Why do people pay for diddly-squat?
In my mission to hunt down more value for audiences, I noticed a little chasm that I don’t hear discussed. Often, when entertainment is purchased, the customer gets nothing.
Let’s Get Physical
Buy a pair of shoes, boom, they’re on your feet. You can wear them out of the store. Buy a hat online, boom, you can imagine having it, you get a tracking number, boom shows up at the doorstep of your RV!
Let’s get validated
Why do vegans and Crossfitters and Burning Man folks talk your ear off about this stuff? A big part of it is that the buy-in is so big. They believe in and love what they’re doing, but the activity in itself is not enough payoff. Give ’em some validation and they get more reward for their purchase. Actually, this validation is part of the promised reward before buying – you’ll get to brag.
Showbiz & Dopamine
This physical product and social validation both feed our need for instant and consistent dopamine hits! As entertainment purchases get more convenient, they also get more ethereal.
Buying a ticket used to be: you go to the circus, pay them a nickel. You immediately get to walk through the gate and see your peers and smell stuff and see the craziness!
Hiring a performer used to be: you throw a gold coin and a dirty person immediately plays you a fiddle song. Everyone was dirty.
Great entertainment is worth a great price, but a lot of times when cash is exchanged, it can feel like I’ve just paid to commit my time and energy later.
The game in capitalism is to give customers even greater value. Let’s put more frosting on the cake. People wanting this dopamine is not a weakness in purchasers, but a strength for amusement entities that offer it.
Imaginary Things
^ check out this cool software you can buy. It’s a download. When you get it you don’t have anything physical, but when you’re about to purchase it looks like a real thing that comes in a box. This works. It feels like a more tangible thing just because it has a package picture. The purpose isn’t to trick the customer, but to correct the feeling that the customer is getting nothing. It feels like it has more value.
How to hack it
Ideas on how to hack this dopamine desire. I know I’m missing some parts of this because I’m just putting it out now, I’ll probably update with more ideas as time passes.
Physical
- When a ticket is sold online, have a picture of a physical ticket. When the attendee gets a ticket email, make it look like a physical ticket. Give them a chance to print it out and make it more physical
- When someone has the opportunity to hire an entertainer, make it look like a physical package like the software trick above.
- Give physical add-ons to these amorphous buys. As soon as someone buys the ticket, say “Yo!! Your souvenir wrist band is waiting for you! Come pick it up at our box office on March 26”
- Give downloadable add-ons. When hiring a freelancer, you also get a complete success package that includes a downloadable press kit, an announcement video to get your staff excited about them, tech rider, and a PDF bonus guide to the perfect experience.
- Mail a fan kit to your patreon patrons
Social
- Part of paying Netflix is knowing that you’re buying in to something you can talk about with your friends. When I recently rewatched Wayne’s World, I was like “How did I ever like this?!” Then, I remembered everyone was talking about it. I was joining a club.
- You might not have the opportunity to make people feel like they’re part of society at large like Netflix or HBO, but if your entertainment is made for a small community, you can get them all to feel more part of that community by paying for your shit!
- Adding some aspect to a thing can make it more talk-about-able (remarkable)… Like if part of the profits go to charity, or if it’s weird, or if it’s underground. Being a customer means being a good / interesting person.
- Having a wearable thing gives people a chance to envy and a chance to brag. Think of “I voted” or “I gave blood” stickers or “I didn’t eat cookies at midnight for the third time in a row” I need that sticker!
- When downloading a video game, let customers connect to their social network and see who’s talking about it.
- Set up a facebook group for your subscribers only to chat with each other