What does a murder mystery have to do with marketing?
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So I’m reading a fun book right now.
It’s called The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and it was written by Agatha Christie.
If you’re not familiar with Agatha Christie, then this might blow your mind:
Only Shakespeare’s stuff and the Bible outsell her books.
How crazy is that?
In fact, that’s the reason I picked one up.
If you want to be a good marketer — you have to know what resonates with people. And I think a woman who’s sold 2 billion books knows pretty damn well what resonates with people.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is your classic “whodunit” murder mystery. It’s pure entertainment.
Basically, Roger Ackroyd is a rich guy who has been (you guessed it) murdered. He lived in a small town called King’s Abbot.
A former well-known investigator named Hercule Poirot has just moved to town and agreed to help with the case.
(I think) he’s French. He talks in third-person sometimes. And he almost definitely has a perfectly-manicured mustache.
He’s been interviewing everyone close to Ackroyd. But he still has the feeling that everyone is hiding something from him. So he sits them at the dining table in Roger Ackroyd’s house and says:
“In all probability this is the last case I shall ever investigate. But Hercule Poirot does not end with a failure. Messieurs et mesdames, I tell you, I mean to know. And I shall know — in spite of you all.”
And later…
“Every one of you in this room is concealing something from me.”
The book is narrated by a local doctor, who becomes Poirot’s sidekick during the investigation. A day or so after this incident, the doctor writes:
“I was to have a further proof that day of the success of Poirot’s tactics. That challenge of his had been a subtle touch born of his knowledge of human nature. A mixture of fear and guilt had wrung the truth from Mrs. Ackroyd. She was the first to react.”
So what’s the point? What does a murder mystery have to do with marketing or copywriting?
This:
The key to getting someone to take action is understanding human nature — knowing what motivates them.
In most cases, this means moving toward pleasure and/or away from pain. My friend Patrick Kenney calls this “how to ‘yay’ without ‘boo,’” which I think is pretty clever.
This lesson rings true in real life and in copywriting.
So the reason Mrs. Ackroyd revealed the truth is because she wanted to move away from pain (guilt) and toward pleasure (a clear conscience).
And most — if not all — of the time, the reason someone buys something is because it moves them toward pleasure and away from pain.
Anyway, I just thought that was an interesting comparison and wanted to share.
Robert
P.S. Spoiler Alert: Mrs. Ackroyd didn’t confess to murdering Roger Ackroyd, by the way. She confessed that she had been snooping around in his desk.