Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [122]
These examples are just a small subset of how framing is used in marketing. Framing is not all about images; mostly it is about the value that the target perceives. The perception that the target has of an item can increase or decrease its value. Take an expensive clothing store—when you walk in everything is hung neatly, pressed, and perfect. The perception can be that the clothing is worth the exorbitant amount of the price tag. Yet, if you were to take one of the ties, shirts, or other pieces of clothing off the rack; bring it to a discount store; and throw it into a large bin full of other clothes marked, “Discount 75% off” your perception of the value of that item of clothing would go way down.
Marketing gurus play off this phenomenon in an effort to frame the public’s perception of value. Many companies have been successful at framing to such an extent that people actually have coined phrases to create a whole genre of words to describe products.
For example, everyone has probably said, “Will you make a Xerox of that?” even if the machine is not a Xerox but another brand. Xerox is the brand name, not the type of machine.
A more recent example is no matter what search engine you use, people often say, “Did you Google it?” because Google has become synonymous with searching on the Web. And people say, “Hand me a Kleenex please,” when really they want a tissue.
Others that you might not even be aware were brand names (unless you are of the generation in which they were introduced) include:
Aspirin is a trademarked product of Bayer.
Thermos is a product name of Thermos GmbH Company.
Band-Aid is a trademark of Johnson & Johnson.
Frisbee was a trademark of Wham-O.
All of those names became so popular that people’s frame of reference eventually encompassed any product similar to it. I never take aspirin—I usually use another brand—but I will always ask for “two aspirin,” be given the brand I use, and be happy.
Volumes of information exist about framing, but boiling down this information to some main principles you can use as a social engineer is necessary. The preceding information set a very detailed stage for what framing is and how it is used in different areas of life. Before moving to the social engineering arena, take a look at the different types of framing alignments.
Four Types of Frame Alignment
Two researchers, David Snow from the University of Arizona and Robert Benford from the University of Nebraska, wrote a paper entitled, “Clarifying the Relationship Between Framing and Ideology in the Study of Social Movements” (www.social-engineer.org/resources/book/SNOW_BED.pdf).
Snow and Benford argue that when individual frames become linked in congruency and complementariness, that frame alignment occurs, producing frame resonance, which is key to the process of a group transitioning from one frame to another. Snow and Benford then outline four conditions that affect framing efforts:
“The robustness, completeness, and thoroughness of the framing effort”: Snow and Benford identified three core framing tasks, and the degree to which these tasks are attended to will determine how much each participant gets involved.
The three steps are:
1. Diagnose the frame for problems.
2. Analyze it for solutions.
3. If successful, a call to action.
The more effort put into the frame the better chance the person has to call those he is framing into action.
“The relationship between the proposed frame and the larger belief system”: People tend to discount frames or proposed frames if a link does not exist to a core belief or a value of their belief system.
Trying to convince a person who holds a belief that eating meat is cruelty to animals to go to the steak place down the road that has a great special will certainly fail. The frame must fall with the core of a person’s beliefs to be successful (unless your goal is to use a frame to change his or her core beliefs); it is imperative to success.