It can be hard to figure out when companies are persuading you with phrases like "This
product is the best" because they are usually so indirect.
Don't let these small details influence your opinion.
Here are 10 more ways companies trick you on a daily basis: from subtle manipulation
to outright psychological warfare.
Number 10 - Social proof.
We are innately herd creatures, meaning that we often contextualize events and experiences,
according to the people around us.
This is something psychologists and marketing agencies have known for decades and has given
birth to what is affectionately termed, social proof.
If we see something that appears to have been advocated by others, we are more likely to
make emotional purchases based on that information.
Slogans like nine in 10 people prefer us over competitors may seem like lip service, but
when displayed in a way that emphasizes authority such as on big signs and commercials and through
celebrity endorsements, there is a measurable effect in people's willingness to believe
and buy accordingly.
Number 9 - Visualizing Dollar Signs and Cost to Weight.
You wouldn't think something as simple as dropping the dollar sign from the price tag
would have an impact on whether or not someone chose to buy a product.
But a study out of Cornell, found that when looking at many restaurants, there was a notable
difference in spending habits.
When restaurants got rid of the infamous dollar sign or any other currency symbol, and simply
displayed a number patrons were far more likely to purchase more expensive items.
This also heavily ties into a similar bias where consumers tend to favor items that look
cheaper than they actually are.
You've probably encountered this first hand and it's become one of the more obvious, but
nevertheless, effective ways to encourage spending.
An item priced at 2.99, visually appears to us to be a better deal than something priced
at 3 $, even though the difference between them is only a cent.
This doesn't just apply to candy bars and small things however.
Car manufacturers are famous for pitching the same method, marking down prices to look
cheaper by reducing numbers, to the left.
There is also the matter of cost to weight ratios.
Many products have been experiencing diminished amounts per package with a price that fails
to take into account this loss.
In many cases, this involves the convenience of packaging and stores tapping into the inherent
laziness of their customers.
Think about it!
If you're in a stifling mall and just want to buy what's on your grocery list and get
out, you're less likely to head to the bulk aisle and spend time measuring and bagging
your own food.
When you can just as easily cruise down another aisle and swipe a pre-packaged version of
the same product into your cart and keep going.
The problem is, these pre-packaged items.
Don't often reflect a fair way to cost ratio and you end up paying more for less.
Number 8- Scarcity Principle.
This one is pretty straightforward and yet it's amazing how often we fall for it.
It's the idea that if a store market something as going out of stock or only being offered
for a limited time, that people will naturally want to capitalize on it.
Even if it's something that they don't actually need.
Now, while this may be true of certain seasonal things like Mandarin orange chocolates and
candy canes, the majority of these ploys are simply there to encourage reckless spending
and have little to do with scarcity at all.
Nevertheless, in keeping with the mantra of supply and demand.
We are naturally inclined to want to process things that are seen as rare.
The next time you visit a grocery store and there's a special one-time offer being advertised.
Try to keep track of whether or not it's still there, the next time you come back.
Chances are, it's still there.
Number 7 - Trustworthiness of faces.
Speaking of celebrities, there is a whole algorithm behind the sorts of people that
show up on commercials and advertisements.
And generally speaking, most of them fit a certain criterion.
There is considerable evidence to show that we often make up our minds about the trustworthiness
of a person's face in the blink of an eye between 10 and 33 milliseconds, and that the
degree to which we trust a face has a lot to do with its proportions.
A study out of New York university found individuals with higher cheekbones and eyebrows, as well
as genuine smiles that utilize all the muscles of the face.
We're statistically viewed as more trustworthy than those with sunken cheeks and furrowed
eyebrows.
The moral of the story, if you want to sell something, maybe getting a facelift isn't
as farfetched as it sounds.
This certainly paid off for Calvin Klein, when they piggybacked on the up-and-coming
fame of Justin Bieber for the 2015 line, a campaign whose video racked up nearly 10.5
million views and became one of the top trending topics on Facebook that year.
Number 6 - Stimulate your appetite.
Restaurants and bars are notorious for priming their customers to purchase more than they
normally would.
The presence of bar snacks or appetizers like free bread, have become so commonplace that
we almost take them for granted.
In fact, you might be a little miffed if you don't get apparently gratis extras at these
sorts of establishments.
But in reality, the choice of what makes up a bar snack or a complimentary appetizer has
been carefully selected to encourage you to make larger expenditure.
Bars in particular favor, salty snacks like peanuts, which make you thirsty.
While high-class restaurants encourage you to eat bread, to activate your appetite, so
that you'll be even hungrier when it comes time to choose a menu item.
By lining the stomach, the bread will also enable their clientele to drink more, which
has been official to the restaurant as beverages have the highest profit margin.
There is also an agreement in the hospitality industry that by offering free and relatively
small samples, you're encouraging reciprocity, our psychological tendency to want to pay
people back for acts of kindness and generosity.
The next time you find yourself unconsciously wanting to tip a large amount, think back
to whether or not you were offered a complimentary glass of wine or basket of bread.
Number 5 - Social conditioning.
Understanding how people react to certain stimuli, has become the proverbial Eldorado
for social savvy marketers.
And social conditioning is just one of the many techniques that employees are taught.
