ways companies try to get you to buy

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15 ways that companies try to get you to buy, without you even realizing it.

Don't Be Fooled

Check out 15 ways that companies try to get you to buy, without you even realizing it -- and what you can do to avoid being manipulated.

Emerging Marketing Tricks

Can't get that jingle out of your head? Then all that R&D money is paying off! Companies are increasingly using "neuromarketing" to sell their products, which gets past the fact that people sometimes give the answer they "think" is right rather than saying how they truly feel. Scientists attach electrodes to subjects' brains to test their physiological responses to stimuli. It's a little like giving a focus group truth serum. Spearheading the groundbreaking research is Swedish globetrotter Martin Lindstrom, whose new book 'Buyology' describes his findings. He shared his knowledge of emerging marketing tricks with WalletPop.

The Big Basket Theory

Lindstrom says the first lesson companies have learned, particularly supermarkets, is that shoppers will get cautious about spending when their carts are full. How to get people to buy more? Just give them bigger shopping baskets. He says that Whole Foods has found people spending 30% more with a larger shopping cart. You'll also find that a lot of smaller stores, like drugstores, now offer wheeled carts rather than hand-carry baskets, in order to trick people into buying more.

The antidote? Only buy what you can carry.

Hungry Promotions

It's no coincidence that people buy more before lunch and dinner when they are hungry -- and this is not just about food. "We buy more computers, more videos, more of everything, just before we are going to eat," he says. Now that companies understand more about this hunger trigger, which makes people 200% more sensitive to sound and smell stimuli Lindstrom says they will start timing promotions to the hours before meals in retail stores, on TV and radio and even on the Web. This type of campaign works much better than even celebrity endorsements, a high-price gimmick that advertisers have been relying on for ages.

The antidote? Don't shop or watch TV right before a meal.

Bring in the Band

Using sound to sell products used to be about playing soothing background music in stores, but not so anymore. Retailers are learning that people respond strongly to sound stimuli, so they will be playing specific kinds of music to push products. Lindstrom conducted a test in a wine store. When the store played Italian music, people bought more Italian wine. When they played French music, people bought more French wine. "When you asked people why afterward, they had no memory of music playing, they just said, "oh, I felt like an Italian wine," he says.

The antidote? If you don't want to be tricked, pay close attention to your surroundings.

Gee, You Smell Terrific

Smell stimuli is just as potent on shoppers, so in the future, retailers are going to go way beyond just potpourri. "The sense of smell is incredibly powerful, the sense really seduces us a lot," says Lindstrom, who has done many tests of smells being pumped into stores. In one hardware store, the smell of fresh cut grass made customers think the staff was more intelligent. In an appliance store, he pumped in the smell of an apple pie and the sales of ovens and fridges went up 23%.

The antidote? Beware if you walk into a store and are hit with an odor.

Show Me the Pasta

Putting sound and smell together works even better, says Lindstrom, and that's why he says you'll see a lot more live food demonstrations, particularly in super markets. You can already see this at chains like Wegman's where chefs cook food like pasta out in the open. "The senses work much better together than apart," he says. "What we learned from our study is that 2 + 2 equals 9. If you see and hear certain things, you will taste the feeling if those messages have been sent in the right way."

The antidote? Stick to the quiet canned food aisles and you may be able to avoid temptation.

Virtual Taste Test

We're still a long way from smell-o-vision, but Lindstrom says TV and the Web can get across taste pretty easily and marketers are becoming more sophisticated at the task. "If you hear the sizzle and water in the background, you can activate the sense of smell," he says. Advertisers are learning to create ads with these sounds, so look for more burbling Web ads in the future.

The antidote? If you don't want to be enticed, keep your computer on mute.

Ding, Dong, Time to Buy!

Neuromarketing owes a deep debt to Pavlov, who showed how people can be conditioned to respond in a certain way to a stimulus. The gold standard these days is to have some distinctive "bell sound" that makes customers jump up and hand over their money. We will be subjected to repeated sounds as they try to create one of these iconic sounds. Lindstrom did a study in his home country of ffice:smarttags" />Sweden on the sound that the most popular ice cream truck makes. When people heard the sound on TV, they grabbed their money and ran out in the street to buy from the truck.

The antidote? Don't keep cash available for impulse purchases.

