perfectly crafted, that the artisan King felt madly in love with it and named it Galatea.
Due to that profund love, the gifted Monarch started praying to the Gods to grant him their blessings and allow his creation to come to live. To become a real woman.
Aphrodite, the Goddess of beauty, touched by the man´s astonishing creation and, of course, by his ardent desire, granted him the wish, and the statue´s rigid-stoned body slowy turned into the most beautiful and delicate woman, with the most tender and loyal heart. That is how the Pygmalion Effect was created.
Applied to our lives, the Pygmalion Effect “is the phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in performance”. In other words; is the process through which all the expectations and hopes we place on one person will modify his or her behavior making them meet those expectations. In Psychology is also known as the Self-fulfilling prophecy.
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Enforcements of the Pygmalion Effect
This effect can be applied to almost every aspect in our lives. The best-known example is a psychological study that was performed in a school. A group of teachers were made to believe that a number of students (randomly chosen) had gotten higher scores than the rest in an intelligence test, so these students would have better results. The curious thing about the study, is that a few months later the students, in fact, got better grades and scored higher than the rest of their classmates.
The teachers had created great expectations for those students, so their behavior focused in that these students had to stand out from the rest. At the same time, the students received those expectations and, conditioned by them, increased their performance.
This effect can be apply also to companies. There is another study where an employee was designated to a job and responsabilities that he was not qualified for and the high expectations, both from bosses and coworkers, made the employee not only to develop his new job well but even to promote himself higher in the company.
In the same way, there are managers who treat their employees in a way that makes them work way below their potential, significantly lowering the productivity of the company.
If you want to learn more about the Pygmalion Effect in the workplace you can take a look at this video: https://goo.gl/5HMf58
Our success is conditioned to the expectations
Is incredible how the expectations others have toward us, can condition our success or failure in our objectives. When someone encourages us, motivates us and really believes in us, we soak ourselves, as sponges, with those beliefs and step on the accelerator and will not stop until achieving the objective.
We really are sensitive and permeable to the expectations of others, in such a way that they influence our actions.
In the same way, we can exercise a Pygmalion Effect (PE) on the people surrounding us and encourage them to fully develop their vital objectives. Is a very powerful weapon, but also has a double edge: a positive PE can be highly beneficial and, a negative PE can destroy the illusions and limit the potential of a person.
Let us reflect on this:
How many times have you had a “great idea” and when sharing it to someone dear to your heart their negative expectations influence you to the point of distrust your own intuition and selfesteem? I´m not saying that all great ideas should be led to completion nor that an external critique before boarding in a project is not good, but many times (most of the time) the people exert a negative PE on us and make us lose our stamina forcing us to fail our objectives. In the majority of the cases they do this involuntary, but the effect is equally devastating.
PE In Digital Marketing
To this point, we understand how deeply can we (and others) influence the mindset of a person or of a group. In marketing: the mindset of a market objective or niche.
Take a look at The Big List of Power Words: 189 Phrases That Influence, Persuade, and Convert https://goo.gl/zWYxCq
What we want to achieve as Marketers, SEO experts, Media Managers, Community Managers, Influencers or whatever we do on the Digital Marketing chain; is to be ble to set our expectations into our clients´ mind and make them believe in their own capacity to become the best costumers and advocates of our brand or product; or of the brand and product that we are managing.
And how do we do that? Not by “justifying” our brand (directly) and how we made it or why we made it. Not by underlining how “great” our brand or product is and how it is necessary to cover certain need but, by making people believe how appreciated and backed up by our company they are for using our brand and products and how they can excell their lives with us in their lives.
Taking them to that state-of-mind where they will believe that their lives can only be better if they incorporate our product to their regular lifestyle and, to convince them that they need to share their experience with others anytime they see the chance. Because the brand and product they are using can only be great and be the best out there by believing it is better than anything else in market, by advocating for it.
The results will ASTONISH you. The power of influence other´s minds needs to be incorporated to your Marketing Strategy. Remember now. To be the best version of ourselves is to belive we are the best version of ourselves.
Here´s another list of persuasive words you have to use to influece your market and to better craft your Marketing Strategy: https://goo.gl/AYol0
Note: Please, if you spot a typo or can identify and error or my “accent” within the lines of this post, be gentle, and point me the mistakes and I will correct them. My English is not my first language but, I am learning and improving myself.
Twitter: @maurobetancourt
