Herd Mentality - Who me? No way !

Are we all subject to the herd mentality?

I would like to believe that I am not. Especially not me!

But, its often our actions that teach us more about human behaviour than what we learn from elsewhere.

Case in Point.

I had signed up to join a meetup group, but what with my crowded schedule and extra activities, I found it difficult to go to the meetup. So, when the meeting sponsor sent out an email to everyone enlisted to confirm if they wanted to meet again for a Christmas party, I ignored that email; eventually deleted it and then completely forgot about it.

Until; about 7 days later, I received a "Reply All" message from someone else in the group. This lady said that she would love to go the the party. I didn't know her, in fact I don't know anybody in the group as I have never been to this meetup.

But in the next few minutes, I had also logged on and signed up for the party.

It was not until I had send the message that I started thinking about my actions and its causes.
The only conclusion was that I had just followed someone quite mindlessly.

In the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, a philiospher who coined the phrase, I had joined the herd and displayed herd mentality.

Read a full definition of Herd Mentality on Wikipedia here.

So, its more prevalent than we thought. More people are susceptible than we earlier understood.

Now the question is: how do we make use of this fact in our marketing?

Simple:
Provide lots of testimonials in your copy.
Give case studies of successful companies.

Anything that your reader can identify with. Once the user can identify with someone in the testimonials, he or she is almost inclined to have what the other person is having. It will be his instinct to go where the herd goes.

And if you are able to channel that powerful instinct, you just made a sale.