In today’s era of information explosion, marketing faces a core challenge: how to make users feel the relevance of advertising to themselves from massive information, so as to generate a sense of substitution and desire to buy? This paper delves into the importance of “scene making” in modern marketing by analyzing the “bystander effect” and its impact on marketing.
In 1964, a young woman in New York City, USA, was murdered in front of her house, with 13 stabbed wounds all over her body, and the murderer stabbed her twice and stabbed her three times.
During the investigation, the police found that the crime site was not only not remote, but even 38 people in nearby apartments witnessed or heard the attack, and unfortunately the crime lasted for more than half an hour, and only one person chose to call the police.
The New York Times then published a headline, triggering a big discussion about the indifference of the people in the United States: What caused dozens of citizens to “watch” the murderer kill their neighbors in more than half an hour?
Many people think that this is because of human indifference, just like the question of “whether to help or not”, and bystanders are deeply afraid that their interests will be harmed.
But that’s not the case.
Social psychologists analyzed the reactions of bystanders in the incident and believed that it was because there were too many eyewitnesses watching the incident, which reduced the individual’s willingness to help, which they called thisResponsibility diffusion。
That is to say, the more bystanders there are, the more people will have a thought in their hearts: “Someone will help him, I don’t have to go” and “This is someone else’s business, it has nothing to do with me”, which is the origin of the bystander effect.
Today, I am not talking about social issues, but because the bystander effect can be seen everywhere, and it can even be said like this:If your product doesn’t sell well, more than half of it will be affected by it.
1. The first problem of marketing
Many people think that the biggest problem in marketing is: how to stimulate demand so that people who are not willing to buy want to buy.
But before solving this problem, there is another problem that is even more deadly, namelyHow to make users feel a sense of substitution and make them realize that the advertisement is for him, not to others.
What does a product manager need to do?
In the process of a product from scratch, it is not easy to do a good job in the role of product manager, in addition to the well-known writing requirements, writing requirements, writing requirements, there are many things to do. The product manager is not what you think, but will only ask you for trouble, make a request:
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Because once he thinks that this is said to someone else and has nothing to do with him, the brain will turn on the blocking mode and ignore the advertisement directly in order to save resources.
This is the bystander effect mentioned earlier, the impact on your advertising.
This is especially easy to lead to when doing marketing.
Why?
Because marketing is one-to-many communication.
What is One-to-Many? It is one person to multiple people, the opposite is one-to-one communication, such as sales.
One-to-many communication scenarios mean that there are multiple listeners at the same time, and you are not speaking to a single person alone.
The advantage is that it improves communication efficiency, but the disadvantage is that users are likely to feel that you are not talking to him, but to others, so that they can receive and process your information from the perspective of a bystander.
Recently, we have a product line of teaching self-media that wants to connect orders to students, and needs to investigate the operation of students’ accounts after the end of the course, so we visited more than 5,000 students in the operation design questionnaire, and only more than 300 people filled out the questionnaire.
The operation classmates think it’s outrageous, and anyone is not interested in making money?
I said, you send me the words, so I saw this words:
If you are a user and see such a long piece of content, will you read it seriously, or ignore it as a mass advertisement?
Most likely it will be used as an advertisement. Because mass advertisements look like this, in order to save trouble, all the information is listed at one time, and the cognitive pressure is given to users.
This is a typical “misuse of 1-to-many communication methods in 1-to-1 communication scenarios” (you go through the chat records with friends, how many conversations are more than three lines in real 1-to-1 communication scenarios?) Although it greatly improves the efficiency of communication, it makes people feel that it is not what he said and has nothing to do with him.
This is the effect of the bystander effect, the more people communicate, the easier it is to trigger this effect.
So how to solve the problem? Or how do you make the audience feel that you are speaking to him?
The most effective methods:shaping the scene,Let users feel a sense of substitution.
2. What is a scene?
Since I entered the Internet industry, “scene” is one of the words I hear most often. But whenever I ask what the scene is, they always give me vague answers, such as:
“Scenes are scenes from dramas and movies”
“The scene is the plot of the conflict”
“Scene is environment”
“User as Scene”
I really listen to you!
The reason why the definition of the scene is difficult to get a standard explanation is because the meaning of the scene is different for different industries.
1. Real-world scenes
In real life, we are talking about a scenario that is easy to understand, that is, the situation (situation and environment) we are in, not only the environment around us at this moment, but also our state: what we are doing and what we are going to do.
For example, at the moment I am sitting in front of the computer in my room typing quietly. At this time, the night, the room and everything in the room, the state of typing and thinking, this is the scene I am in now.
