How marketers convince us to buy things we don’t need
Neuroscience breakthroughs enable advertisers and marketers to gain a deeper understanding of our minds. Furthermore, their methods of persuading customers are so easy that they never cease to astonish. How can impulsive spending be avoided?
It’s simple: elicit certain emotions in us, advertise with hypnotic phrases and attractive images, modify the color, lighting, and music in the store slightly, and we’re ready to make a (unnecessary) purchase.
David Lewis, an American neuropsychologist and the founder of Mindlab International, an independent research consulting organization, explains such manipulation techniques and how to counteract them. He is known as the “Father of Neuromarketing” since he was one of the first to apply neuroscience methodologies to the study of buyer mental activity. Here are some interesting facts from his book “Neuromarketing in Action”.
Products that help us reach the perfect standard
Advertisers have long used the technique of evoking a sense of inadequacy and demonstrating a route out. “Tell people the world is hazardous, that they don’t have enough of this particular car, and that their teeth aren’t white enough in general,” says American marketer Jona Sachs. “Then give a magic tool – your product, and you’ll leave them with no option.”
Some forms of mass media lead you to believe that this is the only way to get the respect of your coworkers and the love of your loved ones.
Marketers turn dentists’, cosmetologists’, and plastic surgeons’ expensive services from an unpleasant necessity into our greatest need and desire. Imagine these treatments as a method to improve one’s beauty and boost self-esteem, and a person will not hesitate to spend money on a panacea.
However, in recent years, selling via inferiority has been overtaken by a new strategy: future marketing, which sends a message to the buyer that makes him a hero and reminds him of his immense potential.
We consider shopping to be an entertainment
We often go shopping not merely to pass the time, but also to relieve boredom or loneliness, and to have fun and enjoy ourselves.
That is why shopping malls have morphed into shopping and entertainment centers ( complete with pleasant lighting, music, and décor ), and airports have so many shops that a passenger waiting for a flight will almost likely visit one of them. In most cases, the traveler requires more dialogue with a friendly vendor than the transaction itself, but he nonetheless purchases a superfluous item as a token of gratitude for the time and attention given to him.
Sightseeing visits and walks through theme parks are another scenario that encourages unnecessary purchases. During this walk, we feel like we’re playing a delightful game in which buying a lot of souvenirs isn’t a waste of money, but a necessary ritual and a source of additional enjoyment.
Negotiating raises the product’s worth.
The customer, whom the marketer meets and agrees to bargain with, is elated emotionally and physically, and his brain is buzzing. And, as a result of the deal, he values his purchase far more than if he had obtained it without much effort. This is known as “attribution error,” and it occurs when we move our emotional state from the situation that generated it to a nearby object.
Since certain marketers are aware of this mechanism, they purposefully create situations in which a person feels excited and strong. The customer links his excitement to his desire to get this product, even if he previously denied the necessity to purchase, as he feels joy and pride from a minor success against the seller.
How are we affected by marketers
Recent psychological experiments and observations have made it possible to identify exactly how gestures and postures affect the buyer’s mood. Here are three tips that will help you sell (there are plenty more):
- Encourage the customer to nod frequently, and their desire to acquire the product will increase.
Arrange the product line vertically rather than horizontally, for example. The purchase will be less likely if he needs to turn his head to the sides. The unspoken link between nods and happy emotions dates back to childhood. Children raising and lowering their heads in quest of their mother’s breasts, and shaking their heads from side to side when they were full, were observed by Charles Darwin. This also explains why nodding indicates agreement and tilting the head from side to side indicates disagreement in most cultures.
- Consumers who are leaning back against the cushions of a comfy chair have greater negotiating flexibility than those who are seated in an unpleasant chair.
Even a minor change in posture can have an impact on how much attention customers pay to a product story and how well they remember the words spoken to them. Participants in one study turned their heads to the right or left to listen to information. Those who listened to the right with their heads turned paid greater attention to what was said and remembered it more accurately than those who listened to the left.
- Manipulation of strength and weakness postures is enough to drastically alter a person’s psychological state.
Remember that the poses of strength are wide legs and hands on the belt, whereas the poses of weakness are crossed arms on the chest and a bowed head. A character in a television commercial, for example, who takes a power attitude, will be seen as overconfident, if not aggressive. Someone who adopts a weakening posture, on the other hand, will be perceived as more relaxed and welcoming.
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