The battle between sellers of various goods and services and consumers will never end. Consumers want to pay less and not buy unnecessary things, sellers want the exact opposite, and they usually get what they want. They have a lot of tricks with which they make customers part with the money “voluntarily and with the song”.
Here are the top 7 marketing tricks with which shoppers are forced to buy more products.
7. Price bait
If you give the buyer a choice between an obviously disadvantageous option and a more attractive option, he will choose the latter. This marketing technique is called the “bait effect” or “asymmetric superiority effect”.
Professor Dan Arieli once conducted a study that illustrates the power of the effect. Using his students as subjects, he divided them into two groups. Both groups were offered subscriptions to The Economist magazine. Group A was offered a web subscription for $ 59 and a combined web and offline subscription for $ 125. 68% of its students opted for a cheaper web option.
To the second group, the professor offered a web subscription for $ 59, a print subscription for $ 125, and a combined web and print subscription for the same $ 125. This time, 84% of his students chose the third option, thinking that they get a lot of opportunities for their money. That is, after the introduction of the “bait”, sales of the desired product grew by as much as 30%!
Of course, the price “bait effect” is not the only factor affecting the choice of the buyer. There are also technical specifications, materials from which the goods are made, and other properties. However, if the buyer is primarily interested in the price, then the “bait effect” can play a decisive role.
6. Using small tiles on the floor
The popularity of online stores has led ordinary stores to look for new ways to keep their profits.
A recent study of more than 4,000 customers, conducted by Professor Nico Hoywink of the IESEG School of Management in France, showed that closely spaced horizontal lines on the floor slow down the walk of shoppers in the aisle, encouraging them to browse and buy more products. If large gaps between the lines are visible, then buyers move faster and spend less. Therefore, in many stores, small tiles are used where more expensive products are located, and large tiles are used in places where “congestion” needs to be minimized, for example, at the entrance.
5. Price from .99
A 2005 study at New York University found that ending prices for “.99” had a huge impact on buyers. This price is perceived as lower than the round number. Scientists explain this effect by what we read from left to right, and the first figure in the price resonates with us the most. Unconsciously, our brain perceives the price of “499 rubles” closer to 400 rubles than to five hundred. In addition, a price ending in “.99” makes us think that this product is on sale, even if it is not. The power of the “magic nines” in value was demonstrated in an innovative study conducted by professors from the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Researchers took the same item of women's clothing and set different prices for it: $ 34, $ 39.99, and $ 44. Amazingly, the most popular among buyers was clothes worth $ 39.99, although it was six dollars more expensive than the cheapest option.
4. Rude sellers
It is believed that the seller should be extremely polite and friendly. However, researchers from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia say the opposite. In their opinion, the ruder the staff in luxury stores, the greater the profit. In fact, people who shop at luxury stores want to fit into the high society. Such buyers believe that the seller behaves scornfully, because they do not yet have status things, and you need to quickly purchase them to become part of the elite. It should be noted that this principle does not work for the mass consumer in ordinary stores.
3. Scarce products
“Hurry, the quantity of goods is limited,” the advertisement calls us. Most often, it is limited only by the imagination of sellers, because such words are an effective trick to attract customers. It makes buyers think that there is a great demand for a product that is in short supply.
The effect of the "illusion of rarity" was demonstrated in 1975 in a psychological study. During the experiment, the researchers showed the subjects two identical cans of cookies. There were 10 cookies in one jar, and only two in the other. Subjects rated cookies in an almost empty jar as more valuable, because there were fewer of them. Think about it the next time you buy something in an online store and see a pop-up on the screen: “Only 10 pieces of goods are left in stock. Buy it now! ”
2. Use of many adjectives
In second place in the ranking of marketing gimmicks, which force buyers to buy more than they need, is a little trick commonly used in restaurants.
There are two types of menus: one simply lists the dishes, and the second describes each dish in detail. Compare Caesar Salad and Caesar Chicken Salad with fresh lettuce, shrimp and cheese, sprinkled with olive oil and garnished with cherry tomatoes. Restaurateurs write these descriptions not only so that people know what they eat. According to a study by scientists from Cornell University and the University of Illinois, a detailed menu with many adjectives increased sales in restaurants by 27% compared to restaurants that used menus without detailed descriptions of dishes.
1. Eye contact with the eyes of children
And the first item on the list of ways that sellers make customers fork out is the marketing trick associated with small buyers. In 2014, scientists from Cornell University and the Harvard School of Public Health studied 65 different cereals in ten different grocery stores. They took into account their position on the shelves and found that cereals for children were placed on shelves just above the level of children's eyes. But why not at eye level? The fact is that the look of the characters on the cereal boxes is directed downward. Therefore, if you place the box just above eye level, then the children will have a feeling that their favorite hero is looking directly at them. Researchers concluded that a cereal box is 28% more likely to appeal to customers if the character on the box has eye contact with them.
