A day of shopping during spring break or an evening at the movies? Companies try to influence our financial choices, without us always being aware of it. Consumer psychologist Patrick Wessels shares five tricks to prevent you from spending too much money on a day out.
A store marketing ploy? Wessels is also sometimes receptive to it, he says: ,,If you put me in a shopping street on a busy Saturday afternoon, with stimuli from sound and images, then I am also susceptible, because then it is more difficult for me to rationally consider a purchase. to think. In retrospect, I can imagine that I fell for it. I therefore think that everyone can be tempted from time to time, but it is good to know how you are being played.”
A euro sign is an association with money that they deliberately omit, just like other money associations such as a comma or dash
1. Omit Euro sign
At a coffee chain you see on the board above the counter what you can order and at the end of the line is for example 5 instead of 5 euros. Why do they do that? Wessels: ,,A euro sign is an association with money that they deliberately omit, just like other money associations such as a comma or a dash. Because then your brain will automatically make a decision. Five euros for a coffee, is that a good deal? And of course it isn’t. You mainly come across this method with products that you don’t really need.”
2. Social proof
Most chosen! Customer favourite! Some companies go to great lengths to let you know which of their products the rest of the people choose. Why? Wessels: ,,So that they can sell what they want you to buy. People rarely check if it’s true. Take a SIM-only subscription. In case of cheap, medium and expensive, for example, means ‘most chosen.’ Whether that is actually the case, nobody knows. But most people don’t know what kind of data they actually need, so they choose the option that says ‘most chosen’. If others opt for it en masse, it will be the best option.”
3. Scarcity
Up is up! A method that especially proves its worth around Black Friday. Scarce makes attractive. Wessels: ,,You have two variants of this: ‘it is a temporary offer’ is the friendly version. For example, a customer has the chance for a week not to pay 100 but 50 euros for a product. The second is more competitive: gone is gone. If there are only 10 products left and you are buyer number 11, you are wrong. Whether it is actually ‘on’ is the question. But it works.”
As a marketer, the aim is for the highest price to enter the consumer’s brain first, followed by the lower one
4. Classic discount method: anchoring
From 100 for only 50 euros! Wessels: ,,The classic discount method. As a marketer, the aim is for the highest price to enter the consumer’s brain first, followed by the lower. For example, if someone asks you about your hourly rate, you first say 150 euros, but this time I do it for 75 euros. You do not assess the 75 objectively, but in relation to the 150 euros. If you hadn’t said anything and immediately mentioned 75 euros, people might have thought: quite a lot of money. But by anchoring the second amount seems to be not too bad.”
5. Distraction: a ‘decoy’
Suppose you go to the cinema and there are three sizes of popcorn. Small 3 euros, medium 6 euros and large 7 euros. Because the difference between medium and large is only 1 euro, many people will be inclined to go for the largest. If the middle choice had not been made, you would be less likely to spend 7 euros on a bowl of popcorn. The middle choice is a decoy.
Wessels: ,,Actually, this is a contrast effect. A real decoy is one option that is worse than the others. For example, a subscription for a magazine where you can choose: only on paper 50 euros per year, on paper and online 100 euros per year and only internet also 100 euros per year. Of course no one is going to choose that option. With the popcorn story you can also choose the small box or the middle one if you don’t want to spend that one euro more. If you only had the choice of small or large, three quarters of the people would choose small and a quarter for the large box, thinking they got a good deal.”
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