to think like a con man
marketing is a con that’s executed well. every campaign you ever loved played with your mind and you loved every second of it.
The market for something to believe in is infinite.
— Hugh MacLeod
When everyone binges sitcoms like Friends or How I met your mother. I cycle through Blacklist, The Mentalist and White Collar.
The main characters in these shows are con men. They always escape a dangerous situation, reach their version of reality by the power of words, ideas and influencing people.
If I tell you, you are special, you are one in a million. You will believe me.
If I tell you, I can con 95% of people with this statement. You will believe me again.
Because with the sequence of words, it sounds reasonable & logical. The math feels right.
But I didn’t share any facts or real data to back it up.
There’s a saying that numbers are forgotten but stories leave impact. Let’s say a company performs really well in stock market after their IPO. They publish a report saying 98% of employees are happy working there.
Then one morning, a whistle blower comes in and says, ‘the company’s product destroyed his family and career’. He has a really sob story to tell.
That one story will overpower any metrics of data the company will ever release.
That’s how a con man thinks. “It doesn’t have to be true. You just need to feel it’s true.”
That feeling of trust is what most companies want to crack with their brand campaigns. So, if you were to think like a con artist for a campaign, the steps are pretty simple & quite interesting:
1. Identify the Mark
If you play the con on the wrong target. It will do you more harm than good.
Let’s say you want to sell Cricket equipment and you are targeting people who love cricket.
You can say bye bye to your sales.
Because a major chunk of people who love cricket, love watching it from their couch while gulfing down pizza and beer.
You will have to be very specific on people who love playing cricket.
2. Understand the inside world of the mark
This is the most important part of every con. Knowing your mark better than they know themselves. You need to know:
What do they dream about?
Who do they aspire to be?
What are their fears?
Their insecurities?
Their follies?
What do they take pride in?
These questions can never be answered by asking directly.
Because what we say we want vs what we truly want are different things.
When we say out loud, what we want there’s a bias asking, “How will I be perceived?”
You have to get these answers by cold reading people.
What are they watching?
What are they doing?
Who do they praise?
Who do they declare the enemy?
3. Find the common ground
Whenever con men meet someone new, they connect with them through a shared identity. In Mentalist, Patrick always found some info on the target like their favorite football team, favorite brand of wine or their dog’s name. He would drop the names so subtly that the target gets intrigued and wants to know more.
This is exactly what we do in cold email as well. We use the right amount of personalization to intrigue the prospect to know more.
One of the strongest connection gets build on the basis of ‘where are you from?’
Your birthplace is your identity currency.
People take pride in being from Allahabad (Prayagraj) because Amitabh Bachchan is from there.
In Kaun Banega Crorepati, contestants would try to relate to Mr. Bachchan based on his hometown. Hum aap hi ke sheher ke pass ek gaon mein rehte hai sir.
4. Listen & listen well.
Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower.
Twice.
Lustig was THE con artist of 1920s. He had a simple set of rules that he called the 10 commandments of con-men:
Be a patient listener (don’t be a fast talker)
Never look bored.
Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them.
Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones.
Hint at sex talk, but don’t follow it up unless the other fellow shows a strong interest.
Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown.
Never pry into a person’s personal circumstances (they’ll tell you all eventually).
Never boast. Just let your importance be quietly obvious.
Never be untidy.
Never get drunk.
The key here is that anybody who wants another person to open up to them has to express genuine interest in what the other person has to say. So learn how to become interested in more than yourself.
Ironically, when you become more interested in others, you become more interesting to others.
Our bias makes us think that we are good listeners, while we judge things from only our world view.
The goal is to see the mark’s worldview.
5. Attach feelings to your product
When Steve Jobs exited Apple he had millions to burn and a strong desire to say Fuck You to Apple’s executive team.
He started building NeXT. A computer for academics.
First he spent millions of his own money on expensive logos, advertising space to diss on Apple, building a manufacturing unit, expensive furniture and so much more.. without building the actual product or having any real customers.
Mind you, Apple never owned it’s own manufacturing unit.
The kind of expense sheet Steve created, he came close to bankruptcy.
But Steve was a great salesman. One of the things he did at the beginning of NeXT came to help him now:
Steve has always believed that a strong team needs a visionary story to believe in. So he asked a filmmaker called John Nathan to come and film NeXT’s first team retreat.
What Nathan films winds up becoming a documentary on PBS that’s called Entrepreneurs.
Ross Perot watched it and wrote a $20 million check. He became the first biggest investor of NeXT.
Sometimes, I think Steve Jobs is a really good con man.
He plays on people’s perceptions & desires. With the think different campaign he appealed to the masses by making them feel special.
Owning an apple device became synonymous with: you are artsy, you are creative, you have a flair that others don’t have. You are different.
Steve even thought about how to make products that invoke a sensual desire. Lust.
If you notice, con men have this flair of keeping things excited, to be on the edge, just like him.
6. The long con
The ultimate goal of any brand is to pull a long con. A religious-cult-like con.
You need to keep entertaining them. Make them coming back for more. Build their addiction.
When my Mac stopped working, I found it hard to switch back to a slow Windows laptop. I found reprieve only when I installed Linux.
The point is, Apple makes lusty products. Addictive products.
Steve Jobs wasn’t a genius. He was a damn good con artist who did things with perfection and finesse.
We humans love to believe. Sometimes belief is the only thing that helps us survive. Con artistry is nothing but channeling those believes and giving it an action.
Perhaps, your desired action.
Which we keep calling a CTA