2. Scenes in film and television dramas
The meaning of the scene in film and television dramas is similar to the meaning of the scene in the real world, but in film and television dramas, the purpose of building scenes is actually to simulate the real world and make people feel the reality of the story.
Since it is a simulation, it is difficult to restore the real scene 100%, and there will definitely be inconsideration or negligence. Therefore, in the creation of film and television drama scripts, we will take a back seat and give priority to meeting certain necessary elements to simulate a simplified scene.
What are the essential elements?
The scene elements in the script are usually divided into 4W1H, that is, who (Who) is when, where, what, and how.
Of course, these are just five essential elements for scenes in film and television dramas. The more realistic the scene in film and television dramas, the better the scene, the more it can make people feel immersed and immersive.
For example, Stephen Chow’s movie. In order to pursue the ultimate realism of the scene, Stephen Chow attaches great importance to the detailed portrayal of environmental scenes in addition to the presentation of the main characters.
We usually praise his creativity and acting skills the most, but if you look closely at his movies and pay attention to the characters in the background in the distance, you will find that in his movies, even the innocuous background NPCs have their own corresponding identities and tasks.
For example, the woodcutter in the background, what should the real woodcutter do at this time and place? Sell timber fire. Look at other people, does everyone have their own identity and what they should do? Instead of doing nothing as a background board.
Close-up, there is also a blurred figure in the background that seems to be drawing water, which is outrageous, this group performance can not appear at all, because the background has blurred to this extent, simply can’t see clearly, why not save manpower and material resources to prevent the group performance from appearing? But it still appeared, all to present the real life scene of the town.
Many times, whether the plot of this scene can mobilize the audience’s emotions depends not only on the actors’ expressions, movements and lines, but also on the people, voices, colors, light, and props in the scene. This is the role of a good scene, which makes us “immersive”. Think about some divine dramas, goofs, and make you feel like you are jumping out, and the gap is here.
If you say that making movies is far away from us, then let’s look at another example, the following is a screenshot of a video of a Xiaohongshu account, the account name is @Grumpy Morning Education Consulting. Obviously, this is a marketing account for a company.
In September last year, this account became the seventh place in Xiaohongshu’s fan growth list, with 210,000 followers in a month, and now it is a proper million fans. Being able to get such a high increase in fans is definitely inseparable from the script planning, the expressiveness of the actors, and the company’s operation, but if you look at the scene layout, it is also very detailed.
If you are a student preparing for the exam, will you stay here for a while?
Why?
Because it’s so real, isn’t this my bedroom? Did you install a camera in my house?
Look at it for a few more seconds, eh, this person is so interesting!
If you cover the account name and product button, you will most likely think that this is a top student sister teaching you to prepare for the exam at home, but you will not think that this is an official account of a company.
3. Scenes in literature
In literary works, because there is no picture, the reader’s imagination can only be stimulated through words, and if you want to achieve such an effect, you need to spend a lot of text to describe more details, so that the reader can imagine the picture in their minds.
To this end, the writers had to expand the scope and add more elements to the “definition of the scene”, which not only included the aforementioned 4W1H, but even included the five senses, actions, dialogue, conflicts, character relationships, etc.
The scene description in the novel “Notes on Tomb Robbery”
The scene contains more and more elements and has become a unit of the storyline.
Of course, no matter how the scenes in film and television or literature are interpreted, they all have one thing in common:Let the reader/audience be immersed in the picture, even if it is a wild imagination. The richer the details, the more this scene isauthentic, the easier it is to substitute.
4. Scenarios in marketing
Compared with literary works that can only rely on words, the Internet can use more diverse forms of information presentation when shaping scenes, but it also encounters new challenges.
In film and television dramas, directors can present scenes through real shots and special effects, but on the Internet, due to time and cost constraints, it is still difficult for most companies or individuals to restore scenes with real shots and special effects.
It is not realistic to use large texts to describe details like in novels, because online users simply do not have the patience to read it.
So how can we save costs and quickly build scenarios?
3. How to quickly build a scene?
In fact, we don’t need to present all the elements of the real scene in detail – that would be time-consuming and laborious, and the effect may not be good (think about the description of a large scene in a novel, where does the patience of users come from on the Internet of information explosion?). ）。
A more convenient and engaging approach to the user’s brain is:
With the help of users’ existing memory fragments, key elements are used to “hook” their associations, and let them “brain” to create a complete scene picture.
The principle behind this is precisely because the human brain is powerfulAssociative memory。
What is associative memory? To put it simply, the brain is accustomed to storing and extracting information in the way of “finding associations”.
- When stored:The brain will remember a new event A and will desperately look for similarities or connections between it and existing memory B. Once this “hook” is found, A can be firmly hung next to B and not easily forgotten.
