Are we buying or… are we being bought?

Colors and scents

In retail outlets, they try to create an atmosphere conducive to shopping. Depending on what product is sold and what customers most often visit the store, suitable colors, aromas and lighting are selected. And this choice cannot be called intuitive, since it is based on the research of psychologists and neuroscientists.

Some stores use bright lights to highlight the benefits of the product, others create a sense of sophistication with subdued lighting, and cosmetics departments prefer dimmer lighting to hide the flaws in the customer’s face. Cool colors like blues and greens soothe consumers, while longer wavelengths like oranges and reds are stimulating.

The aroma of lemon makes us more generous, the smell of fresh pastries, vanilla and chocolate relaxes and stimulates the appetite. Flavors with notes of sandalwood, leather, expensive cigars create a respectable atmosphere and make you forget about time (which is especially true, for example, in a casino). These are all subtle ways to inspire customers to want to spend money.

Music

It is known that fast music makes a person move at an accelerated pace, while slow music makes it take longer to examine the product. Young shoppers are cheered up by rock songs, while classical melodies increase sales in expensive boutiques.

Melodious love songs create a lyrical mood and muffle the critical perception of what is happening: in flower shops where such music sounds, men buy more expensive bouquets.

Comfort and communication

Advertising is often built on the effect of relaxing and creating a pleasant aura with which the product is associated. This goal — to make us feel confident and comfortable — is also served by endless «simple families» from commercials, where housewives wash clothes, and grandmothers carefully pour juice. It would seem that these plots are by no means sparkling with fantasy or an unexpected look at routine operations. Why are they working to increase sales?

The reason is our innate need to interact with other people. The activation of mirror neurons when observing the life of advertising characters allows you to feel involved in other people’s feelings and experiences. Thus, the brand of jam or milk that a familiar character prefers for breakfast becomes dear to us in its own way.

Pleasant emotions

Our choice is always emotional and fluctuates between «pleasant» and «unpleasant». And advertising takes into account this property of human nature. A striking example is a study conducted by psychologists from the University of Toronto. Participants were offered goods under non-existent brands.

Each product was accompanied by a certain visual range — pictures with negative or positive information. Pictures had no semantic connection with things. Still, the participants preferred those products that were accompanied by pictures that evoke pleasant emotions. They said, «I like it, but I don’t know why.»

The same participants were offered expert information, where the products they chose were rated negatively. But, despite these objective data, people still chose those brands that they associated with “pleasant” pictures.

Personal involvement

We gladly use the services of courier services and fast delivery of ready-made food. This is how we save our time and energy. But, oddly enough, we are not always satisfied with “everything is ready”. On the contrary, studies show that the more time and effort people put into a product, the more they value it.

This was played by IKEA, which made the process of assembling and packaging goods a part of the purchase. While competitors sell assembled furniture, the Swedish brand invites us to assemble it ourselves. Professor of psychology and behavioral economics Dan Ariely believes that this subtle manipulation makes people feel irrational love for their closets and beds.

How to deal with unnecessary spending?

1. Control emotions and to avoid rash purchases, a common switching trick will help: leave the store (or move away from the computer when shopping online) for a few minutes to call, for example, one of your friends. This will reduce emotional intensity, turn on analytical thinking and be more sober about shopping.

2. Think twice before opening your wallet, if a:

• you are bored and trying to kill time at the airport or while waiting for a meeting. In a relaxed state, we part with money more easily and are more willing to agree to buy goods at an inflated price;
• you didn’t have time to eat. Canadian neurophysiologists have found that the hunger hormone ghrelin makes you buy more food and less other goods;
• you didn’t get enough sleep. After a sleepless night, we do not hold a coherent picture well. When we have a fragmented vision of the situation, we are more likely to succumb to various marketing ploys.

3. When you feel an overwhelming desire to buy something, imagine a pink elephant sinking into a bowl of blue cream. Psychologists call such vivid, fantastical images thought-stoppers: since the conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time, the pink elephant prevents it from moving on to something else, such as a decision to make an unnecessary purchase. A few seconds is enough to distract and reconsider the situation.

4. Any seller is afraid hear from the buyer: «I’ll think about it.» By intentionally not thinking about a purchase, you may not make it at all.