Setting the “Right Expectation” Vs. Hype
ByA conversation came up the other day while I was having dinner with Master Lee and a bunch of my fellow Hwarang brothers and sisters immediately following our MUSA (warrior) challenge involving grappling and weapon sparring. The conversation led me to discussing what I read in the book, “Predictably Irrational” on the topic of setting the proper expectation.
In the book, it talks about how when a person goes into an experience with certain positive expectations, those positive expectations can help make the actual experience that much better – to the point where it’s better than if the person had NO such expectations.
In essence, expectations can help make the actual experience that much better… But on the flip side, as marketers, we know that hype can damage your business. It may be because people’ll be able to smell that B.S. hype a mile away and avoid whatever you are selling like the plague, or your product won’t be able to live up to the hype.
So then the question arises, how do you distinguish “hype” from setting the “proper expectations”?
As an online marketer, I had to ponder this one a bit.
Hype vs. Proper Expectations
What is hype? According to Dictionary.com, it is defied as:
to intensify (advertising, promotion, or publicity) by ingenious or questionable claims, methods, etc.
The keywords here are “ingenious” and “questionable”. In other words, to get the consumer to buy through whatever means necessary – cheat, embellish, lie, etc.
*tsk tsk* I see “hype” as trying to stir up someone’s emotions, getting them all excited, by promising them something that cannot be delivered.
On the other hand, what is setting the proper expectations? Simply put, it’s about telling them the facts and nothing but the facts. Telling them realistically what they can realistically expect to happen as the result of their purchasing (and putting to use) your product.
Now… are you explicitly PROMISING them anything? No, you are merely telling them the results they can expect to realistically get.
Going onto Twitter, here are what some of my friends had to say:
Ben Mapp – hype=promoting unrealistic results for most; setting expectations=giving benchmark for likely results for most
Miss Tabares – hype lends itself to exaggeration; setting expectations is more realistic, like short term, achievable goals
Malika Duke – setting expectations sounds great, hype sounds like trying to sell by saying ANYTHING it takes
What do you think is the distinction between hype and setting expectations?
No related posts.
NEWS FEED
Yeah, it is rather subjective isn’t it?
Let’s take the blockbuster movie, The Dark Knight. Some folks absolutely LOVED it. They loved the trailers, the ads, the website, the posters, the attention the movie got prior to its release.
In other words, all that advertisement set the expectation for these folks and that made the anticipation that much higher and the experience that much better.
But then you have the other crowd who expected soooo much more out of the movie than they got. They thought that the movie was too hyped, that it didn’t live up to its expectations. So here you have the same experience (watching the movie) that ended up with totally contradicting feelings.
I propose this – there are two perspectives at work, one comes from the SELLER and the other comes from the BUYER.
It is hype from the seller’s perspective if he/she knowingly blows things out of proportions, making impossible claims and undeliverable promises.
Yet, it is proper expectations if the seller truly believe that what is being promised is realistic and reachable.
Now, when we look at this distinction from the BUYER’s perspective it becomes much easier. If the buyer was able to satisfactory realize the level of expectation he/she had when making the purchase, then it was setting proper expectations.
However, if the end result did NOT meet those expectations, then all that sales process leading the buyer to buy was just hype (in the buyer’s mind).
(And I suppose there are those “reasonable” buyers who may not have quite reached the level of success they had hoped for, but acknowledge that IT is possible and that they just weren’t the ones to achieve that, quite yet.)
Raymond
P.S. At the end of the day, it is rather subjective… The reality is the true intentions of the seller whether he/she truly and honestly believed in the expectations he/she set forth.
I agree that setting expectations is realistic while hype borders on lying. I think that “proper expectations” will vary according to the person. That is, “proper” is different for different people. Some people set the bar low while others will have greater goals. In my opinion, it is better to set the bar higher. I can see where the line between setting very high expectations and hype might become fuzzy. I would distinguish hype by identifying it as a deliberate attempt to mislead.