Although we are predominantly visual creatures, some studies have found that utilizing tactility
in interactions, such as having sales people touch you while demonstrating or explaining
a product makes it far more likely you'll end up buying whatever it is they're selling.
Mimicking expressions and gestures also increase empathy and creates a social bond between
employee and customer, making you much more sympathetic to a spending spree, a phenomenon
known as facial feedback theory.
If you've ever noticed a salesperson tapping your shoulder or folding their arms and touching
their face, when you do the same thing, you've probably been a target of such social condition.
Additionally, there is evidence that when luxury items are concerned, customers are
more inclined to buy a product, when the sales people are rude to them.
The idea of being that snobbiness fosters the illusion of belonging to an in crowd.
And here, we like to think we've grown out of high school cliques and trying to be the
cool kid.
Number 4 - Complimenting principle.
Another relatively straightforward sales strategy, this one is favorite especially by electronic
manufacturers, such as Sony and Microsoft.
Often a product will be sold for a certain amount, but the additional components such
as batteries, remotes, cables, et cetera, will be sold separately and come with higher-than-average
price tags attached.
When purchasing a computer is concerned, this is readily apparent.
A computer may be sold for 1,000 $, but the real income for the store is derived from
the installation of software, add ons and warranties.
Another example I've personally noticed are GoPro batteries.
The recommended retail price for GoPro batteries on Amazon is around 20 pounds, which is much
more expensive than alternatives like smatree, who sell two, which store more charge anyways.
Plus a charger for even less than one official battery.
The reason they often get away with it though, is because either most people are unaware
or they regard them as inferior, seeing as third-party batteries, aren't under warranty.
Either way, it's an insanely high markup.
Number 3 - Gender Specific Advertising.
Let's face it, while there are obvious physical differences between men and women.
There are also significant differences in their spending habits.
Take razors for example, before 1915, shaving of the underarm was relatively unheard of.
But the introduction of short sleeve dresses provided an opportunity for razor companies
to cater to yet another demographic.
And shaving the legs didn't become popular until the 1930.
Fast forward to today and razors are still advertised to women, but in the form of basic
easily breakable, simple tone disposables.
While men's razors are sleek, hardy, futuristic looking and use language that is geared towards
masculinity.
Razors were able to find a market not only with both sexes, but the way in which the
same product with the same function is advertised differs considerably.
In fact, a report by the times found that overall women's products, 37% more expensive
than their male counterparts, which may explain why many women have switched to using men's
razors, which are cheaper to buy in bulk and often have a higher quality last longer.
But the gender bias on consumer products goes both ways.
Male skincare products tend to be hundreds of times more expensive than their female
counterparts, such as Nivea moisturizers.
Number 2 - Arbitrary Expiration Dates.
We like to think there is an ordered and logical system behind the application of expiration
date stickers.
The actual usage of expiration dates on food didn't come about until the 1970s.
But today there is a consensus that they are meant to tell us when a product is no longer
edible.
In fact, expiration dates are a bit of a misnomer since they are actually meant to indicate
to food purveyors when a food is at its freshest.
Products are often quite edible long after their expiration dates, especially in the
case of canned or dried goods, but also more unexpected products like medications.
This confusion has resulted in a huge amount of food going to waste in north America with
90% of Americans throwing out food, prematurely.
The problem is that expiration dates were never implemented as a safety measure, but
as a quality measure, meaning that there is no national regulation dictating what expiration
dates have to say.
While some things like milk or vegetables definitely go bad faster, chances are you've
been chucking good food in the waste bin for years.
Number 1 - Nostalgia and Smells.
Yes, even the friendliest looking companies may be taking advantage of your childhood
memories.
That catchy tune that comes in on the intercom while you're perusing the mall or that barrage
of Christmas music during the holidays, it's not just there to add a bit of atmosphere.
Several studies have found that appealing to people's sense of nostalgia effectively
makes them value money less.
This may have to do with the fact that nostalgia fosters a sense of social interconnectedness.
When we are reminded of something pleasant in our past, we begin to overvalue our relationships
to others while at the same time, devaluing our attachment to other things.
If you're in the middle of a mall or store, that other thing may be your credit card.
We've also had it drilled into us, that smell is the most evocative of the senses when it
comes to memory.
Grocery outlets are well aware of this and often design their layout so that smell takes
precedence, when you walk through the doors.
Positioning the flowers and produce section or the bakery near the entrance immediately
assaults customers with pleasant smells that stimulate the appetite encouraging them to
buy more.
Likewise, when another consumer study experimented by using vanilla scent in a women's clothing
store and rose Moroccan, a men's clothing store, their sales nearly doubled.
Our best advice to avoid being manipulated by store, bring a clothes pin.
Our subconscious can be a powerful thing.
And though we may not always be aware of what it's doing.
It's there to help us navigate the world and our experiences.
At the same time, it also makes us an ideal target for companies who know how to exploit
our base impulses, biases, and psychological quirks in order to encourage us to buy things
we don't need.
Can you think of any other hidden or mischievous tactics that the marketing industry uses?
Or any that we might've missed?
Hey, feel free to leave a comment below and let us know.
Thanks for watching.
BRAIN CRAIN.