In 2010, researchers gave patients with irritable bowel syndrome pills containing \ud835\ude2f\ud835\ude30 \ud835\ude22\ud835\ude24\ud835\ude35\ud835\ude2a\ud835\ude37\ud835\ude26 \ud835\ude2e\ud835\ude26\ud835\ude25\ud835\ude2a\ud835\ude24\ud835\ude22\ud835\ude35\ud835\ude2a\ud835\ude30\ud835\ude2f.<\/p>\n
The patients knew they were placebos.<\/p>\n
Yet 59% of those taking the pills reported adequate symptom relief, compared with 35% receiving no treatment.<\/p>\n
The researchers had explained that placebos sometimes produce beneficial responses, even when patients know what they’re taking.<\/p>\n
That raises an interesting question about selling.<\/p>\n
Some marketers believe the greatest illusion produces the greatest profit. Find the fantasy behind the customer’s desires, make it irresistible, and collect the money.<\/p>\n
But what if the fantasy doesn’t require deception?<\/p>\n
Consider someone selling a course on becoming a successful freelance copywriter.<\/p>\n
The familiar approach sells financial freedom, working from beaches, and escaping the nine-to-five grind. The difficult parts are often glossed over if they are mentioned at all.<\/p>\n
Now imagine showing prospects exactly what success requires: writing bad drafts, enduring criticism, prospecting for clients, and handling rejection.<\/p>\n
Then show them the life these efforts could eventually make possible.<\/p>\n
Would that destroy the appeal?<\/p>\n
Perhaps. But it might attract buyers more likely to finish the course, get results, and recommend it.<\/p>\n
The placebo experiment doesn’t prove this marketing hypothesis. It demonstrates something narrower: knowing an intervention’s limitations doesn’t necessarily eliminate a beneficial response.<\/p>\n
A marketer who exaggerates may win today’s sale while creating tomorrow’s disappointed customer.<\/p>\n
The bigger opportunity might be discovering how much desire survives when you remove the deception. And whether that produces more profitable customers over time.<\/p>\n
RW<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2010, researchers gave patients with irritable bowel syndrome pills containing \ud835\ude2f\ud835\ude30 \ud835\ude22\ud835\ude24\ud835\ude35\ud835\ude2a\ud835\ude37\ud835\ude26 \ud835\ude2e\ud835\ude26\ud835\ude25\ud835\ude2a\ud835\ude24\ud835\ude22\ud835\ude35\ud835\ude2a\ud835\ude30\ud835\ude2f. The patients knew they were placebos. Yet 59% of those taking the pills reported adequate symptom relief, compared with 35% receiving no treatment. The researchers had explained that placebos sometimes produce beneficial responses, even when patients know what they’re taking. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buying-psychology","category-copywriting"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":696,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}