Just Evil Enough

Chapter 30:

 

From attention to action

Whether you’re attacking a competitive market, challenging political norms, or campaigning for a worthy cause, only one thing matters: changing your audience’s behavior. You do this by turning attention into a desired outcome.

The journey from initial stimulus to desired behavior is far from straightforward. In this chapter, we’ll look at how to convert attention into action.

How humans decide

For over a century, marketers have tried to map out the path from attention to action.* One early attempt, known as the AIDA model,¹ broke the process down into four steps:

1. A stimulus captures the buyer’s attention.
2. The buyer gathers information (or, in some versions of the framework, shows interest.)
3. A gap between ...