In the previous blog we talked about IPL and its amazing journey to success. IPL has become a festival like event, people want to be a part of this mega event. I have personally witnessed and felt that if you are not aware of the team scores and match details, you feel that you are missing out on something important in life. I concluded that in India cricket is a religion, so people were updated. I was shocked when I witnessed the same effect when people were talking about Web Series Like – Game Of Thrones, Sacred Games and many such series. Some of my friends were doing this to look “Cool” or be part of so called “Cool Crowd”
I was curious to know and understand as to why we sometimes do things that we don’t feel like doing but still have to do. Is it because we want ourselves to be seen as more knowledgeable or more socially acceptable? Then I came across an article on an effect known as “Bandwagon Effect”. This helped me understand the psychology behind following a trend, It’s because of the Bandwagon Effect.
According to Wikipedia Bandwagon effect is defined as:
The bandwagon effect is a phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases with respect to the proportion of others who have already done so. As more people come to believe in something, others also “hop on the bandwagon” regardless of the underlying evidence.
Marketers use this concept to scale up business and acceptance of products. One recent example is the craze for Gluten Free products. Nowadays, people’s eating habits are changing purely because things like “not eating gluten” are cool. People are ignoring actual evidence about different product’s true purposes, and hopping on the bandwagon.
People’s desires to consume, buy, and use certain products are not always influenced by the product’s usefulness, but rather by what trend setters are doing.
The Garment industry is another industry that uses this effect in a big way. We have seen youngsters wearing Denim Jackets and not realizing that they have fallen into the Bandwagon Effect.
Channel partners must be wondering how they can use this concept in their day to day business operations?
- Use opinion makers in your trade to create positive vibes for your products. This will motivate other users to follow them.
- Scale up word of mouth promotions of satisfied customers as it creates pull and helps in pulling fence sitters.
- Authors do this by generating positive reviews from leading newspapers and influencers.
Thank u for your valuable inputs .