Ethos, Logos and Pathos for Noobs
In this post, I will be talking about what ethos, logos and pathos are and how they can help a beginner content marketer create better copies that are, hopefully, able to convert.
TL;DR
Ethos, Logos and Pathos, or rhetorics, are modes of persuasion first stated by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Basically, it is the study of speech to understand how much weight it carries: by relating to the listener, by showing them proof or by merely imposing the personality of the speaker. The usage of ethos, logos and pathos are practically endless. Here we discuss how a digital marketer or a content writer, who is just starting out, can utilize them to upgrade their copies.
Let’s start with a short story
I was busy getting ready for work one day when I started hearing what sounded like an announcement some distance outside my house. It was getting extremely late for me so I tried ignoring it, only for it to get louder by the second.
I soon realized what the “announcement” was about. Some visually impaired people had gathered in the area to sing songs. This is a normal occurrence if you’re living in Kathmandu. You will often find specially-abled people trying their best to perform any kind of recreational activities, mostly singing random songs, to attract attention and hopefully collect some donations in the process.
I couldn’t help but hear everything that was being said. Here’s an extremely brief translation of what they were talking about.
“We’re a group of visually impaired people gathered here today in front of your lavish homes. Allow us to perform some songs and try to entertain you, sirs and madams. In return, we would like to request you to donate some amount to our cause.
The pandemic has hit us hard. We have been severely ignored by local authorities as well as our beloved government. We were kicked out of our wage work because of the lockdown [caused by the pandemic] and we haven’t been able to recover since. Nobody came to our aid, we were left to die.
Some of you may be preparing morning breakfast, others preparing for work or school. But please listen to us when we say we’re in dire need. You may think ‘I’d rather spend my money with my friends and have good food. That’ll be more worth my expense’. You may also think “I’m living a king’s life. I have a grand home and a comfortable room for myself. I work and earn well. There will never be a sad moment in my life. There will never be a time when I have to struggle for anything”. You should know that you can never be too comfortable in life. You never know when trouble finds you. Or when you might struggle for basic things in life. God may strike all or any of your health, wealth, family, etc., at any time. So please don’t ignore us.
[After they started singing songs]
Mrs. [name of an elderly lady in our community] has just contributed Rs. 1000. Thank you so much, such an old lady has such a big heart. Nobody has come yet but she has been kind enough to show her support through this donation.
[After another song]
Mr. [name of a guy] has just donated Rs. 250. He looks like he’s a student, but he has still donated based on his capacity. There have been two people so far who have shown any interest to support us. We don’t think there are only two people in this entire community, there must be so many of you sat in the warmth of your homes. We’ve been living through a lot of hardships so please show us your support through any amount you can.”
This was probably 20% of what they said. Meanwhile, I had already made up my mind that it was too late for me to go and interact with them. My new HR would send me more than just a warning if I was late, again.
But, as I was leaving, I started feeling super uncomfortable. I wanted to take my bike and leave, but the thought of skipping the donation made me sick. It felt like I had to donate to them, or that I could not avoid it.
All this led to me literally running onwards them, donating and leaving as quickly as I could. They asked for my name of course, which they would be announcing in front of the entire block how much I donated (which wasn’t much). But that was the last thing bothering me, I realized on my way to the office.
I normally stick to my decisions but that day I felt compelled not to. Something had compelled me to donate when I had made up my mind that I couldn’t.
Then it struck me.
The structures of their speech, albeit too interfering early in the morning, were very familiar. It all made sense. Unbeknownst to them, they were actually using a 2300-year-old old philosophy developed by the one they call Aristotle.
This realization immediately brought a smile to my face. I had been a victim of what I myself take benefit of as a marketer.
I was persuaded into donating. Though for a small value, those visually impaired people converted me.
This is the context I want to use in this post to talk about ethos, logos and pathos. I will break down each rhetoric and use the story above as an example so that it makes sense, as it made sense to me.
Ethos, Logos and Pathos: What are they?
