All Apple products have a smell — even those made of drastically different materials. There is widespread belief that Apple has applied a fragrance to all its products, possibly meant to stimulate positive reactions in your brain. A Melbourne art exhibit attempted to recreate the smell — the scent of an Apple product being opened for the first time.
Source: Air-aroma.com
Holiday Inn reportedly uses a combination of aromatherapy and music to entice guests to stay longer in the lobby and rooms. Air-Aroma — a company that designs signature scents for brands — lists InterContinental Hotels Group as a client, so Holiday Inn may not be the only hotel using these tactics.
Source: Air-aroma.com
Aside from the air conditioner blasting to keep gamblers awake, casinos have another tactic: they attach little metal devices to the air vents that create a smell meant to be “strong, soothing and sensuous.” In other words, it’s playing on our desires to be loved, to win and so on.
Source: Lasvegassun.com
McDonald’s chooses to put the color red everywhere . Red stimulates the appetite and enhances the brain’s attention to detail. So, it makes you believe you’re hungry (have you ever stepped into a McDonald’s and not felt hungry suddenly?) and maybe distracts you from things like calorie count. You’re just focused on that pretty picture of fries, or the tantalizing words describing them in the ad.
Source: Minddevelopmentanddesign.com
You’ve probably walked into a restaurant and immediately thought it will be too expensive for you. Once you sit down, you see on the menu a $60 item but there are also $20 items. That’s reasonable, you think, and you order a $20 item. The restaurant doesn’t actually expect anyone to buy the $60 item. They want to make you aware of it so you feel like you’re getting a deal by buying the “cheap” items. You probably didn’t wake up planning on dropping $20 on lunch that day.
Source: Nytimes.com
McDonald’s and many other businesses slip into your environment — your space — through the speakers. You may notice during times of day when people are often in their cars, like lunch time, breakfast, or evening rush hour, McDonald’s radio ads have background noises that resemble car engines or other car sounds. By making you feel like they’re in your car, McDonald’s makes it easy for you to picture yourself at a McDonald’s drive-thru. And suddenly, you actually go to one.
Source: Slideshare.net
Online retailers like Amazon do this on most of their products: they show a retail price price crossed out, and next to it they show another price that’s their price. They’re attempting to make it seem like they’ve already lowered the price on this item. But don’t be tricked. Unless the actual site has marked that item down before, the item will likely go down in price even further if you’re patient.
Source: Upstreamcommerce.com
You walk into a liquor store and see bottle of whiskey priced so low, you’re wondering how they’re making money. The company will gladly take a loss on one or two items by pricing them far below their competition. Once you’re in the store, they’re banking on you impulse buying other items that are overpriced. The liquor store will get their money back and then some.
Source: Wsj.com
Companies appear to be so helpful around the holidays, positioning stacks of gift cards near checkout lines at grocery stores where you’ll inevitably stand for a few minutes with nothing to do but wonder if somebody you know could use an iTunes or Banana Republic gift card. What companies know that you don’t know is nobody ever hits the mark on the amount on the gift card. Hardly anything is priced at exactly $25 or $100. People spend extra money to ensure they use all the money on the card. And that’s just a best-case scenario. Plenty of gifts cards are lost or never used. That was money for nothing for the company.
Source: Usnews.com
Have you noticed the overwhelming smell of freshly baked bread in grocery stores, sometimes even when the store is out of bread? Research has found the smell of baking bread makes people feel good. It tears down resistance and they purchase more. Some grocery stores have an artificially created scent of baking bread they send through the vents in their stores.
Source: Farnamstreetblog.com
Think about any brand or online retailer whose newsletter and promotions you’ve subscribed to. They’ve probably sent you the same one-day-only, 20-percent-off coupon several times. Creating the illusion that the consumer must buy fast or will lose out forever is one of the oldest tricks in marketing. Realistically, the same deal will almost always be offered again soon. Even on days the coupon isn’t available, you can often call customer service and ask for the deal you saw posted several days before.
Source: Livescience.com
Doesn’t it feel like the products lining the area where you wait to check out are just what you needed? That’s because the store knows where you’re likely to stand around for a long time — like the checkout line — and places the grab-and-go items there, or the ones with “sale” and “deal” signs.
Source: Dailyworth.com
The music blaring through the store speakers isn’t just the manager’s choice. Many stores hire “audio architects” to design music meant to achieve the company’s goal (i.e. get you to spend.) Some stores play fast-paced music to make you feel like you have to buy now. Others play classical or jazz music to make you feel you live a life of luxury.
Source: Dailyworth.com
Shopping carts got larger over the years. Have you noticed many stores now have a person handing out mesh or canvas, over-sized bags “for your convenience?” Here’s the psychology behind offering giant bags and carts: the more empty those appear to you, the more you think you’re allowed to buy.
Source: Dailyworth.com
Ikea is notorious for this, but shopping malls do it too — purposefully organize their property in a way that slows you down and distracts you from your purpose. There are some places where it seems no matter how hard you try to stay on task, you can never leave with just the item you went in for. This is called the Gruen transfer, named for architect Victor Gruen who designed disorienting malls.
Source: Markpollard.net
