Rewards or Bribes - What's in a word?

[Clare Bowen]

Someone had written in this forum before, that the words that you use in your marketing are important.

 

This morning, my kids gave me good reason to think (as they often do).

 

I was saying that I'm going to start a new rewards system for their homework completion,

and my son (8 years old), said,,, "ohhh, I love a good bribe"

 

That kind of put me off, and I thought, I'll rather punish if the work is not done

 

And then I was stuck in the traffic and as usual, most of my thinking gets done in traffic jams

 

I've seen splash pages and email ads that say they will bribe you to join their site (usually a traffic site) with credits or whatever.

And the impression it gives me is that I'm going to do something wrong or unpleasant in return for some free stuff.

 

And then, there are ads that say they will "reward" you for joining, and these I find hard to resist.

 

There's a site called Rewards4Surfing, and I wonder what impression the same site would give if it was called Bribes4Surfing

 

And so I think too much

 

But to me its a classic example of how even one word that is meant to represent the same thing, can impact on results in marketing.

 

 

 

[Guest mrclean0325]

Careful now...you might become a good copywriter with that kind of thinking. Words can invoke emotions in people. Good copywriters know which ones to use to suck you in. The emotion invoked from one word may be different depending on the audience. The word "bribe" may invoke a bad emotional response in you but another group, like maybe politicians, will have a more positive emotional response....

[Darren Olander]

Yes, interesting insight! I have always called it a bonus. I would agree that bribe has a negative connotation. Thinking about these thing will definitely have an impact on how people respond to you.

[Phyllis Wolfe]

I like this post a lot.  Does anyone want to post some of the good words and some of the not so good words?

I am at a loss as far as copy writing goes and would love to know some of them.

I like the word "bonus" and "reward" but not so much "bribe". 

[Guest mrclean0325]

Unfortunately there is not really a list of "good" or "bad" words to use. You do see these online sometimes but with good writing you carefully choose a word that conveys the emotion you want to induce. You go look at synonyms of words and see what triggers the right thing for your audience and the emotion you are trying to convey. Each niche or group sometimes has some words that have special meaning to them while others don't bring much to the table.

 

For example:

 

"He is bleeding!" you can picture a single drop of blood to a pouring river.

 

"He is hemorrhaging!" brings a much more vivid picture to mind, the worst case and definitely an emergency situation.

 

"It just popped!" is kind of a fizzle unless you are talking about a balloon, not too exciting.

 

"It just erupted!" brings a more vivid picture and emotion to mind.

 

It is just using words to paint the picture you are trying to convey with the right emotions. Sometimes just changing a word or two in an ad can make a huge difference in conversions.

[Clare Bowen]

Words like cheap, affordable, cost-effective, I think will have a different response depending on both the product (or service) type, and the audience.

[Clare Bowen]

And this also puts me off. But I guess it might appeal to others

 

Blast your email......

 

And I feel as if I'm going to get blasted in return by all the other blasting members lol     

[Glen Palo]

Yes, interesting insight! I have always called it a bonus. I would agree that bribe has a negative connotation. Thinking about these thing will definitely have an impact on how people respond to you.

 

I use the headliner analyzer at CoSchedule.com. Putting the word "bribe" into a headline shows strong negative sentiment. Replacing bribe with bonus reflects neutral sentiment. So words do matter.

[affordwealth]

Renown behavioral linguist George Lakoff has written about the effect of words quite a lot. His idea (that I like) is that hearing a word or expression many times changes neural paths in the brain and that causes one to think about concepts in a particular way. 

[rpsmith]

I tend to think that words like "reward", "bonus", etc. seem to invoke a positive response or emotion whereas the word "bribe" tends to leave me with a "Am I about to do something wrong?" response. To me, words like "bribe" are linked to criminal behaviour.

[stv77]

I always used word "bonus"

[market101]

Good topic Claire.  Yes words are very powerful. They stimulate our thoughts and on a subconscious level they excite our imagination.  "EMOTIONS ARE STRONGER THAN INTELLECT".  Here's where I am going with this:  If you can reach someone on an emotional level as well as an intellectual level, you have a greater chance of making a sale.

[stv77]

Good topic Claire.  Yes words are very powerful. They stimulate our thoughts and on a subconscious level they excite our imagination.  "EMOTIONS ARE STRONGER THAN INTELLECT".  Here's where I am going with this:  If you can reach someone on an emotional level as well as an intellectual level, you have a greater chance of making a sale.

I call it Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) or just manipulating  

[kris77]

I prefer word "reward"

[weblord]

i guess human factor has a major role, nowadays if you say like incentives no one for the most part will take notice of it, but if you say bribe it's like the connotation is giving out obscene amount of money.

 

also before when you say simple affiliate program, no one seems to care, but if you say stupid affiliate program, almost anyone can do, that gets the most notice.

[captkirk]

Rewards or Bribes - What's in a word?

 

For me, the word Bribe gets my attention and interested and I'm waiting to hear what the bribe will be.

 

Rewards sound like an incentive that you will get when you complete a task or goal. 

 

To me, the Bribe sound like it's going to be something in addition to the rewards.    

[weblord]

some will get offended if you use the word bribe, so feel your way towards people.

[captkirk]

I'm NOT offended to hear the word bribe, I want to see what they're going to offer me... Maybe A Free Upgrade... 

[weblord]

free upgrade is a good bribe for me, i'll take it anytime

[captkirk]

Yep, maybe I should advertise that to get more free upgrades...

 

Top Marketer will promote your site for a Top Upgrade...

[weblord]

yes, i need those programs, trade active participation with lifetime upgrades

[captkirk]

I’m still thinking about offering bribes...

 

But I don’t won’t people to join the program because of a bribe...