Fascinate

Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

By: Sally Hogshead

Narrated by: Sally Hogshead

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

What triggers fascination, and how do companies, people, and ideas put those triggers to use/ Why are you captivated by some people but not by others? Why do you recall some brands yet forget the rest? In a distracted, overcrowded world, how do certain leaders, friends, and family members convince you to change your behavior?

Answer: fascination, the most powerful way to influence decision-making. It's more persuasive than marketing, advertising, or any other form of communication. And it all starts with seven universal triggers: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice, and trust.

Fascination plays a role in every type of decision making, from the brands you choose to the songs you remember, from the person you marry to the employees you hire. And by activating the right triggers, you can make anything become fascinating.

To explore and explain fascination's irresistible influence, Sally Hogshead looks beyond marketing, delving into behavioral and social studies, historical precedents, neurobiology and evolutionary anthropology, as well as conducting in-depth interviews and a national study of a thousand consumers, to emerge with deeply rooted patterns for why, and how, we become captivated.

Hogshead reveals why the Salem witch trials began with the same fixations as those in Sex and the City. How Olympic athletes are subject to obsessions similar to those of fetishists. How a 1636 frenzy over Dutch tulip bulbs perfectly mirrors the 2006 real-estate bubble. And why a billion-dollar "Just Say No" program actually increased drug use among teens, by activating the same "forbidden fruit" syndrome as a Victoria's Secret catalog.

Whether you realize it or not, you're already using the seven triggers. The question is, are you using the right triggers, in the right way, to get your desired result? This book will tell you how.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2010 Sally Hogshead (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"[T]his slight but practical work packs a big punch." ( Publishers Weekly)

“Can you dissect ‘fascination’? Sally Hogshead says, ‘Yes.’ Fascination is arguably the most powerful of product attachments—and this pioneering book helps us approach the word and the concept in a thoughtful and also practical manner.” (Tom Peters)

“This is a transformative work, a beautifully written book that will forever change the way you see the world. I loved it. Let me be really clear: you need to buy this book, devour it, absorb it and then buy copies for your colleagues. A lot of copies.” (Seth Godin)

Greatly Informative

Standard 3 Section:
- Why people get Fascinated
- How people get Fascinated
- How you can use fascination for your own product/message

Gets more informative and applicable as it progresses, but, the bulk of the authors concept is the 2nd section

There's a great study in the Afterword which will pique a Marketer's or a Behaviorist's interest.

Perfect timing!! Just what we needed

We are just about to launch our new high-ticket product, and after listening to the audio book, we completely re-wrote the video script using the principles we learned in the book. Thank you Sally!!

How to get attention

I love Sally's energy, enthusiasm and presentation of her material.
I have already made some changes based on her work!
What I don't like is the inconsistent speed on the recording. Noticable but not a deal breaker.
But worse is she/they have not updated the recording to reflect the fact that you can no longer take the test for free which she advertises quite a bit along the way. Sorry to lose your trust on this one Sally!

Information packed, well narrorated, & interesting

I'll start out by saying that I normally don't write reviews for books. Especially since peoples taste in authors and books are subjective. That said, my favorite authors are Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, and Dan Pink. However, now I have to add Sally Hogshead to my list of favorite authors. This book is nothing short of spectacular. She has done her research and made the book interesting by explaining the content through studies and real world situations. This is a book for almost anybody. It is part advertising, part brain science, and all entertaining. Finally, I've found some books have great content, but only to be narrated poorly. With this book, Sally Hogshead did a superb job of narrating her own book.

Why do authors insist on being narrators?

I had to buy the kindle version of this book because I was interested in what Hogshead had to say. Hogshead's delivery is just too slow and boring...strange given the topic.

So entertaining and informative

I couldn't stop listening to this. Highly recommended to marketers and psychologists. I think of this title word in a whole new way now.

Fascinating ideas.

What did you love best about Fascinate?

That I now see the world differently.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

At first it was fast paced and covered a lot at once, but once I got used to Sally's enthusiasm, I felt I learned a lot.

Any additional comments?

A mind opener!

I just couldn't get into it.

Despite the title, the premise and the promise of "fascinate"

I found the book boring and too salesy to keep my attention.

Interesting!

Any additional comments?

The book has made me aware of things about my personality that I was not really conscious of. Provokes your thoughts/picks your brain.

Amazing book for serious marketers

What did you love best about Fascinate?

Anyone who takes their marketing message seriously should read or listen to this book. This book explains how to use psychology to get your hook in the consumer. At the same time it gives lessons on applying these techniques to your own life. I started implementing the strategies in this book and I've already seen a change in perception of my marketing messages and in my own personal life. This book takes "fascinating" to a whole new level - it's own level of professional study!

What does Sally Hogshead bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The author narrates the book, but occasionally breaks off to explain real-life examples of how to apply what shes just read. I'd love to take a course with her!

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Everything and everyone is fascinating if you learn to trigger the right personalities to react the right way - that's what this book teaches.