Ways You’re Secretly Tricked By Companies

from marketing ploys to subliminal messages companies have always tried to tap into the psychology of their consumers in order to sell more of their products we take a look at some of the more pervasive ways that businesses try to deceive and influence our buying decisions every day amazing number 10 deceptive labeling tactics people these days tend to be more concerned about what they're putting into their bodies which means taking the time to look at nutrient information on the side of their food most labels are organized according to quantity with the most common ingredients being at the top one methods companies use to skew this information is the redistribution of ingredients a product that is high in sugar for example could be further divided into sucrose corn syrup brown sugar or dextrose and as long as each of these types of sugar are small enough none of them will appear at the top of the ingredients list giving the impression that a product is healthier than it actually is using technical or scientific language can also be used to hide potentially unhealthy substances thankfully some organizations like the Honest Food Guide have downloadable guides to inform and help customers make healthier decisions number nine misleading visuals we are a virtually graphic culture we place a certain faith in what we can see and as our dominant sense it's what we have used to shape our perceptions of what the world is like so it comes as no surprise that marketing agencies manipulate the visuals around us on a daily basis some of the best examples of this are in the food industry where fast-food franchises continually showcase burgers and tacos with the fillings pushed to the front of fresh produce that has been sprayed with water to suggest freshness let's be honest is a rare sight seeing a burger that looks exactly like it looks on the advertisement most grocery stores also have a very strict visual criteria for vegetables and fruit a number of Canadian Studies discovered that a huge proportion of perfectly edible and fresh produce was actually discarded at every step from the harvesting to the final selection on grocery stores simply because they didn't look a certain way number eight misleading commercials the same principle as before also applies to the rampant use of CGI in commercials these days most blatant example of this is in car commercials when you watch any car commercial or car scenes in movies chances are that the car you're watching isn't actually real in other words most of the cars you actually see have actually been created on the computer to achieve this visual effects companies like the mill actually employ a bare-bones automobile brake that looks like a pared down contraption from a Mad Max movie with it they're able to transpose the image of any car design or brand over the top of it in post-production eliminating the need to use real cars at all you can understand why they do it because it saves money getting the real thing and it also means they can finish the commercial and start promoting the car prior to its full completion date still there's no doubt it's still a rather deceiving strategy number seven anthropomorphism it may just be a human quirk but we love giving human qualities to animals and inanimate things we give pet names to our cars we scream our computers when they're not working and we assume the weather is out to get us in other words when we attribute characteristics to an object we immediately begin to empathize with it marketers have long known how to use this cognitive bias to their favor simply put the anthropomorphize ation of brands is a sneaky way to make us trust the brand and make an emotional connection with it one study by Elon University even confirmed that anthropomorphic spokes characters have an undeniably positive effect on brand personalities and while this may seem like an obvious way to appeal to customers what people don't realize is just how rampant and subtle anthropomorphism can be from animal mascots like Joe Camel Tony the Tiger and spuds Mackenzie to the personified orange wedge from shocked toppers and talking lamp in Pixar's logo number six anti advertising slogans what's the best way to advertise something well how about not advertising it this is the approach that some companies have taken by offering transparency the principle behind their strategy is similar to reverse psychology a number of studies have found that by intimating that someone shouldn't buy their product they are in fact advertising honesty and capitalizing on preconceived notions about the deceptive nature of advertisements and this capacity for businesses to demonstrate self-depreciation actually pays off brands like Patagonia featured campaigns reading don't buy this coat as a way to reduce the carbon footprint of their customers but it still served to sell their brand another example is Under Armour a sportswear company which has continually showcased itself as an underdog to bigger conglomerates like Nike they took a similar anti advertising approach by advocating that instead of just doing it that real success requires hard work and perseverance the honesty of their message seems to have paid off as in recent years they've been challenging both Nike and l-'alamin for top dog position as a sportswear company number five decoy pricing the decoy effect or the asymmetric dominance effect refers to a tendency in humans to change their preferences based on whether or not a decoy product is introduced that is inferior to other choices the best example of this is when a consumer is confronted with two computers with similar qualities and prices they may have a hard time choosing between them however when a third computer is advertised that is both pricier and has a smaller hard drive than either it automatically makes the first two choices seem all that more attractive and encourages more reckless spending you can try this one out for yourself the next time