A Non-Generic Response

As more consumers turn to store brands in this tough economy, marketers are having a tough time creating brand loyalty and positive brand associations. People are just more interested in price. Some companies will resort to cutting prices, but Lindstrom cautions clients against this. "You are discounting your brand image," he warns. "Companies will start to use other tricks," he says, "Like combining with other brands, like buy a Coke product and you get a free snack product." That way, you get a reward for buying the brand name.

The antidote? To make sure you're getting a good deal, compare the prices of all the items you are buying, and make sure you actually want the bonus item.

Luxury Mini-Me's

Luxury retailers are suffering deeply in this bad economy, as even high-earners are cutting back. Stores like Saks and Bloomingdale's are offering deep discounts for the first time, up to 70% off in some departments. One way that these brands will recover, says Lindstrom, is to create products with a lower price point. Affordable luxury is still luxury, though, so the way to cut the cost of items is to make them smaller. Can't afford a Coach bag? Maybe buy a change purse. "They will also be creating bags with more practical purposes so that now people can justify the purchase," he says.

The antidote? If you can't afford it, then don't buy it.

The Envelope, Please!

In Lindstom's book, 'Buyology,' there's a whole chapter explaining why sex doesn't sell. But scandal does. Abercrombie & Fitch, which had its catalog banned in 2003, is one of his key examples. "We are going to see a lot of provocative stuff, they will need to provoke so much that they will create headlines," he says, and other stores will follow suit in trying to create a media buzz and push the envelope. "This is the same way Benetton is surviving," he adds, "And this is Madonna's strategy as well."

The antidote? Pay attention to circulars rather than headlines to make your shopping decisions.

Gaming the System

"TV is a dying medium," says Lindstrom. Even product placement in movies is not working. The hot place to advertise now is in video games. The reason it works better is that the brands are placed in context and players are able to interact with them, rather than the passive display in the midst of a ton of other stuff on TV or movies. "I was playing Second Life one night," Lindstrom says, "And it was 6pm and suddenly I arrived at a Pizza Hut. I clicked on six different pizzas, ordered one, typed in my credit card, and soon after there was a knock on my real door.

The antidote? Keep your credit card in your wallet while you play.

Friend Finder

The combo of mobile phones and GPS is another new frontier that marketers will be exploring. Lindstom says that he was in <st1:country-region w:st="<st1:place" on=""><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:country-region> recently as part of an experiment. The application on his phone found one of his friends nearby and rang him up. The message said, "Your friend is nearby and Starbucks would like to sponsor your meeting." A map appeared and 90 seconds later he was in the cafe, his friend was waiting for him and they both got free cups of coffee. "This is very different, it integrates itself and makes sure the brand is the hero of the story," he says.

The antidote? Never sign up for any marketing product that can track where you are in real time.

Smash It Up

Every year, companies spend millions to re-do their logos or change the design of their packaging. Lindstrom says this practice should come to an end if companies are smart. "It's a waste of money," he says. "Brands are about much more than just a logo." The lesson that companies are starting to learn is that they need to create "smashable" products – those that you would know what it is if it were smashed into pieces. "The best example of this an iPod, you can't find a logo on it, and yet you know it's an iPod," he says.

The antidote? Pay attention to your surroundings -- even cartoons can be devious, like 'Wall-E' being one long ad for Apple.

Do It for Me

One of the sneakiest marketing tricks is having customers do their advertising, product development and other outreach for them. Lindstrom says this will go far beyond the gimmicks that companies use now of fans creating their own jingles or commercials or even creating fan blogs to get out the word. He gives the example of a cosmetic chain in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> that has an online store where users are vigorous about posting reviews. The real-life store stocks only a few items at a time on shelves, and these are rotated based on what's popular on the site.

The antidote? Give the most weight to your own opinions, rather than anonymous users out there, who may or may not be on the payroll of the companies.

Life Is a Small Box of Chocolates

Americans may love their Big Box stores and buying in bulk, but Lindstrom says a sea change is coming where the marketing trick will be to offer fewer choices instead of more. People's brains respond better to fewer choices. He did a test where he was giving women a box of chocolate with 20 options. They would pick one. When the box offered just six items, they picked three. "We buy more the fewer options we have," he says. "Somebody has to choose. We look and aspire, and so you will see stores offering fewer products and changing them out more often."

 

The antidote? Order what you want online or make a list before going into a physical store so you buy what you want.