A couple of thousand years ago Aristotle gave a philosophy known as the “power of persuasion”, which we also refer to today as rhetoric. According to the it, one could structure their speech such that they could convince, negotiate or win any argument.
Under this theory, there are basically three different modes of persuasion: ethos, logos and pathos. Broadly speaking, ethos refers to the credibility of the speaker who is trying to persuade. Logos is the usage of logic to convince someone. And pathos is trying to resonate with the listener’s emotions and conscience.
As a digital marketer, I have always been fascinated by the humongous scope of copywriting. A/B testing always gives you which words or sentences or paragraphs ultimately worked, but even then there is still so much more to explore, play around or test. If you can evaluate copies based on their expected influence over your target audience beforehand, you can always have an advantage.
For example, there is a world of difference between saying “Download our yoga app today!” and saying “50,000+ health-conscious people have already used our app services and taken the next step towards their mental and physical well-being. Try for free today!”. Understanding rhetoric allows us to figure out exactly what the differences are, and how it can be used to one’s advantage.
Ethos, logos and pathos aren’t just used in marketing, though. They can be implemented in almost every communication platform, even in writing and composition.
In fact, the scope of rhetorics is too big to limit to just one blog post. Here we will talk about them in the context of marketing only.
Ethos
This is what helps establish the identity of the speaker. It could be the speaker, the writer, the narrator, or whoever is communicating through any medium.
The persona of the speaker is introduced such that it creates trust, dependability and reliability. More trust means that the audience will want to listen to what you have to say. Not so much if they’re not sure who you are and what you’re trying to convey.
Here are some examples with statements without and with ethos.
| Without Ethos | With Ethos |
| An IT company is hiring an accountant who is under 30 and can take charge of our accounting requirements. | A reputed company in the IT industry established more than 18 years ago is on the lookout for a competent candidate under 30 to take charge of our accounting requirements. |
| Climate change is real. The temperature around the globe is rising at an alarming rate and thousands of people are at a huge risk of suffering. | I was born and raised here in the Maldives on this island. Until a year ago we were still living in our home, now the entire island is underwater. The sea levels were rising steadily. Nobody wanted to listen to a couple of hundred village folk from the Maldives. Due to global warming, we, along with thousands of others, have now lost our ancestral home. |
From my initial story, ethos is the fact that they… were visually impaired people. The way they stood with dirty and baggy clothes, glasses on. Their unidirectional view towards nothing. The group’s entire presentation was screaming that the things they were saying about their struggles, caused by the lack of sight, must be true.
Obviously, their struggles are real. I am definitely not trying to say it is only believable because of how they dressed or behaved. I am merely stating the fact that they were demanding attention because of their situation, and they were getting it.
Pathos
This is where you bring emotions into play. When you want to grab someone’s attention in a very strong manner, capturing their feelings and adding fuel to their consciousness is essential. The feelings can be love, sympathy, anger, appreciation, or any type of emotional response from the audience.
This ensures that the audiences’ emotions take over them and judge the situation accordingly.
Following are some simple examples.
| Without Pathos | With Pathos |
| Please donate to under-privileged school-going children who cannot afford study materials, lunches or even school uniforms. | Instead of learning, playing and having fun, 7-year-old Rashi has to deal with constant bullying at her school because her parents can’t afford to buy her a new uniform. With a tiny help, you could change Rashi’s and countless other children’s lives. |
| Introducing our new Crazy Fries, with 25% extra fries mixed two different types of cheese sauce gravy. | Imagine a cheese dip to go along with your favourite crispy fries in town. In fact, why only settle for a dip? Imagine our fries with thick cheese gravy all over them! Come in for an explosion of flavours between our crispy fries and savoury cheese in a single plate: our brand new Crazy Fries. The 25% more fries won’t even matter because you will want to come back for it again and again. And again. |
From my story, there are obvious elements of pathos. To start with, calling our average-at-best homes “lavish” or stating “we’re probably busy doing ‘normal’ stuff” while they’re having to come there, way out of their comfort zone, asking for donations is setting the mood already. It implies that a. we’re already way better off than they are and b. we’re privileged enough to do normal things that they cannot.
