You walk in to your favorite clothing store with the intent to simply browse. As you enter the establishment, your senses are immediately infiltrated. The strong fragrance of the latest cologne creeps up your nose. The blaring hipster music puts you in a trance as your eyes peer over the good looking and trend setting workers that are scattered about the store. You begin to lose touch of reality as your adrenaline kicks in. You want to be just like the models plastered all over the walls and you can be! All you need to do is buy the clothes they have and you can become who you always wanted to be! As you justify your purchases and leave the store with a migraine, you being to scan your bag for the things you just carelessly purchased. How in the world am I going to pay for this? And what the hell am I doing with a sweater vest?...
That’s advertising at its finest, exposing the weak parts of your brain and capitalizing on it. As we learned in the book Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom, the mirror neurons in our brain were set off by what we saw in the clothing store. “Everything we observe someone else doing, we do as well in our minds”(58). As the example above spotted the workers in the store and the pictures of models plastered all over the walls, he/she wanted to become that. The mirror neurons overrode their rational thinking and caused them to unconsciously imitate and purchase what was in front of them (60). Once the dopamine set in, the euphoric feeling caused a lapse in judgment and the example ended up making purchases they did not necessarily need nor want. They would eventually come to realize this when the high wore off and the feeling subsided.
So what can we do to block the one, two punch advertisers constantly throw at us? How can we gauge what we buy and stick to purchases that we truly want? Well for one, it is only going to get harder. The future of advertising will continue to capitalize on our mirror neurons in new and inventive ways; we won’t even have time to defend ourselves. Our best defense is knowing what to expect when we enter a store (marketing strategies, etc). It is also smart for us to shop with “clear minds” so that we are focused and determined on what we are seeking. This can avoid those purchases where you are “on the fence” about a particular item but end up buying it anyway because you believe in the future your mind will change. Knowing is half the battle and I believe if we educate ourselves properly we can ward off the corporations who will subconsciously try to control our minds and wallets.
Jason Maranzino - Section 80
I think if we do what you are saying and be aware as shoppers, Americans are more likely to put a stop to put a stop to Affluenza.
ReplyDeleteHi Jason,
ReplyDeleteI loved your post!! Unfortunately, it reminds me of my own shopping addictions. Each time I walk into my favorite store, there is an employee that I already know. I trust their sense of style and usually like what they are wearing when I see them. I ask them to find it for me in the store, or order it and ship it to my home. They have a huge screen playing the newest music videos. This can place anyone in the mood to purchase a new stylish outfit and the hottest new accessories. I loved when you said “…The strong fragrance of the latest cologne creeps up your nose.” When I walk past Abercrombie & Fitch, the aroma is so strong and winds up luring me with intentions of simply browsing. Shopping online makes me think I will appear just as the model in these new skinny jeans and I just click “add to cart.” Here I am struggling to pay for college and save for a car, but my mirror neurons are controlling my actions. My judgment is completely lapsed after the dopamine set in. Following my unintentional purchases, I soon realize I cannot afford these items and the logical thing to do would be to return them. Many of purchases are also made when I am bored, unable to sleep, or in a bad mood. Shopping somehow makes me feel better even if I know I cannot afford it. It is my sense of release. While reading Buy-olgy, I am learning how to control many of my actions and impulse purchases. Over two-years, I worked in a high-end retail store, surrounded with every designer I could dream about. When I would see my customers or friends purchasing the items, it would make me want to purchase what I wanted as well. It is like a “high” when you shop. From reading the book, it has helped me overcome and control myself a little more. I am thankful that I have become more conscious!
--Donna Fricano
Section 80
I always fall pray to advertising. Like what you said, the ads entice us to want to buy the product. However, what also catches my eye is the words sale and clearance. I often buy something that's on sale even knowing that I don't need that product. It's all about satisfying that urge. You brought up some great ideas to curb this advertising bombardment into influencing your purchasing power. What I feel that works is when you create a list of the things you actually need before you head to the store. Once you gather all the things that are on the list you made, you get out of the store!
ReplyDeleteMiles Kong
Section 01
Advertising is such a tricky thing, and perhaps even more so than a store is the television. Rapid successions of different advertisements probably put our mind all over the place, and basically forcing us to buy these things. If anything I think advertisers should be given credit for looking that far into it, in order to really figure out what unlocks our wallets...our brains.
ReplyDeleteAustin Payne, Section 80
Stores always seem to have mysterious ways to lure customers. They use loud music and pictures of models wearing their clothes to get you inside. How could you say “No”? The answer is you can’t; it’s shocking but true. No one is immune to it; even if you are the smartest person in the world. Advertisers will get in your head and force you to buy something. Even their discounts are hypnosis to the loyal customers.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Rizzo section 80.
