the timboucher experience

This passage from Douglas Rushkoff’s lukewarm book, Coercion (I think Media Virus is much better), popped into my head today. He’s talking about person-to-person sales techniques in this section, in particular here about how car companies have elaborate sales scripts that salesmen use:

As Miller explained, “Somewhere during that demo drive, while you’re making your trial close - not asking for the sale yet - you ask him, in these exact words, ‘Is this the type of vehicle you would like to own?’ It happens. And anyone will tell you this, the vaccuum cleaner salesman, the carpet salesman - the customer has a split second of insanity. The mind goes blank, the body paralyzes, the eyes get glassy, dilated. And you’d be surprised how many people have an accident at just that moment! Ask any car dealer. We always joke about it.”

How could a single question provoke such an extreme response? Partly because it relies on dissociation. The customer is already in a vehicle, being asked to imagine himself owning the same type of vehicle. It’s the same as if I asked you if this is the type of book you can imagine yourself reading. Your current situation is reframed in fantasy. It creates momentary confusion, or dissociation, from the activity you’re involved in. That’s why so many drivers crash. They are no longer just driving the car, but imagining themselves driving the car. It is a momentary loss fo awareness, during which the customer’s defense mechanisms and rational processes are disabled. (p. 49)

On the same note in that book, he mentions something called the “Gruen Transfer” which is named after the designer of the first shopping mall. It’s supposed to be the point at which a shopper with a particular product in mind suddenly shifts to being an impulse buyer. He has an old post on his website where he talks about that, and how modern malls are intentionally designed to overwhelm and bewilder you, in order to initiate this psychological effect.

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