Hence we’re obliged to donate, at least that’s what the situation implied.
Should I really talk about them stating “you might want to spend your money with your friends instead”? Or “nobody came to our side when we needed them the most in the pandemic”. Clearly, pathos was the most used rhetoric.
The intention was always clear: to provoke an emotional reaction from us, the listeners.
Logos
Logos could quite literally be understood as giving logic. It can be an example, a statistic, a case study. And so on.
What this does is give a direction to the argument. Almost give it value or a base to build arguments upon.
Let us see some examples for logos.
| Without Logos | With Logos |
| Eating kiwi an hour before bed helps you fall asleep faster and even increases the quality of your sleep. | One of the lesser-known effects of serotonin, also known as the happy hormone, is on the quality of sleep. Serotonin levels are directly proportional to sound sleep. One of the best natural sources of serotonin is kiwi. Experiments have shown that regular consumption of kiwi before sleep has proven an effective measure for treating one’s insomnia. |
| Oodni Boutique should be promoting women’s products on Instagram because that can give better results compared to promoting the same on Facebook. | Females constitute more than 60% of the total users of Instagram in Kathmandu alone. By contrast, 60% or more of Facebook users are male. Almost 90% of the female Instagramers are less than 45 years of age. Oodni Boutique, as they cater to young to middle-aged women with their new summer gown collection, should look to exploit Instagram as the primary platform for their promotion. |
Any guesses on what logos could be in my story?
Name-calling the people who came to donate in the community, where people know each other very well, was an obvious implementation of logos. What that did is set a precedent amongst the community members. We heard who donated and how much. It was probably planned that way to induce guilt: “my neighbour has donated already and I haven’t”. Or even entice a sense of competition or a status comparison.
Ingenious. Especially from a group of people who, I am assuming, have never even heard about ethos, logos and pathos. They probably tried saying many things and stuck with the ones that got them the most donations. I couldn’t interact with them enough, but if I do meet them again I will listen to their stories and wish them luck in their future endeavours.
How to apply Ethos, Logos and Pathos in copywriting?
There are infinite ways you could apply rhetoric in your copywriting. Here, let’s work on one more example to better understand the concepts.
If you saw an ad today with my face on it that says “Make a small contribution of Rs. 10,000 today, I will take you to Mars in 7 years”, you’d probably think I am mad. You’d also probably wish Facebook and Instagram had a “Report Metal Illness” button.
Assume that my objective here is to make people sign up and deposit Rs. 10,000 for a chance to go to Mars.
Let’s try to use the concepts we’ve discussed so far. We want to change this ridiculous line into something that you will hopefully want to click. We want to make it capable of converting. Could we?
By the way, let this post NOT be a guide to make fools out of people. I am merely making an educational post and creating nonsensical examples to explain it better. Knowledge is always free. The ways in which one applies it is always under one’s own domain.
Now that’s cleared, let’s introduce Logos to our stupid initial copy:
“History in the making! 15 enthusiastic and daring youngsters from Nepal have already set their sights on landing on Mars by 2028. Yes, you heard that right. The whole world will be watching when Nepal will be one of the first 3 countries chosen amongst 93 for this record-setting event. Join this team now to find out how you could be part of history and get a chance to be one of the first Nepalese to step on the exotic red planet. Initial signing up fee of Rs. 10,000.”
What difference did this create? Still, a crazy thing to talk about, but at least not completely ridiculous like the first one.
I’ve tried to add layers of logic. Starts with the case that there were 93 countries where Nepal has been chosen amongst the top 3. Also, when exactly would the people be taken to Mars is cleared. I’m also insisting that this is legitimate and important information because people have already started applying, 15 of them in fact.
Believable?
