Just Evil Enough

Chapter 24:

 

Regulation

Rules matter to marketers, both because they tell your customers what they must do, and because they limit what you’re able to do. There’s no better way to change behavior than to make it mandatory; and no better way to expand what you’re able to do than to change the rules.

Make the optional mandatory

There are many ways to turn the optional into the required. You can lobby to change the laws so that they work in your favor, piggyback on a legislative change or crisis in which compliance overrules choice; position yourself as a way to mitigate risks that might be subject to regulations, or assume the consent of your target market.*

Let’s look at these four approaches in more detail.

Change the law: when the state helps ...