Blog #7

This portion of Made To Stick discussed the importance of establishing credibility in marketing by including vivid details that provide imagery that make audiences of prospective customers more willing to listen to any sort of effort you might make to sell your product. An example the authors use is that of the “Darth Vader toothbrush.” University of Michigan researchers put on a mock trial complete with jurors and witnesses to test how the credibility of witnesses resonated with jurors when vivid details were either added or omitted from the witnesses’ testimony to the court. The “Darth Vader toothbrush” detail was in the case of a mother who was fighting for custody of her son and was answering to charges that she was a neglectful mother who was not a constant presence in her son’s life and was thus unable to care for him. The toothbrush example was inserted into a witness’ testimony to put the image of a little boy and his Star Wars toothbrush obeying his mother’s instruction to brush his teeth in the minds of jurors to give the impression that she was indeed a caring mother, and the researchers’ results showed that it worked. Including vivid details when pitching a product or when attempting to attract people into an online community can be extremely effective because it makes it less obvious that you are trying to directly influence their thoughts and desires, and makes your product the main draw, keeping that foremost in your audience’s minds.