Let’s change the first line in another way:
“From the top of the world, to out of this planet! It’s time for Nepal to shine and conquer the “Mangal Graha”. We’re proud to announce that Nepal, against all odds, is going to be one of the first countries to step on Mars. We’ve been chosen to be amongst the top 3 countries from 93 countries and we couldn’t be more delighted. Calling out enthusiastic Nepalese to be part of this team and write history. Sign up with Rs. 10,000 for a chance to write your name in the books! And it is 100% refundable. Support #NepalToMars”
Caught anything different? Here, we’ve used pathos to create a different statement than before. We’ve tried to touch the patriotic side of people by using a nationalist sentiment. Saying “we’re on top 3 from 93 countries” makes the statement somewhat inclined towards logos as well, but we’ve already set up a premise that something important is being achieved by our country and that we should be proud of it. Being chosen ahead of others also implies that there was a clear competition. “Time for us to shine” is just icing on the cake.
But we can do more.
Let’s take this to another level:
“NEPAL IS GOING TO MARS! Yes, you heard that right. Against all odds, Nepal is going take up the mantle for the first-ever visit to the red planet by any human being. 15 enthusiastic and daring youngsters have already been chosen to conquer the ‘“Mangal Graha” and lead Nepal to Mars by 2028 when the whole world will be watching. Join now to find out how you could create history and get a chance to be one of the first humans in the world to step on Mars. Initial signing up fee of Rs. 25,000 (refundable). #NepalToMars”
A lot has changed since “With a small contribution of Rs. 10,000, I will take you to Mars in 7 years”, hasn’t it?
We’re again trying to create a sentiment that this is a big achievement for our country. At the same time, we’re also letting people know that not only is Nepal about to create history, but the selection process has already begun. “15 people have already gotten ahead of you in the line to go to Mars” is essentially what is being communicated. So here, we’ve created a combination of pathos and logos.
Also, notice how I subtly increased the price to 25k? The story of reaching Mars is now more important now than the cost of reaching Mars. You’d be more worried about what this is about, or is it even true, than the cost. For the chance to visit Mars, and if it turns out to be true, the cost will no longer matter.
Now what about a combination of all three: ethos, logos and pathos?
Simple, just replace me in the last example with Elon Musk. Him speaking those words in a 30 seconds video would be the ultimate persuader.
In fact, the influence and credibility of Mr. Musk are so huge that he could’ve said the ridiculous first line and it would’ve still worked like magic.
Conclusion
The concept of ethos, logos and pathos is way too big and dynamic to understand with one point of view. The incident with the visually impaired people reminded me of that.
I do not claim to be an expert on the topic. If anything, I’m trying to imply that I’m learning about it more and more every day. I’ve tried to decode it for myself using marketing and copywriting usage as an excuse. You could do the same or choose a different variety of applications altogether.
Nonetheless, the objective of this post wasn’t to build advanced knowledge for the same. It was to pinpoint why it is important to understand the basics of rhetoric. To give you a sense of what you’re missing out on, and hopefully nudge you towards using it in your everyday practice.
I should also mention that just adding random facts, examples or stories to any copy doesn’t change it to a great copy from an absurd one. You cannot make things up just because you really want to use the modes of persuasion. With the exception of the one about kiwi, the examples I’ve given above are all fake. The numbers and stories aren’t real. But I only get to do that here as educational content, not with my clients’ work.
You have to dig deep into the context of your writing, find out the meanings. The numbers. Figure out who your target audience is and what would they expect from you. Then put it all in place, like a jigsaw puzzle.
If you’re looking to experiment on what copies work and what don’t, when you’re under pressure to convert, or you’re just looking to have fun writing in a unique way you’ve ever done before, I really encourage you to use ethos, logos and pathos.
Lastly, watch this video that studies a speech by Barack Obama and points out the ethos, logos and pathos used (because you can never have enough examples!)
I hope you enjoyed this post. Come hang out with me on LinkedIn or Twitter to have more conversations about digital marketing.
