Holiday Survival: Secret Tricks of Retailers
Holiday Survival: Secret Tricks of Retailers
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Black Friday shoppers duck under the opening door of a Sears store at Simon Property Group Inc.'s Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Ohio, on Nov. 25, 2011.
Black Friday shoppers duck under the opening door of a Sears store at Simon Property Group Inc.'s Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Ohio, on Nov. 25, 2011. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Holiday Survival: Secret Tricks of Retailers
Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/MCT/Getty Images
Employees of a Target store help load a 40-inch HDTV onto a shopping cart during Black Friday.
Employees of a Target store help load a 40-inch HDTV onto a shopping cart during Black Friday. Photographer: Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/MCT/Getty Images
Martin Lindstrom
Martin Lindstrom. Photograph: Blue Murder Studios
Martin Lindstrom. Photograph: Blue Murder Studios
Martin Lindstrom leads a double life: As chairman of consulting firm Buyology, Inc., he helps large companies market brands better. As an author, he calls himself a consumer advocate, arguing that companies go “too far [pulling] money out of the pockets of consumers at a time when they can’t really afford it.”
Corporate marketing is getting “incredibly advanced,” he says, and consumers can’t keep up. That’s the argument in Lindstrom’s newest book, “Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy,” published in September.
In an interview with Bloomberg.com’s Ben Steverman, Lindstrom explains some of retailers’ canniest techniques, including why stores suddenly smell like cinnamon during the holidays and what online retailers and casinos have in common. Edited excerpts of the interview follow.
Q: How are retailers trying to get shoppers to spend more this holiday season?
A: The most obvious thing is the whole play on nostalgia. Our brains are built in such a way that as we’re taken back in time, we see the past as being much more positive than the present. We are willing to pay more to get that sense of belonging. That warm, fuzzy feeling is activated not just by sound but by sight and smell. That’s why more stores are spraying in pine, cinnamon and particularly vanilla. A study we conducted shows that when people smell cinnamon, they’re immediately taken back to Christmas. They also feel an obligation to be a better parent during Christmas. Therefore they’ll buy more.
Retailers are also adopting techniques to make you feel younger. They play music from when you were young -- say from the 1980s. The size of the clothes is larger, with pants typically one or two numbers too large. So you feel you can actually fit the clothes you wore when you were young. They’re also changing the colors in the mirrors and in the spotlights for a warmer color, so you look slightly more suntanned than you normally would.
Combine that with compliments from staff and people feel that sense of satisfaction and self-confidence. You actually want to buy that feeling. When you come home, everything falls apart and the music is gone and you look like crap in front of the mirror, but at least you had that feeling for five minutes. That’s what you want to buy.
Q: What about techniques for sales and special promotions, whether online or in stores on Black Friday?
A: More and more, websites like Gilt Groupe and others remind you of a gambling website, adopting concepts from Las Vegas. They build up a sense of urgency. When you want to buy a product, there will be a clock ticking down telling you there are X number of products left or that you only have 5 1/2 minutes to buy the product.
Retail stores are doing the same. On Black Friday, they make sure there is one product that is incredibly cheap in price. Once you hear about that product, you never forget it. And you actually say to yourself: “Well, I guess the whole store is like that price.” You show up at 4 a.m. When it sells out 2 1/2 minutes before you arrive, you’re going to buy something secondary, something costing a little too much. That’s exactly the game retailers are playing right now, making you feel that you need to bring something home with you. Q: How is the Internet changing these marketing techniques?
A: Online, companies are to trying to use ordinary consumers as testimonials for products. So if you want a 15 percent discount, you might agree to allow them to broadcast your testimonial to all your friends on Facebook. If you use a picture of your friends in the context of an endorsement, it has an increased effectiveness of up to 30 percent compared to ordinary ads. That’s the type of testimonial format we’re going to see. It will no longer be celebrities, but your real friends.
Q: What advice do you have for people starting holiday shopping?
A: No. 1, remember not to bring your kids with you. A lot of parents have guilt about not spending enough time with kids. From studies, we know that you’re going to spend 26 percent more when you bring your kids with you. The reason is simple: They’re nagging. They’re incredibly good at persuading. Don’t bring your partner, either. We tend to have more fights and spend more money when our partner is with us.
No. 2, pay cash. When we pay with credit cards, we have lost contact with money, so we pay more by far. By using larger bills -- $50 or $100 notes – we feel hesitant to break them and use them. We estimate you’re going to spend 10 to 12 percent less just by having those larger notes in your pocket.
In a supermarket, never use the shopping cart. If you use a shopping cart double the size you normally use, you can spend up to 40 percent more. You want to fill it up, you want to feel that it was worth this trip. Unless you have a family of 12, hold everything in your hands; it’s an incredibly good way to negotiate with yourself. And ask yourself: Do I really need that thing right now?
If you really want to cut down the money you’re spending in a store this Christmas, put on your iPod and play music you don’t like with a fast beat. Music makes us relaxed or makes us energized. Most music playing at a beat slower than your heartbeat, in fact, makes you spend a longer time in a retail store, makes you eat more or shop more.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Steverman at bsteverman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Suzanne Woolley at swoolley2@bloomberg.net
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