The recession has left the vast majority of us tightening our belts and watching every penny to make sure we are being prudent with our cash. In my lifetime at least, there has never been a more important time for us to take care of our money and to make properly informed decisions on exactly what we spend our money on.
Below, I have identified, for you – you fortunate reader, you – some of the most common ways in which astute marketers across the world, online and offline, attempt to confuse our zombie-like minds into making purchasing decisions that benefit their pockets. And in this economy, who can blame them?
Here are some of the clever marketing tactics I have spotted over the years. If you have other suggestions to add, please help your fellow man and do so in the comments section underneath.
1 – Presupposition
Cleverly worded marketing presupposes that a condition is true, and in doing so renders you powerless to question whether or not it is fact. This is usually achieved by placing a statement that is to be accepted without question at the beginning of a sentence, and then finishing the sentence with the bit you are meant to be paying attention to.
Example – “After your tiring day at work, why not relax with a nice foot spa?” It is pre-supposed that your day at work has been tiring (and, indeed, that you go to work!)
Another sneakier example – “While you’re deciding which of our products is right for you, take advantage of our free chess club membership.” Oh, so I’ve already made the decision to buy from you, and now I’m deciding which product to buy? When did that happen?
2 – Causality
This is often used by savvy marketers to imply that when you buy something from them, you will achieve a desirable outcome. More often than not, the benefit is implied by the clever wording, or even by the actions of the questionably over-joyous characters on your TV or computer screen.
Example – “Make your friends jealous, when you purchase a swimming pool from our new range.” Here, it is made quite explicit that buying one of their swimming pools will make your friends jealous. They can say this, whether it’s true or not. More likely, your friends will be sniggering behind your back that you were daft enough to be suckered into paying decent money for a tiny water-pit.
Another random example – Images of girls swooning at the feet of an unlikely suitor, moments after spraying some pungent deodorant about his person. Ah! Now you get it…
3 – Implied Evidence
This is a technique that is used to imply some kind of authority or science behind a product, which you are to unwittingly accept as proof of its effectiveness.
Example – “Experts agree that washing with Skankfree reduces the appearance of a second head.” Ok, very well, but the fact that they agreed on the matter with a nod over a nice cup of tea doesn’t mean that any effective testing or experimentation has taken place. Who were the “experts” that were questioned? It’s all too wishy-washy to be accepted as any kind of evidence, yet we seem to unconsciously accept statements like this as being authoritative.
Another example – “Nine out of ten dogs preferred GnashRabbit!” Preferred it to what? Manure?
4 – Re-ordering Priorities
It’s sometimes in the seller’s best interest to distract your attention away from the things that really matter to you in an attempt to favour lashing out on their latest bit of sparkle. To do this, they may need to make whatever they are offering feel very important to you, and “play down” something which, up to this point, has been more important to you.
Example – “Lack of money getting you down? Our holidays are the cheapest you will find meaning you can finally take a break from your worries!” Oh drat! I was going to put all my extra earnings into savings and set up a strict spending budget, but since you put it like that…
5 – Complex Equivalents
I’ve left this one until last in the hope that if you remember just one of these tips, this will be the one. This is possibly the most frequently used technique I have seen where clever marketers lead your mind down the garden path and have you collecting their juicy frogspawn. It involves you taking for granted that because A has happened, that means B must also be true.
Example – “Kids running around, causing havoc and breaking your ornaments? Learn to better your parenting skills with our new 3-page guide!” Hmm. And how does having kids being predictably child-like mean that I’m a bad parent? That’s certainly news to me.
So, now that you know the patterns you should be looking out for as you are bombarded with hundreds of marketing messages every day, hopefully you will be in a better position to take a step back and question those messages. Are they based on fact, or fantasy?
Take advertisements at face value and you can be sure to join the droves of hapless zombies whose hard-earned money is being extracted from them like taking well-presented confectionary from an unquestioning neonate.
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