• Advertisers are all about trying to get into your head and create subliminal ideas
without you noticing.
How can they do that without even saying anything to you?
Here are 15 of the sneakiest tricks being used to manipulate you into buying things
every single day.
15 – Misleading Visuals • You know how the food you buy never looks
at all like it does in their commercials or pictures?
• Well, there’s a whole industry devoted to making food look absolutely perfect.
And ironically, a big part of that business involves making that food completely inedible.
• The “syrup” you see being drizzled on those pancakes?
That’s probably motor oil.
• That lovely white milk in cereal?
That’s either glue, or shampoo.
• And the reason that hamburger bun looks so appetizing is because it’s been painted
with brown shoe polish.
14 – Placement of text • You’d never think it normally, but where
text is placed in an ad makes a big difference.
• Even something as simple as whether the text and logo are on the right side or the
left side makes a huge difference in how our brains process it.
• The placement of the text changes depending on whether the ad is colourful or somber in
tone, and what kind of emotion it’s supposed to get out of you.
• There are literal psychologists working on these things, helping advertisers get into
your subconscious all the time.
13 – Limited time only!
/ While supplies last!
• Nothing spurs a purchase decision like the fear that you’re on some sort of time
limit.
• But here’s the thing.
The time’s not that limited, and the supplies will totally last.
• They’re trying to get you to take action immediately, because if you don’t, you’ll
probably just forget about it.
12 – Fake sales • A number of American retailers like to
pretend they’re going to charge you a hundred dollars for a 30-dollar pair of jeans.
• Why?
So they can trick you by saying it’s “70 percent off” when they actually sell it
to you for 30 dollars.
• Macy’s, Sears, JCPenney, and Kohl’s have all faced lawsuits for this “fake sale”
pricing.
11 – Emotional charge • If an ad can hit you in the feels, it
will.
You’re more likely to remember an ad if it affects you emotionally.
• That’s why you see the “dog waits for its human” ads about drunk driving,
and why heartfelt stories about random acts of kindness go viral.
• Of course, when a commercial tries too hard to go for your feels, it can fail and
have the opposite effect.
10 – No dollar sign • It’s sort of unavoidable – the dollar
sign represents money.
So when you see it on a restaurant menu, you associate it with SPENDING money.
• The solution to this?
Restaurants have started removing the dollar sign from the menu entirely.
• Some menus actually have numbers written out, rather than in Arabic numerals, so there’s
even more of a disconnect in your brain while you’re trying to add up the check in your
head.
9 – Acknowledging resistance • Advertisers are so good at their jobs,
they already know what your first objection is going to be to their sales pitch.
• So they get out in front of it and try to respond to that criticism before you even
make it.
• That makes them seem transparent and in touch with you.
8 – Color • Different colors spur different subconscious
emotions, and advertisers know that.
• There is constant research being done into what colors generate strong emotions
in their consumers, and brands today have that in mind when trying to market themselves.
7 – FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt • Sometimes the trick isn’t in what they’re
saying, it’s in what they’re NOT saying.
• Many times, a sales pitch to get you to buy something is loaded with seeds of doubt
to get you to be leery of a competitor.
• A statement like “our products are 100% compatible with your system” may not seem
underhanded, but the immediate implication is that some other products may NOT be compatible.
• So immediately, you’re doubtful and uncertain about other products.
6 – Retargeting • Have you ever noticed that sometimes you
start getting ads for a website after you’ve visited it one time?
• That’s re-targeting.
Sales people know you’re probably not going to make a snap decision to buy something the
first time you see it.
• So they use retargeting ads to keep reminding you that they exist, so that when you make
up your mind, you’ll remember that you kept seeing them.
5 – Pointing out or manufacturing flaws • This is especially prevalent in the world
of beauty products.
• After all, there’s no better way to convince people they need beauty products
than to tell them they’re ugly.
• Cosmetics companies will manufacture whatever images they can, no matter how falsified.
The goal is to convince their customer base that there’s an impossible standard of beauty
to strive for, and that the only way to get there is with their products.
4 – Music in stores • If you’re walking through a store playing
music, that music most likely isn’t there on accident.
• Everything from the genre of music, to the volume, to the tempo, to even the key
signature, is calculated.
• Studies have shown that people are likely to spend more money when slow, sad music is
playing at a low volume.
A supermarket may be more suited to pop ballads, while an upscale department store is more
likely to use classical music.
3 – Scented shopping area • This, along with music choice and color
design, play into a business term called “atmospherics.”
• The idea behind atmospherics is that the overall “feel” of a store is as important
as the products it sells.
• If you’re shopping someplace that is too loud and smells bad, you’re not going
to want to stay there and spend money.
• Scents are also used to make you feel hungry near restaurants or food courts.
2 – Social proof • Social proof is a simple enough concept.
It’s basically throwing numbers at you.
• The concept is basically that lots of people before you have bought or used something,
and that means it’s trustworthy and satisfying.
• You know the McDonalds’ signs that say “billions and billions served?”
That’s a form of social proof.
1 – Smiling logos • One of the core tenets of customer service
is that the smile has incredible power.
• So much so, that it’s hidden in a number of logos, including Goodwill, LG, IHOP, Hasbro,
and even Amazon.
• Smiles mean happiness.
And every brand wants your brain to make the connection between their business and your
happiness.