Loading Do you know what an anchor is? Of course you do. It holds a boat somewhere in the water and keeps it from moving around. And if you fall asleep and the anchor doesn’t do its job you could easily be swept into a storm and your boat can sink.
But do you know what an “emotional anchor” is? This is a term used in NLP (and NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming). Now to have full disclosure here there are debates on to how well NLP works in terms of therapy. But the idea of an “anchor” is and has been known and utilized for a long time.
Anchors really are signals or triggers used in “conditioning experiments.” For example when Pavlov rang the bell for dogs in his famous experiment he linked the bell to the idea of eating time and the dogs would drool upon hearing the sound of the bells. There would not need to be any more food, just the ringing of the bells.
Anchors can be used this way in marketing. Not to get too “political” but politicians also use these extremely well when talking about various scenarios. But how does this relate to marketing?
It relates a lot. When making a presentation certain key words will drum up certain emotions for different people. Just like when the National Anthem is sung at sporting events it brings tears to certain people’s eyes.
Now the key here to realize is that the situation is almost automatic — if not automatic. Nobody hears the National Anthem and then thinks, “hmm, I think I will cry.” No, it is stimulus > response. It is automatic without conscious thought (almost 100% of the time)
What are some examples, you say?
Well, the word “system” in the business word can be a very positive anchor for the right people. Because the word “system” generally means something reliable or automatic.
Certain pictures are symbols (like a country’s flag) can also be anchors. Clothing can be an anchor and even smells can be anchor. Which brings up a great point?
Are you using aroma’s in your business? The sense of smell is the strongest link to memory. And hardly any businesses out there that are NOT a restaurant is using aroma to attract customers.
Sure, you’ll say instantly, “But Matt, this wont’ work for me…my customers are different.” To which my response is, “Maybe not, but the thing you need to be trying to do is figure out how to make it work.” Because if you can innovate that much, you’re competition will be even further behind.
Because anybody can figure out reasons why it won’t. And those are the people who have to worry about their boat sinking (bet yah forget about that analogy from the beginning, didn’t yah? 
)
-Matt
