If you are serious about copywriting, marketing or sales then there is one book you really should read.
It’s called The Hidden Persuaders.
It’s an exposé written by the late great Vance Packard.
Although 60 years old, it is still 100% relevant because human psychology hasn’t changed one bit!
Here are the key takeaways:
1. Motivational researchers know how to manipulate us because they’ve studied:
- Our dreams, hidden desires, guilt complexes, secret distresses and blockages
- Why we do things
- Our weaknesses
2. There are 3 kinds of human consciousness:
• Conscious mind – everything within our field of awareness
• Pre-conscious mind – just below the level of consciousness, i.e. attitudes we have but cannot easily explain
• Subconscious – things we are not consciously aware of and cannot explain
3. We all have the following hidden needs that agents of influence can manipulate to make us act in specific ways:
• Emotional security
• Reassurance of self-worth
• Ego gratification
• Creativity
• Love objects
• Power
• Roots
• Immortality
The Mad Men knew all this psychology back in the 50s. It helped create the ads that made the world we live in.
Don’t you think it’s about time you knew about it too?