Nathan Hangen

Product Value Part 2: Emotional Appeals and Treating Her Right

In the 1st part of this series, we talked about the impact price has on perceived value.

There were a lot of great comments…some from people that disagreed, but that’s cool.

But, there were 2 things that most people agree on:

1. Everyone has a “max price” that they’ll pay for something
2. Emotional appeal has a lot to do with that price.

So where does that leave us?

Well, as a marketer, it’s my job to create an emotional appeal so that I can raise the value of #1 without losing sales, fans, or customer loyalty.

The problem, is that price has little to do with emotional appeal.

Setting price is just the first part, but there’s something in between pricing and buying that can make or break the success of a product…you guessed it…

The Launch

Product launches are everywhere. Hollywood does it. Record labels do it. Technology companies do it. Online marketers do it.

The problem that online marketers face is trying to launch something to a crowd that knows launches well enough to call a play-by-play throughout the process.

“Uh oh…here’s the list building freebie.”

“Here comes the free video.”

“Here comes the scarcity.”

etc…

But for some reason, we don’t mind when other industries pitch to us, even though in many cases they’re using the same strategies that you and I would when marketing products online.

Why?

Well, for the most part, it’s because those companies marketing movies, music, and books are savvy enough to distract us from the launch by creating an emotional appeal. We know we’re being launched to, but we forget about it because we fall in love with the product.

When it finally comes time for launch day…we’re drooling all over ourselves trying to get in, many times, at any cost.

Even if we walk out disappointed or feel like we overpaid, we still come back the next time.

So, the trick then is to use a product launch not only to create an emotional appeal, but to justify the price of your product or service.

A good marketer can do both of these at the same time, but a struggling marketer might not get any of it right…which is how they end up selling their $1,000 product “on sale” for $299.

So, to fix this, we’ll start with the 2nd part, because in getting that right, we can get the 1st right as well.

How the Launch Justifies the Price

Let’s use the example of Andy Jenkin’s latest launch, Video Boss.

I’ll be honest in saying that before I watched any of the videos, I wouldn’t have paid more than a few hundred dollars for the course.

But once I started watching the videos…something crazy happened. I found myself getting hyptnotized and drooling all over myself, even though I knew what was happening.

Technology

The first thing that Andy did right was do make videos that looked better than anything we’d ever seen before. The videos were high res audio and video…very classy.

Even though the content was kind of weak…the quality of the launch videos alone had started to raise that price bar up a notch.

Soon I was thinking “OK, this is probably worth a grand, np.”

But as the launch continued, and the quality of the materials on both the opt-in pages and the sales pages improved…I saw that price bar keep moving up…and up…and up.

Next thing you know, it’s launch day and I almost spent $1997 on something I hadn’t planned to spend more than a few hundred on.

Ebooks

I didn’t even know what kind of content I could expect from this course, but I was ready to buy it. It doesn’t matter if it were an ebook, video, coaching, etc. He treated his product like a million bucks.

But why is it that when people market an ebook they treat it like one. Why do they just slap up a sales page or a few cheap videos?

Why do you treat your virtual retreat or your coaching service with such disrespect?

What I’m trying to say here is that your product will sell based on the value you create during your launch. If your launch materials look shitty, then so will your product.

If your sales page looks cheap, so too will your product.

However, if someone like Frank Kern or Andy Jenkins can take a product, dress it up a little, and sell it for 4x what I expected they would, suddenly I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.

Beyond Blogging sold for $47 because we were able to create decent launch materials and get a lot of big guys and gals to help us out. Our launch was packaged nice and pretty.

But when I look at a product like my Twitter Marketing Manifesto, which is one of my best pieces of work, and see that it’s just as good but only selling for $18…I’m pretty sure I can name the reason why…

Because my launch looked like crap. I rushed the video. I rushed the copy. I rushed my header. I didn’t package it up as well as I could have…and even though my product is worth more than $18…it is priced at the value not of the product, but of the packaging.

Frank Kern can take an $18 ebook and make it worth $197 by simply adding some shiny packaging and cool launch videos.

In other words, your product’s perceived value depends on the perceived value of your launch.

Emotional Appeal

So, we’ve got great videos, freebies, launch materials, and graphics. How do we take that and create a strong emotional appeal?

Well, Andy did it by creating the very same videos that he wanted to teach you to create. He wowed us with his video masterpieces…told us we could have them too…and made us believe we could.

The truth is that I don’t think I could make videos like that, but Andy had me believing I could.

The same thing happened with Frank Kern and the videos on the beach during his Mass Control launch.

The same thing that Brian Clark did by telling us Third Triber success stories.

The same thing that Gary Vaynerchuk does when talking about passion and crushing it.

Part of creating an emotional appeal is getting people to buy in to your message. The proof is in the pudding…so to speak.

The 2nd part is to make people want to be that message. I make very few videos compared to someone like Gary V…but I really wanted to become a video all-star during the Video Boss launch.

I didn’t really want to see Avatar, but because everyone was talking about it…how couldn’t I?

I didn’t want an iPhone…but damn if there’s an app for that then I’ve got to have one.

See what I’m saying? This emotional appeal isn’t related to rational behavior, but is linked to manifesting a desire that people can buy in to.

It’s in the launch. It’s in the packaging. It’s in the ecover. It’s in the sales copy. It’s in the testimonials.

And we haven’t even talked about content yet!

Moving Towards the Climax

We’ll talk next time about how to make sure customers keep that perceived value and that the emotional appeal of your product doesn’t go away even after the purchase (i.e. EVERYONE talking about Avatar), but for now, I just want you to think about how you launch and package your products.

If you treat them like a runt, then they’ll look like one. But if you dress them up, make them look pretty, and treat them like they are one of your kids…then you’ll have instantly increased the perceived value and created something that looks worth buying.

The next step is to find a way to appeal to your buyers that gets them to buy in and want to be part of the experience.

Lastly, I’d like to ask you…

What kind of products have you purchased based on irrational or motivationally driven behavior? It works, doesn’t it?

Image Credit

Recommended Posts

• Welcome Twitip Readers
• Building an Empire is Building a Community
• The Bloggers Guide to Getting Attention
• The Secret to Great Marketing
• Marketing is Overrated

Enjoy this post?

Sign-up for my newsletter and get regular updates.

Plus, you'll receive "5 Steps to Building an Empire" free.

Your Name:
Your Email: