We’ve all heard the fable about a certain Pied Piper who played his instrument and effortlessly led the town’s rats toward a swan dive off a cliff.  One goes, the rest will follow.  This social phenomenon has been referred to as “herd mentality,” a type of behavior that savvy businesses and the professions can tap into with the “Claqueur” approach: Get a couple of people in an audience to “applaud” and the rest will soon do likewise.  It never fails; you’ve never been in a hall full of people with only one person clapping.

 The term “Claqueur”, literally meaning Clapper, originated in 19^th century Paris, where two gentlemen named Sauton and Porcher, both patrons of Parisian opera houses, had the idea to offer applause by request. They accomplished this by hiring paid applauders, whose only job consisted in clapping as loud and enthusiastic as possible, enticing the rest of the audience to loudly join in the applause and cheer. Thereafter it became a routine occurrence in the theatres of Paris, boosting the appeal and positive perception of any play where Claqueurs operated.

We’re being claqueured all the time, often finding ourselves on the receiving end of what we later realized was less-than-logical behavior, simply because the masses, particularly those who we consider peers, were doing the same.

Of the many means of influencing people, none is quite as powerful as the use of what is known as “social proof.”  Get someone to lead and the crowd will happily follow.  Entire political, social and economic strategies are hatched from a focus on landing that one critical endorsement that will create an ensuing groundswell of mindshare and momentum.  It is the cornerstone of all advertising and marketing, the selling of the impression that the smart money is buying a product or service in the hope that you will do the same.  And the chances are good that you will.

Social researcher Robert Cialdini defined this as the art of getting beyond people’s logic in order to convince them of something, the nature of which may or may not be logical.  Anybody who once bought a pet rock or paid $100 for a moon rock has felt the power of this approach.  If you’ve gone to see “the number one movie in theaters today!” you’ve been the target of a social proof strategy.  If you’ve purchased a pair of jeans primarily for the label, and paid a healthy premium for the privilege, welcome to the social proof fashion club. 

It’s powerful stuff, and when applied beyond the scope of selling products it can have devastating effects.  A fellow named Adolf Hitler understood this.  Charismatic leaders rely on it to this day.  Cult members who commit suicide in the belief that they will hop aboard a passing comet have it written on their tombstones.  Logic has left the building, in favor of the notion that if everyone else is doing it, it must be right.

The Seductive Allure of Mass Appeal

We are all attracted to quality on some level.  Trouble is, the notion of quality is subjective, and we are constantly looking for some external element to tell us what it means and to validate our choices.  This need for validation is one of the most powerful of human drives, as it attaches us to something that makes us feel good about ourselves.

Why is it that we happily pay several dollars for a cup of coffee that we can find at an equal level of quality elsewhere for half the price?  Why are there celebrities out there, smiling for the camera at every turn who are famous for nothing more than simply being famous?  Why do people indulge in behaviors that can kill them, some quickly, some over time, primarily—or at least initially, before they become addicted—to be cool, to be one of the crowd?  All of these are variations on the social proof theme, and the fruition of carefully crafted strategies that play upon social norms and the very human desire to belong.

If your goal is to be popular, it begins with your first new friend, ideally someone who enjoys the respect and admiration of others.  Once the new friend is by your side, the next will come much easier and more willingly.  New recruits see that you are someone worth knowing, that others are already there, sitting at the lunch table next to you, and they seem to be enjoying the experience.  The same is true if your goal is to introduce a new product or service.  It all begins with that first enthusiastic testimonial and it builds from there. 

The Eternal Law of Social Proof

 A startling social proof example in the realm of commerce took place in 1559, when the first tulip bulbs were imported from Constantinople to Holland and Germany.  It was like the Beatles arriving on American soil in 1962—people immediately fell in love with them.  Or more accurately, mass hysteria broke out among the people who had never laid eyes on this flower before.  Tulip bulbs were suddenly a status symbol for the wealthy because they were beautiful and hard to acquire.  As tulipmania spread, the flowers were being bought and sold as stock commodities.  Incredibly, the most expensive bulbs sold for up to $76,000!  Can you imagine spending $76,000 for a single tulip bulb?  In 1559?  My guess is you can’t. That’d be Millions today, enough to start an entire chain of your own florist shops.  But consider this question: what if everyone around you thought this was a fair price?  What if everyone was buying them?  Social science says that you’d want to be like everyone else and have your very own tulip.   

It’s easy to say no, of course not.  But not so fast with that answer.  Because if you’ve paid close to three dollars for a cup of fifty cent coffee recently, you’re already on the cusp of contradicting yourself, and like it or not, you’re part of the mass hysteria to belong to the three-dollar-coffee crowd in spite of the inherent illogic of it all.

Of course the inevitable happened, the bottom eventually fell out of the tulip market and people had to sell, and fast.  Europe was left wondering what the fuss about tulips had been about in the first place.  Logic returned as quickly as it had vaporized—they were just flowers, after all.  Those who had bought a tulip for $76,000 found six weeks later that it was now worth less than one dollar.

And if you think this is an isolated example, think again.  In fact, you have only to think back no more than ten years to see that it isn’t isolate at all.  Because we had a modern outbreak of mass hysteria of our own, one of tulip-like proportions: the dot-com boom and subsequent bust of the late 1990s.  The parallels are disturbing—despite the better judgment of normally savvy investors, billions of dollars were invested in companies that had no solid business model in place, in companies that were simply there, alongside other companies that had already recruited their own early adopters.  

Lemmings, Anyone?

Consider these examples of social proof triumphing over logic: Nazi Germany, smoking, medieval witch hunts, the Hip-Hop style of wearing one’s trousers below the buttocks, underpants exposed and all, or the practice of piercing or graphically altering one’s body as a fashion accessory.  Television programs use the Claqueur technique known as ‘canned laughter’ as a means of manipulating viewers to laugh along in certain places, counting on the fact that the audience perceives the laugh-track enhanced shows as funnier than they otherwise would.  All these examples are inherently illogical, yet completely explicable when we understand the power and context of social proof.  The behavior of many inevitably becomes acceptable to individuals not yet on board.  And when they do sign on, the individual will feel that they have acted out of a logical chain of reasoning, rather than listening to the sound of a Claqueur somewhere nearby.

The Social Proof Psychology of Selling

Advertisers use the social proof rule as a matter of course these days, claiming their product is the fastest growing, or the hottest selling, or that more than a million customers can’t be wrong.  Best-seller lists are nothing more than tools of social proof designed to motivate you to join in the reading tastes of others ‘just like you’.

Recall the story of the Emperor’s new clothes.  Although the king was naked, none of his thousands of subjects would admit—even to themselves—that he wasn’t wearing fine new clothes fit for a king.  The cunning tailor—who in another era might have been the marketing head of a major fashion label—proclaimed that only a fool wouldn’t be able to see the fineries.  It was less a fear of the king’s wrath than the fear of being considered a fool that moved the masses into silence upon seeing their king being ferried about the streets in the buff.   It took the direct perception and clear straight-forwardness of a child in the crowd to point out the Emperor was in fact, the fool.

You’re probably aware of the fact that thousands of people routinely stand in line to buy Apple’s newest version of the iPhone, which is orders of magnitude more expensive than most phones on the market currently.  Maybe you are one of them, and if not, chances are you know someone who is.  These events—and that’s what they are—are predictably and reliably covered by the international press, playing into the precise strategy Apple has in mind when they release the latest product.  Bloggers fueled this mass hysteria; further adding to a frenzy that many described as religious fervor (indeed, some sociologists content that organized religion itself is a textbook example of social proof and mass hysteria in its most enduring form).

It is interesting to note that shortly after the mass hysteria dies down, Apple promptly reduces the retail price.  Of course, the strategy is in place from the beginning, and the primary force at is core is the phenomenon of social proof. 

Social proof and the use of the Claqueur technique is the most powerful tool in growing a successful business, helping you sell products or services simply by showing how much others are enjoying your wares.  To be sure, the quality of your ‘stuff’ is a critical element, but creating and then effectively publicizing and touting top demand for it may well dictate whether you turn a prospect into a customer or a new visitor into someone who bookmarks your website. Glowing testimonials are another tool that relies on social proof, and continue to be the cornerstone of direct selling on the internet and elsewhere.

Even as technology is changing the landscape of marketing on a massive scale, it’s interesting to note that social proof continues to be the cornerstone of all effective strategies and tools.  The emergence of social media, with its blogs, tweets and membership venues, is the digital equivalent of a crowded morning at Starbucks or a line to get into the hottest club in town.  This is where the “buzz” originates and flourishes, and though unseen by the target demographic, is where the subtle nuance of the best marketing minds on the planet are busy planting seeds and nourishing momentum.

So what does this mean to you?  It means you have the opportunity to harness the power of this understanding toward the achievement of your goals, whatever they may be; to adopt a social proof strategy of your own, with the vast power of the internet as your implementation tool.  Virtually any marketing goal requires the approval of a constituency in some form or another and the smart money knows that it begins with the recruitment of a single advocate.  Get him or her to clap for you—to be your Claqueur—the rest will soon follow.

Social proof has been around since the great ancient civilizations, and it’s not going away any time soon.  It is an inevitable and necessary component of any communications strategy, and as I’ve shown here, it has a social consciousness of its own, and it can influence in any and all directions.  This makes it incumbent upon you, the designer of the strategy, to understand the very tools that you employ.  To the extent that you do, the power of persuasion can be yours, Claqueurs and all.

For more on this and many other techniques, strategies and coaching advice on building a powerful executive presence, get the new book, Executive Presence: The Art of Commanding Respect Like a CEO

© Harrison Monarth 2009