- When extracting:On the contrary, if you encounter a clue that can trigger a memory (such as a picture, a sound, a smell), the brain is like a detective who has found key evidence and can instantly “solve the case” and extract the entire associated memory fragment (scene), with extremely high efficiency and low energy consumption.
For example, when you first see a friend’s newly purchased thermos mug, you may turn your head and forget the details of the cup. But a few days later, if you see him drinking hot coffee from this cup in a café again, and the cup is still steaming – this “café + hot drink” scene instantly activates your previous memory: “Ah yes! He showed me this cup that day! The unfamiliar information of the cup is firmly hooked through the association of the familiar scene of “drinking hot drinks in a café”.
That’s the power of key tip messages! We don’t need to recreate the entire café, just a detail of “hot drink + steam” is enough to awaken your entire plot memory of “a friend’s new thermos cup in the café”.
Our brains are like warehouses, storing countless fragments of life (episodic memories), andThe five types of information such as time, place, person, mood, and status are the most effective keys to open these warehouses.
1. Why are these five key?
Because they constitute the most central and easily remembered scene framework in our daily lives:
- Time:Restless waking up in the early morning by an alarm clock? The loneliness of scrolling through your phone late at night? Excited after work on Friday?The time point comes with strong emotional and atmospheric filters.
- Place:Crowded subway cars? A messy bedroom on the weekend? A brightly lit office? Corner of a café?The location is the physical container and atmospheric tone of the scene.
- Figure:Not only identity (worker, mother, student), but also state – is a new mother in a hurry? Is it an overtime worker with a frown? Or salted fish slumped on the sofa?The specific state of the characters makes the scene come alive.
- Mood:Anxiety, excitement, exhaustion, boredom, sweetness, embarrassment……Mood is the emotional background of the scene, and it also determines the depth of user substitution and the strength of resonance.
- State:Is it sweating profusely after just exercising? Is it a cold and a headache? Is it hungry that the chest is pressed against the back? Did you just finish being scolded by the leader?A specific physiological or situational state is an extremely strong memory trigger.
People are thereMood swings(extremely happy, angry, anxious) orSpecial status(extreme exhaustion, illness, hunger), perception becomes extremely sharp, and relevant details are more likely to be “highlighted” by the brain.
This is why “the nervous heartbeat on the first date” or “the smell of rice when you are so hungry” can still clearly evoke the entire scene at that time after many years – strong emotions and states, leaving a deep imprint on that memory.
2. Application to marketing: How to use these five to quickly create scenarios?
The core of building a scene in marketing isStrategically combine several (not all) of these five key elements to accurately poke the memory fragments shared by the target group with the most refined information.
- “Late at night, after working overtime, I walked out of the deserted office building alone, and my stomach was empty…” This is a scene element that applies time + place + character state → instantly hits the fatigue and hunger of overtime workers.
- “On weekend mornings, the sun shines into the messy bedroom, you lie in bed and swipe your phone, and your mother calls you for breakfast for the Nth time…” This is a scene element that applies time + place + character + status + mood→ which arouses young people’s knowing smiles that resonate with “home weekends” and “mother’s nagging”.
- “During the meeting, the mobile phone suddenly sounded a harsh beep, and the eyes of the audience instantly focused on you…” This is a scene element that applies location + status + mood→ evoking the embarrassing memory of the moment of social death.
3. Key skills
- Precision Sniping:Deeply understand your target audience and choose themThe most familiar, most frequently experienced, or the most intense pain point/cool pointThe combination of scene elements.
- Details are king:Use one or twoSpecific, unique, and evoke sensory associations(e.g., “deserted office building”, “messy bedroom”, “harsh prompt tone”) instead of general descriptions, can activate memory.
- Less is more:Online marketing information is overloaded and user attention is scarce.It is not necessary to pursue the completeness of the scene, but to pursue the “hook force” and substitution speed of the scene.A few precise key elements are often more effective than lengthy descriptions.
- Form adaptation:Text, pictures, short videos… Different media forms present different scene elements and focus differently. The text needs to be more refined, and the pictures/videos can visually present visual details (such as the incomparably real “bedroom” background in the @Grumpy Morning account).
summary
The secret to building a scene quickly is not to “build” from scratch, but to “hook” from the user’s mind.
Using the natural association memory characteristics of the human brain, the five keys of “time, place, person, mood, and state” are used to open the user’s memory warehouse and let them complete the brain supplement of the scene by themselves, so as to produce a strong sense of substitution and instantly turn “other people’s advertisements” into “my story”.
Marketing is a science that uses the laws of human brain cognition, and scenes are the most important tool among them.
