Cage Effect [from Baidu]

English name: birdcage Effect

Introduction

Cage Effect is a famous psychological phenomenon. its discoverer is James, an outstanding psychologist in modern times. In 1907, James retired from Harvard University, and also retired from his close-up physicist, Dr. Karlson. One day, two bet. James said, "I will definitely let you raise a bird soon ." "I don't believe it! Because I never thought about raising a bird ." In a few days, James gave a gift, an exquisite cage, on the birthday of Karlson. "I only think of it as a beautiful craft. ." Since then, as long as the guests visit and see the empty cage next to the desk, they will almost all ask without exception: "Professor, when will your bird die ?" "I have never raised any birds ." However, the answer is a bit confusing and untrustworthy. In desperation, Professor Carson had to buy a bird. James's "Cage Effect" worked. In fact, we, including ourselves, do not put a cage in our hearts first, and then do not fill something in them independently?

The "Cage Effect" is an interesting rule. It says: if a person buys an empty cage and places it in his living room, after a while, he will usually lose the cage or buy a bird to raise it. The reason is: even if the host has been facing the empty cage for a long time, the visitor will be surprised to ask him how the empty cage is returned, or, you can turn your eyes to an empty cage. Finally, he does not want to endure the trouble of explaining each time. He can discard the cage or buy a bird to match it. Economists explain that this is because buying a bird is much easier than explaining why an empty cage exists. Even if no one asks or does not need to explain it, the "Cage Effect" can also cause psychological pressure on people, let them buy a bird to match the cage.

Similarly, the "Cage Effect" is also called the "Empty Vase Effect". I have heard of a story in which a girl's boyfriend gave her a bunch of flowers. She is very happy, she deliberately asked her mother to bring a crystal vase from her house. In order not to leave the vase empty, her boyfriend had to send flowers to her every few days. Of course, this is a sweet embodiment of this effect.

Story explanation

There is such a story

As the saying goes: the neighbors are good.

Zhang and Liu Qing are neighbors. Due to work, Zhang has to move his house, and most of his home belongings have to be sold. After cleaning all the furniture, there is only one elegant desk left. This desk is expensive. If it is sold as a defective product, it cannot be recovered. Therefore, Zhang Chang decided to give it to his neighbor Liu Qing as a commemorative gift, liu Qing also received and expressed his gratitude.

After the desk was moved back to his own bookstore, Liu Qing found that the dilapidated wooden rattan chair in the bookstore was really great compared with the desk, so Liu Qing decided to buy a good leather swivel chair to match the desk, as a result, I spent 250 yuan to buy a proper swivel chair. I felt a lot more comfortable ......

One day, a friend came to visit Liu Qing's house. Liu Qing showed his new study. He invited a friend to come in and read his desk and swivel chair. The friend said, "Yes, it's good, it's better to change the bookcase. "Liu Qing looked at the cupboard and thought it was a bit worn out. It should have been changed, so he spent money to change it ......

On this day, some friends visited Liu Qing's house and came to the study. They liked the study, but they always ended up with flaws: "Your study is good, the light is a bit darker. If you can open the wall, building a floor-to-ceiling window will be brighter. "After hearing this, Liu Qing thought it was the same ......

For the sake of a study, Liu Qing is not easy to think about, and all this is due to that desk, why ?! As Socrates said: "If people are tired and busy for a luxurious life, a happy life will be farther and farther away from us." This is the diro effect.

Yes, just like having a luxurious cage, you will certainly have a bird that matches the cage. This is the "Cage Effect ".

Application

This rule can also explain many problems in the enterprise. For the whole, it can indicate that the enterprise's strategy should match the ability. In many cases, it should "take advantage of the situation" and what capabilities the enterprise has, what kind of resources usually determines the strategic direction. In our management consulting practices, we also encountered an example of the "Cage Effect". We conducted organizational design and human resources system changes for an enterprise.

