Have you ever heard of the city of Atlantis, the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, or the Bermuda Triangle? Of course you have. Why? And why have so many people spent lifetimes exploring these so-called myths, trying to uncover their validity? The common factor woven through all of these stories is that they are endowed with mystery.
Mystery is a key element to all great storytelling, and people love to tell great stories. Hundreds of archaeologists have searched for the lost city of Atlantis, movies have been inspired by it, documentaries continue to be developed, and even psychics have gotten in on it. What is the mystery of their people? Of their lost culture? Of their way of living? Why are we so entranced by something that arguably does not have significant relevance to us? Although our psyche fears the unknown, that fear is balanced by the innate drive of curiosity: we want to uncover the wizard behind the curtain.
Without this element of mystery, our curiosity wanes. When you hear someone say, “I saw the ending coming,” you’re fairly sure they didn’t enjoy the movie, and odds are you probably won’t want to see it either. Mystery is the difference between a Sixth Sense and a Stir of Echoes.
The same principle holds true in business. Bad car dealerships apparently don’t understand the power of mystery. Everyone has heard the car dealership advertisement where nothing is left untold: “No credit, no problem. Every car, every model.”
Great companies, however, find ways to hide certain elements and let their customers discover them on their own. These companies show the tip of the iceberg, but their loyal customers love them because of the depths, which lie beneath the surface of the water.
Not every benefit that your company creates needs to be directly presented to your customer. Even though hiding some of your best attributes may go against conventional wisdom, by allowing your customer to discover certain positive qualities on his or her own you’ll increase the chances of the customer talking positively about you.
Mystery helps provide meaning to your brand; it allows people to learn something about your brand they didn’t know before. If we learn something new about a company that no one else knows, we are more likely to talk. However, if everyone already knows about a particular benefit, there’s no reason to talk about it. We talk and gossip about products, services, and brands because it benefits us; we gain status by providing new information. This basic, biologically-rooted drive helps explain why people naturally talk about that which is mysterious and unknown.
Just look at the word-of-mouth sensation that was (and still is) generated by Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code. This fictional story is chock-full of mystery and controversial talking points. The book tapped into a lot of unknowns and fed our innate drive for curiosity.
Pepsi introduced a dose of mystery when they launched Mountain Dew Code Red. They didn’t start with a full-force, our-ads-everywhere-you-look style campaign, or one anywhere close to it. Instead, they introduced the product into convenience stores, a primary destination for their teenager market, And 1 Mix Tape Tour, and the X Games, allowing teenagers to discover the product for themselves, in their own environment. And, they shared it with their friends, who didn’t get there first.
There are two things sure to kill word-of-mouth: (1) everyone knowing the secret or (2) no one caring about the secret. An almost cliché example would be the popular book/film The Secret, which again plays on the basic human need of curiosity. What is the Secret? Because the movie seems to have a secret that appears to be useful and beneficial, people continue to talk about it and we hear about it in the media. If the film was without substance (i.e., no secret), then people wouldn’t have even started talking. Because there was something of substance, Oprah and her weekly 49 million viewers spent a show talking about the practical applications of “The Secret.”
Three Ways to Create Mystery:
So what are some ways you can add mystery to your brand’s efforts?
-
Don’t say every benefit about your business in every business communication. If everyone already knows everything about you, they won’t have anything to tell their friends that their friends don’t already know, aside from how you may not have fully met their expectations.
-
Break a standard rule in your industry. Think back to the standard airline attire that flight attendants used to wear. Then Southwest Airlines breaks the rule and let’s their flight attendants wear shorts, a trademark feature of the airlines.
-
Steal one from your customers. Listen in to what your customers are suggesting and surprise them by actually doing it.
So if you want your customers to talk about you, surprise them. Delight them. Let them discover you on a totally new level. In essence, give your customers a reason to talk about you.
Learn more about the principle of surprise and the other six principles of Talk in Why We Talk: The Truth Behind Word-of-Mouth.