Download 7 Tricks Advertisers Use to Make You Spend Money

7 Tricks Advertisers Use to Make You
Spend Money
Can your heart and wallet resist these tactics?
You are bombarded by advertisements every day. Just how many ads you see is up for debate. One
oft-quoted number released by market research firm Yankelovich estimated that a person living in a
city 30 years ago saw as many as 2,000 ad messages a day (on everything from billboards to TV),
versus the present rate of 5,000 a day. That doesn't mean, of course, that we actually notice all of
those ads.
While most of us recognize that advertisers are trying hard to entice us to spend money, it's easy to
forget how they do this. By increasing our awareness of their tactics, perhaps we can better resist
impulse buying.
With that in mind, here's a roundup of methods advertisers use to prompt consumers to open their
hearts and wallets.
1. Appealing to our greed and other vices. You probably like to think of yourself as having
unimpeachable character. That said, Robert Barrows of R.M. Barrows, Inc., an advertising and
public relations company in San Mateo, California, points out that some advertisers will write ad copy
that appeals to all or any of the seven deadly sins – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and
pride.
Think about car companies that suggest your neighbors will drool over your new wheels (envy); the
restaurants that promise you lots of food for your dollar (gluttony); or perfume and aftershave
commercials promising irresistibility, and you start to see what he means.
2. Exciting our emotions. If you find yourself particularly excited or happy about a product or
service, then an ad may have tapped into your emotions. That's because advertisers try to press
your "core emotional hot buttons," says Michele Harris, president of Smarti Solutions, which helps
businesses hire advertising agencies.
These emotional hot buttons can include:
•
Hope. A brand, she says, "can play on consumers' feelings of inadequacy and tap into the
anticipation that they can look better, feel better, be better …"
•
Trust. That's why you see so many spokespeople pushing brands. "If a celebrity is –
allegedly – using the product, it creates confidence and an implied sense of reliability," Harris
says.
•
Pleasure. Not too surprising here, but still, as Harris explains: "We live in an age of instant
gratification. Anything that can make the consumers' life more enjoyable is an easy sell."
•
Excitement. Act now, before it's too late! There's a reason ads tell you to hurry up and buy.
"Massive markdowns, super sales and limited availability tactics draw in consumers, play on
spontaneity, impulse purchases and the thrill and rush of getting a good deal," Harris says.
3. Suggesting everyone else is doing it. You wanted to be the cool kid in school, right? Of course
you did. Well, advertisers know that.
"One of the most common ways is to make you think you are missing out by not having whatever it is
they are advertising. There is a lot of psychology involved and it isn’t a simple equation," says
Callum Beattie, a partner at Honest Agency in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. "Good advertisers
factor in the product's attributes, where it is in the life cycle, what societal attitudes are, the specific
profile of their target and the list goes on.
4. Using attractive people in advertising. Ever notice how people in an ad for a candy bar or a
fast-food restaurant are often super attractive and don't really look like the sort of person who often
eats candy bars or burgers slathered with bacon? Sure, you have. Well, remember: The brand is
doing that for a reason.
"An example of this would be an athletic wear company marketing to a wide audience by placing fit,
attractive athletes in their advertising. It tugs at people's desire to be fit, attractive athletes
themselves, and the product becomes appealing as a result," says Chad Reid, a communications
graduate student and the director of communications for a software firm in Oakland, California.
http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2015/09/10/7-tricks-advertisers-use-tomake-you-spend-money?int=a5a109