Cool Marketing Thoughts

When I go shopping, I always think I’m in control. After all, I studied marketing. I work at a cool agency and I think of things that will engage customers and make ‘m buy stuff. I used to think that me, of all people, would know what’s going on and that I would be able to see the obvious tricks out there. I buy what I want, where I want it. If I’m being pushed subconsciously to buy something, most of the time I’m aware of it, but sometimes I just think: “ah, what the hell.” Until I read this list about architectural tricks to control consumers. Going through the list I often caught myself thinking I’d fall for it or even that I wouldn’t notice it. Marketing is so much more than I realised. I’m being played. And not just a bit. Tune in on a few tricks from the list, then check it out. You’ll be surprized. (You’ll also recognize a few, which makes you feel a bit like ‘hah! I’m on to you marketeers’, and that’s comforting.)

• Some customers, particularly men, tend to simply shop for what they want, walking down an aisle grabbing what they want, turning back and walking the way they came, this is called the ‘Boomerang Effect’. In order to maximize shopper and produce contact time, shops therefore place major items and brands in the middle of aisles ensuring that from any direction the customer has to walk the furthest to reach them.
• Some UK baby shops now add Baby Powder to the air conditioning to remind people of new-born’s and relax them.
• Most Supermarkets bake their bread early in the morning, however to entice more custom some have resorted to pumping out the smell of fresh baking bread to add to the illusion that it is constantly baked through the day. Go into Niketown on Oxford Street and smell the deodorant like pong they pump into the air!
• Apparently the colour Light Purple is most likely to make customers feel lilke spending money!
• Supermarkets used to have a trick placing slightly smaller tiles on the floor in the more expensive aisles of the shop. When a customer entered on of these aisles their trolley would click faster making them think they were travelling faster and thereby subconsciously slow down and spend more time in that aisle.

Read the rest of the list | via Bright