I heard of a surprising experiment this week.
(Through Phill Agnew’s excellent ‘Nudge’ podcast.)
It found we’re more likely to buy a particular brand if its name starts with the same letter as our names!
So, as a Kim, I’d be more likely to buy Kelloggs cereal or (if I were 30 years younger) Kylie cosmetics.
I didn’t think I was so easily influenced. But looking at the Kelloggs Special K in my kitchen cupboard, there might be some truth in this!
(Not to mention our cat food that shares its entire name with my husband. Don’t worry, he’s not called Whiskas.)
In another similar experiment Agnew shares, researchers increased responses to a mailed survey by a whopping 50% by tweaking just one tiny detail.
In the cover letter they changed the name of the sender/organiser to sound like the recipient.
So if it had been sent to me, they would have named the sender Kimberly Arnaud or Kym Arnett.
What do both of these experiments have in common?
Well, they trigger the ‘Liking Principle’.
It states that we like people who:
are similar to us
pay us (genuine) compliments
who work with us towards mutual goals
And, as I’m sure you know only too well, we prefer to say yes to people that we like.
When we’re in the thick of it, firing messages back and forth at warp speed, it can be easy to forget to be likeable. To create connections with people. To find common ground.
We get so preoccupied with our end goal that everything else goes out of the window.
But being likeable is one of the simplest and easiest ways to stuff done.
I’ll share more tips on how you can use the Liking Principle in your everyday emails next week.
In the meantime, check your kitchen cupboards and tell me: are you as easily influenced as me?!
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