The Power of Influence

This week in my MSIDT program we covered Cialdini Six Factors of Persuasion.

Rather thinking about Cialdini concepts in terms of persuasion, I like to frame it as “influence”, particularly the influence of someone’s behavior (which essentially is persuasion, but to me persuasion feels like you don’t have control, influence has some capacity of choice). At one time or another all of us have felt influenced to decide based on reciprocity (you did something for me, now I do something for you, aka ‘favors’), scarcity (something is selling fast and is almost sold out, aka Black Friday), authority (credibility and knowledge, as well as testimonials; aka compliance), consistency, liking and consensus (aka conformity).

While reading the chapter I kept thinking about a favorite website- Sephora.com. Sephora is a cosmetics and beauty giant, owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Sephora implements and integrates each of these strategies in their website. Authority, liking, and consensus are evident in the site. Authority is seen when a user is viewing a product and a video tutorial is available to watch. The tutorial presents a professional makeup artist (MUA) demo’ing a product. The MUA is the professional with knowledge and credibility in the industry and showing how to use the product. Secondly, liking is present through users ability to live chat with one another. Liking is sharing a common interest or a similarity. The chat allows users to connect with those who also like makeup and can exchange information about products and techniques. Lastly, consensus exists through the use of reviews. Reviews are under the product information and price of the product. In the review section, users can describe their experience with the product, express their opinion and provide a rating through stars. Consensus, I would argue, is the most powerful influencing technique because the use of reviews can impact a purchase decision depending on the phrasing and rating of the product.

Think about a time when you were thinking of purchasing something and decided not to because the product or service had negative reviews (or even think about Yelp)- this is all influenced through Cialdini’s factors.

Your turn: Share with me a time where you felt influenced.

-ET