8 human desires every new copywriter should know

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “appeal to human desires”.

If you’re a copywriter or someone who’s worked in marketing, you would, more than likely, have heard it in passing. I first came across it when reading The Robert Collier Letter Book. Collier was giving his opinion on why he believed one Well’s History sales letter pulled more money than another.

Collier can be quoted “the first letter was aimed only at intellect, whereas the second…it aimed its real appeal at the emotions”.

So, if you’re a marketer looking to build a campaign, what desires or emotions should you concentrate on?  

Appeal to desires with the Life-Force 8

Drew Whitman shares these eight human desires in his book Ca$hvertising:

1. Survival, life extension, enjoyment of life.
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages.
3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
4. Romantic companionship.
5. Comfortable living conditions.
6. Keeping up with the Joneses – to be superior, winning.
7. Care and protection of loved ones. 
8. Social approval.

Generally speaking, these biologically programmed emotions make people tick. If you’ve read Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Swartz, you might be familiar with the “market force” concept. Think of emotions as the most powerful market forces that drive mass desire. 

One of the main ideas that you’ll get from Breakthrough Eugene is demand and mass desires comes from the market and not from copy.

If that’s the case, then, marketing boils down to this. Identify the emotion that drives mass desire within your market. Then select a performance from your product that shows the market how you can satisfy that desire. And then build subsequent campaigns on that emotion.