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)

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.

Read this and change mindset

The story of fascination crosses borders and embraces generations. Masterfully read by the author with much appreciated detail.

Clearest insight into marketing triggers I've read

Unlike academic books on the psychology of influence this is written by a marketer for marketers and entrepreneurs so it's very clear. There is no having to bridge between the theory and research and its application in marketing.

Sally gives exceptionally clear paths directly from theory to application for your own marketing messages.

a little odd

I could not make my mind up, if I was listening to someones uni notes on communication in advertising or it was some hybreed of comunication in the media and the individual. Not Fascinating.

Failed to fascinate

boring.
So boooooooring.
I waited for it to be interesting, it never came.
The author is renaming other feelings and reactions to support her fascinating theories. It seems to me far fetched.

Not Fascinated at all...

I suppose if you read a lot of business and "brain" type books, you will not find much new material here.

I didn't. I wasn't fascinated. Didn't care for this book.

Chris Reich

its all over the place - not to the point

What was most disappointing about Sally Hogshead’s story?

I truly wanted to get something out of this book. i listened for 2 hours and i should have known it was not a well organized book when my interest faded away. Elbow matrix?! if you have time to listen - you may pick up some mid level info. but if you are a person looking to learn "how to trigger persuasion and captivation" for business and/or personal purposes, look for another book.
the narrator\author is story telling is at least engaging...subject is just all over the place for me and I need it to be to the point so I can use.

not very fascinating

A great high energy reader, but really she's just stating the obvious, giving examples and restating.
Lots of reinforcement to buy into the shallow superficial behavior of society.