Modeling Cults

As a copywriter, I disagree wholeheartedly. The thing to keep in mind is that the mechanisms you use to create a self-homogenizing group within your market aren't done on the salesletter. They're done in the list messaging and communications to product owners. The examples Chris gave are good ones as far as how they can be applied.

I think perhaps you should realize that "cult" can have several meanings, and that only one has to do with damaging pseudo-religious organizations. But even within that framework, there are things that can be learned to be used for positive ends.

Sure he is, because it isn't an article about marketing at all. Are you saying there's something wrong with learning new stuff from another field and finding ways to apply it to your own work?

That's not how blind copy works. In blind copy, you state what the product ISN'T and NEVER tell what it actually is. As far as benefit, all it does is promise a result.

Blind copy products sell very, very well when marketed correctly. Retaining those customers is a whole different story, but despite what you claim LOTS of people buy things without knowing exactly what they're getting.

It operates on the same psychological principles. Give yourself to this. Once you do, you are now a part of it, and I can leverage your inner sense of consistency to elicit further behavior from you. It's a sacrifice that happens to have benefits, too. They feel okay about making the sacrifice because of what they get. But it's true for religious sacrifices too. They're all done to earn favor of some kind.

We are all chimpanzees. Even though you may write to a particular need, you are still writing to a group, or else you would only ever sell to one person. What we do relies on the illusion that you can feel like I am talking specifically to you and your personal needs, but I am in fact addressing a huge audience of people just like you.

I agree with these last two statements of yours, though.

If you don't learn all the ways to use the weapons you wield you'll never master them.

No tactic is evil in and of itself. It depends on intent and result.

These methods are already at work around us in millions of ways. If you learn them, you can spot them. Ignorance is not bliss. These mechanisms work because of the unfortified nature of the mind. Even when you are aware of the ways you can be manipulated doesn't mean you are immune.

But regardless, it all depends on what you provide past the sale. If I use what I know of group psychology to manipulate your behavior, but yet you are happier and more well off than you would be otherwise, there IS no harm.

Lots of beneficial organizations operate on the same cult-like principles to keep people engaged and involved. Sometimes these mechanisms even evolve organically. But if you can learn how to do them on purpose, you don't have to wait and hope for it to happen. You can MAKE it happen.

But hey, don't use it if it gives you the heebie jeebies.