During management diagnostics, we found that the company has the following Architecture: President, Executive President, and executive vice president. According to our function analysis, the chief executive officer here is basically an "empty bird cage", but this position has been retained for historical reasons. After a major rectification, this empty seat attracted the attention of many people. Finally, in our proposed solution, we reduced the entire organizational structure and threw away many similar empty bird cages.

A New Interpretation of "Cage Effect"

The "Cage Effect" originated from the early concept of Integrated Broadcasting of satellite TV. The reason was the appearance of remote control, which led to too many options for TV viewers. Our audience was like a group of birds, there is no track between the channel and the program ...... therefore, TV media needs to set up a cage like this: Set up thick and different railings in the audience flow belt to enclose all the mobile audiences, increase the frequency of advertising contact, and achieve the desired advertising effect. The "Cage Effect" combines the advertising time period with the column time period, and radiates high-frequency and low-frequency Flow groups to achieve extremely high advertising effect.

The introduction of the "Cage Effect" theory has played a very prominent role in enhancing the influence of Integrated Broadcasting of satellite TV and promoting breakthroughs in TV advertisement revenue generation. However, the value of the "Cage Effect" is not limited to satellite TV. For other channels, the "Cage Effect" will increase the time for the audience to stay in the channel, it is also of great significance to promote the operation of channel advertisements. In the real world, media operation is the competition for the attention of the audience. Whoever grabs the audience, they have laid a good guarantee for their own good media operation. Therefore, the "Cage Effect" is also of great reference to other media.

On the surface, a channel is composed of a series of programs that broadcast at different times and have different positioning. There seems to be no too many connections, but it is actually not, as a member of a channel or even a media family, these topics are closely related. How to wire these programs into an organic whole is the effect of the "Cage Effect. In the specific practice process, many TV media are pursuing this goal. Although there are different forms at the specific implementation layer, the practice is similar to the following approaches.

I. Integrated Program promotion

There are no valuable products, and there are only business personnel that will not be sold! Each product has its inherent value. If goods are sold, the benefits of the product must be effectively transmitted to the target audience. As a special commodity, TV programs must abide by this objective law. Because different programs are introduced at different times, the specific broadcast sequence is also incorrect. To attract the subsequent programs to the audience, we must integrate the program promotion to maintain the continuity of viewing. Phoenix TV is doing better in this regard: In the middle of a program, Phoenix TV will insert many trailers for subsequent programs, play the most eye-catching parts of these programs in advance to stimulate the audience's desire to view, so that the audience has a strong desire to give up, so as to maintain in a channel, maintain the continuity of viewing, and drive the overall increase in media rating. More importantly, Phoenix TV's program trailers are combined with advertisements. That is to say, while promoting programs, Phoenix TV also drives advertisement sales, worthy of praise!

2. Unified attack of activities

As we all know, the media has many columns. To improve the column's rating and influence, these columns usually continue to do some promotion activities. However, we often see that these columns have different producers, and they all fight for each other. Can these topics be isolated from each other? The answer is no! Because everyone is broadcasting in a channel, it is a sense of honor to some extent, a loss of the relationship. If it is done well, the previous program can stimulate the continuity of the audience's viewing, and drive the increase in the audience rating of the subsequent programs. However, if the program is not good, the program may be exhausted. As I have seen, in fact, these programs can be fully integrated, and they are mutually dependent and developed together in the promotion of activities. For example, the Agency TV channel effectively integrates its own columns to promote the activities. "First time" is a strong livelihood news column of Anhui jingshi channel. Due to its wide variety of activities and wide impact, it has a wide range of popularity and appeal in the eyes of the audience. Diamond theater is a TV theater after the first time. In order to drive the popularity of the theater, the channel set up the idea of bundling the column with the theater during the early stage of the promotion, any audience who pays attention to diamond theater has the opportunity to become participants in the first-time event. The results not only allow the audience watching "First time" to continue watching "diamond Theater", but also through publicity within "diamond Theater, it also allows more viewers to focus on the channel from the beginning, and drive the "First time" viewing, thus achieving a win-win effect.

