~~~~ Design is a very subjective thing, therefore, if you ask me how to come up with a first class design for your marketing collateral or publishing mediums, it would be very unfair for me or anyone else to tell you what is a good design and what is a bad design. But there are certain elements and principles that we should look for in a design to determine whether design and layout of material will be able to carry message across effectively to readers and your potential market. The main aim of every design material related to advertising or promotion is either to sell something, promote something or brand a company.

Keep design and layout simple and clean The more cluttered or messy layout and design is for your marketing collateral, harder it would be for your customers to find important stuff. So, don’t overcrowd design of your marketing materials. First and foremost, it should be kept clean and very simple. Yes, we all want to fit as much information as we can into design but hey, keep purpose of design of marketing stuff in mind. You want to design a novel or design something that sells.

Author: Dorian Greer Email: editor(at)seducingthebuyer.com

Category: Marketing / Advertising / Psychology Copyright 2005

Web Address: http://www.SeducingTheBuyer.com Blog Address: http://www.SeducingTheBuyer.com/MT/

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Covert Advertising Psychology through Confirmation Bias by Dorian Greer

Confirmation bias is a tool of choice for covert influence. It's agreeable, it's easy to use, and can motivate smartest of people to believe in weirdest of things.

WARNING: This article gives an example of confirmation bias used to make otherwise intelligent people believe impossible things. The example chosen is based on pervasiveness, to make point obvious, but some might be offended. Publishers beware - example MAY adversely affect some of your audience.

What is Confirmation Bias?

Source: http://skepdic.com/confirmbias.html

"Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs."

This simple yet profound definition is why prejudice won't die, why smart people believe weird things, and why facts seldom (if ever) change a strong belief.

Reinforcing Factually Untrue

The feedback loop created by selective thinking is classic hypnotic methodology. Confirmation bias is thus a way of "pacing one's self" into a state of hypnotic belief.

When used in advertising, confirmation bias is pacing of choice, for raw hypnotic influence.

To wit: The more one absorbs information that agrees with what they already believe, contrary evidence holds less and less value. This is why a person can be "talked" into a hypnotic belief system that is contrary to real world.

Try these examples by answering each question TRUTHFULLY:

1. Does Santa Clause really exist, (led by flying reindeer)? 2. Is our moon made of Swiss cheese? 3. Can snakes talk? 4. Have you ever witnessed magic flying carpets, or a real genie? 5. Do horses fly (Pegasus)?

Now notice that none of these have any factual basis as being true. But they all exist in fantasy, make-believe worlds.