This was an excellent post. It is both fascinating and frightening to think of the ways in which advertisers are able to manipulate us into buying products we don't want by convincing us that we need them. I agree that it is only going to get harder to overcome their efforts as they never cease studying their market demographics and inventing new ways to influence our purchases.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is difficult, I think I have a suggestion for how we can evade dopamine reactions to the majority of products we come in contact with. It would require a bit of conditioning through practice, but I think that comes along with what Buyology suggests - strategizing and acting upon a new found awareness. Since dopamine reactions are linked to reproductive success, and we all want to be the peacock with the brightest colors, we have to realize what we associate with success and reproduction in our day in age.
ReplyDeleteHow does irrational splurging on expensive cars signal stability, something vital to the long term success? Somehow, dopamine is triggered by these outlandish shows of power, but acting reserved with interest in the long term is unnoticed. Perhaps this is because animals did not plan long term, it was about short term spouts of power and an interest in the next meal rather than a meal 2 weeks away.
So in short. Items that define social hierarchy is irrelevant to long term success. Because of that, you should not find any joy in them, and look at the characteristics in people who choose to plan ahead than spending all their time flaunting their plume.
I agree that as consumers we need to beware as we shop. Companies have done there research over & over again; they have spent millions on having there products put into the lastest movies & tv shows just to get that extra time to creep in our brains. I think Miles Kong said it best "make a list & when you have whats on the list get out of the store". However as comsumers the urge to splurg is just so over powering with all the marketing, smells, ect.....
ReplyDeleteAnneMarie Esemplare sec80
Jason in response to your blog on how we can prepare and protect ourselves from advertisers and marketers playing off our mirror neurons we must as you said, educate ourselves and control our emotions, stop and think for a second if the purchase we’re making will really satisfy us. Martin Lindstrom illustrates, “…the future of advertising isn’t smoke and mirrors – its’ mirror neurons. And they will prove even more powerful in driving our loyalty, our minds, our wallets, and our Buyology than even marketers themselves have anticipated.” (pg. 67) Marketers and advertisers will find ways to appeal to consumer’s weaknesses, but as Lindstrom and other authors we’re read point out that the euphoric feeling that is caused by dopamine recedes after our purchase and we’re left to wonder if what we’ve purchases is something we really need.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the blog and like to say that many great points were made about the way companies and advertisements trigger our brians subconsciously. A simple solution is to be aware of the companies ways of advertising their products. They are the best at what they do and that is to sell their products any way they can. Attracting you to what they are trying to sell is used by smell, touch, and sight. Everything in the store or the way its shown to sell is cushioned through peoples jobs. Its to make you feel comfortable and have the euphoric sensation. Every little thing is worked out to help the companies image and selling productivity.
ReplyDeleteJustin Olsen
Excellent description of how the merchants are using neurological science to initiate impulse buying. The technology and data that Lindstrom describes throughout the first chapters of Buy-ology is both interesting an alarming. These advances seem to be the next step in the assault on the consumer. I do not think the tactics will change until the economic system is overhauled. As long as the buy more-sell more mentality is the paradigm, many of our economic, social and environmental problems will continue to worsen.
ReplyDeleteM.Ciccone Section 01
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-reasons-skip-black-friday-164603988.html
ReplyDeleteThe above article is about why Black Friday leads to people buying more than they intend to. The article states that "shopping momentum" and sales cause a psychological reaction in which one's brain desires to buy more and more goods. Both the article and the blog focus on the idea that shopping is more of a psychological impulse than we are even aware of. While we think we are making purchases we truly want and need, we are falling victim to our brain's reactions to the advertising tricks played on us by stores.
I think blog really gets to the point of how retailers are using neurological science to help guide our impulse shopping. As consumers we just need to be aware that this is how retailers will start to target consumers to buy more, best idea is to just make a list for your shopping needs & just try not to stray off your list.
ReplyDeleteAnneMarie Esemplare sec.80
When I first began reading this blog two stores come to mind right away! When walking through the mall they are the stores that you can SMELL sometimes before you can even locate them. I know once I find the store I always mindless go inside "just to browse." Before reading this book, I never realized how effective this tactics was. Once inside the store it is never lite well and I always end up walking around in circles aimlessly looking around. They are also usually expensive so when I see something on sale I buy it, majority of the time is not something I need and I plan on using it as a present "just in case." It ends up just sitting in the bag. On Black Friday these same stores had male workers standing outside the store in just a bathing suits. They really did a good job grabbing shoppers attention and getting people to stop in.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first began reading this blog two stores come to mind right away! When walking through the mall they are the stores that you can SMELL sometimes before you can even locate them. I know once I find the store I always mindless go inside "just to browse." Before reading this book, I never realized how effective this tactics was. Once inside the store it is never lite well and I always end up walking around in circles aimlessly looking around. They are also usually expensive so when I see something on sale I buy it, majority of the time is not something I need and I plan on using it as a present "just in case." It ends up just sitting in the bag. On Black Friday these same stores had male workers standing outside the store in just a bathing suits. They really did a good job grabbing shoppers attention and getting people to stop in.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Smith 01