3. Consistent program Style

Compared with the previous comprehensive channels, the current TV media focuses more on crowd-based, that is, to provide TV products that are favored by some viewers, obtain the maximum audience share of the target group. The reason for this change is that different types of viewers have different viewing preferences, such as children's love for cartoons and Family Women's love for TV series, students love movies and target audience for the media. We should also unify the media style to attract the most attention. For example, Guangxi satellite TV launches female satellite TV to position the media style from the target audience. Anhui Satellite TV launches a TV series store to position the media style from the product type, jiangsu Satellite TV launched an emotional world, that is, positioning the media style from the psychological attribute. Methods are different, but their internal intentions are consistent.

This method of clear positioning of media styles can attract specific target groups to achieve the strongest viewing continuity. For example, if Guangxi satellite TV launches the positioning of female satellite TV, it will follow this positioning in its product series, because the program style matches its own viewing preferences, this will allow female viewers to watch along the program sequence. This positioning method will certainly be of great benefit to increasing the market share of Guangxi satellite TV in the female group. However, there are always two sides to a coin, and the harm of this method is also obvious, because when the media is favored by some people, it must be abandoned by others. The fish and the bear's paw cannot get at the same time, and the pursuit of maximization of interests is the most real!

From a vertical perspective, we can use some measures within a media set to achieve the "Cage Effect" for a certain extent. However, due to the limited integration and promotion of a media set, after all, this impact is limited. From a horizontal perspective, through cooperation with neighboring media such as newspapers, broadcasts, and the Internet, different media can draw the most extensive audience attention. This action not only allows the audience of this channel to reside, but also attracts "Birds" from outside to "cages", resulting in a wider impact.

An important factor in the success of Hunan Satellite TV's Supergirl voice last year was the encouragement of newspapers, Internet and other media. During the event, many popular domestic BBS, such as Sina, Tianya, and Sohu, were also following up in a crazy fashion. The direct effect of this hype is that, in response to the interaction with the TV media, the audience can not only learn about the super girl voice from television, but also from the Internet, newspapers, and other ways, it can be said that what the audience sees and what the ears hear is a variety of super girl voices. The whole super girl voice forms a huge "Bird Cage", where all the audience throughout the country are "surrounded. String 5

This method of media interaction creates a win-win result. For an audience member, he or she can find the background information and even details that cannot be obtained on TV from the Internet, express his or her views on a contestant, or support or disagree with a contestant, it reflects the honor and value of being an audience member. For Hunan Satellite TV, it needs other media to follow up the activities and make super girl voice an event of widespread social attention, forming a social hot spot, driving the attention of the audience and attracting advertisers. The reason why the online media is willing to follow up is not accidental, because with the increasing popularity of Supergirl voice, it is not only a simple activity launched by Hunan Satellite TV, it has become a social topic, and many people are paying attention to it. Many people want to know more about it. In this case, the Internet can follow up to meet the psychological needs of the audience, improve click rate. Therefore, there is a win-win relationship between them.

This year, Hunan Satellite TV's super girl voice once again launched a strong promotion strategy. Compared with the integrated communication strategies such as the Internet and Newspapers last year, Hunan Satellite TV's horizontal media integrated communication has become even more prevalent. This is because of the objective needs of the development of marketing trends. Only through this integrated marketing and communication strategy can we attract the maximum attention of the audience and drive a breakthrough in the overall impact of the activity. Although many media have tried horizontal integrated communication, since the beginning of Hunan Satellite TV, the interaction between the media will reach the new development stage of media promotion.

In the end, to achieve the "Cage Effect" of audience viewing, whether vertical integration or horizontal promotion, these methods are not omnipotent, because today's media competition is increasingly fierce, in the same period of time, many programs are often competing for the limited eye of the audience. if the quality of the program itself fails, even if it can attract a part of the audience, it will inevitably be unable to stay, it can only be said to be a passthrough in a hurry and a glimpse. Therefore, to achieve the "Cage Effect" of audience viewing, we also need to improve the quality of the media, enhance the program's accessibility, and enhance the core competitiveness of media competition.