you go shopping if there's a product that appears inferior and costs more than the other choices chances are you're the victim of a decoy number four over pricing have you ever eaten at a fancy restaurant and noticed one of their most expensive dishes and then decided to go with the cheaper option you may have fallen into a marketing ploy related to a cognitive bias call anchoring the basic premise is that potential customers will rely heavily on the first piece of information that they see for example if the first entry on a menu is $100 we typically set that as our baseline price anything lower seems much more attractive even if it's also heavily overpriced car dealerships employ this tactic all the time by setting a standard price for a car that is exorbitant because it's the first price that consumers see they're more willing to accept a lower price vehicle even if it's still well above the average cost perhaps the stereotype of shyster used-car salesman as a grain of truth to it number 3 reduced portion sizes do you find yourself whining about how much air there seems to be in bags of crisps these days in the food industry in particular reduced portions have become an increasing trend on the surface this might seem like a great idea given the Western world's obesity epidemic that is until you discover that the prices for products don't reflect the diminished packet sizes in other words companies realize that reducing portion sizes instead of increasing the price makes the products seem more competitive which is why Toblerone even recently changed the design of their bars outrageous everything from crackers to burgers have also experienced the reduction as discovered by the Daily Mail when they found out that between 2011 and 2012 some brands had cut down their sizes anywhere from 6 to 12 percent while this may not seem significant to you as a consumer it's actually what these companies are counting on psychologically we prefer stability and hate change the bigger the difference the more we react to it a concept known as Weber's law as long as the change is small around 10% we generally don't notice or care a number which tends to reflect the range of most food price shifts number 2 Gruen transfer named after the eminent mall architects victor Gruen the Gruen transfer refers to the maze-like quality which hallmarks many malls and super stores ruin discovered early on that creating an environment of disorientation helped to sway people into a false sense of security and exposed them to product they might not have ordinarily bought such strategies include creating a counterclockwise route since roughly nine out of ten people are right-handed and will use their left hand to steer the cart avoiding the use of natural light or clocks to suspend the sensation of time passing and placing complementing items like bread and milk at opposite sides of the store so that consumers have to walk by numerous other products increasing their chances of buying things they hadn't planned on purchasing another study out of Stanford University discovered that people were more likely to engage in risk taking behavior such as impulse buying when they were interrupted from their tasks so next time you find yourself distracted by the grocery store intercom and can't find the right aisle keep in mind there's probably a good reason why number one strategic layout of products when you go into Safeway or a husky gas station what you might not realize is that the placement of every food product has been carefully designed tested and implemented to such an extent that companies actually have representatives and quality consultants making rounds to ensure everything is where it's supposed to be the layout of stores and placements on shelves usually corresponds to popularity and budget with lesser-known or regional brands taking the top shelf where they add a sense of uniqueness to the stores tone while the mid shelves are reserved for conglomerates and well-known brands that sell more additionally the bottom shelves are usually full of kid-friendly products that will catch their eye the next time you're at the store take note of which cereal brands end up on which shelf and you'll see what we mean grocery store consumer tactics don't end there though even the size of grocery baskets and shopping carts is designed to encourage you to overstock since 1938 the size of grocery carts has tripled and one study found that when Whole Foods doubled the size of their cart people were inclined to buy upwards of 40% more the next time you head to the store maybe go for the basket instead we're always being told that companies will do anything to fight for our business but more often than not we take for granted the extent in which marketing plays a subtle if significant role in our purchasing habits have you noticed any of these trends can you think of any deceptive marketing practices that we might have missed feel free to leave them in the comment section below [Music]

Channel: BE AMAZED

Views: 4,546,950

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Keywords: decieved, influenced, tricked by companies, consumers, Deceptive Labeling Tactics, Deceptive Labeling, Labeling Tactics, Anthropomorphism, Anti-Advertising Slogans, Misleading Visuals, Decoy Pricing, Overpricing, Reduced Portion Sizes, Gruen Transfer, Strategic Layout, be amazed, beamazed, companies are ripping you off, marketing tactics, marketing psychology, secretly tricked

Id: npXFztJBVzA

Length: 11min 32sec (692 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/THKMass]

The whole "Natural" vs "Organic" labeling has always been interesting to me. The imagery and style they use.

[u/AndreaAndi]

This was so interesting to watch

[u/AlterdCarbon]

"Noyk" for Nike, and "Luh luh mawn" for Lululemon? Is that really how some people pronounce those? I've never heard anyone say that, it's usually "Nykee" and "Loo loo lemon."

[u/redditfromnowhere]

11) Narrate with a British accent to sound more authoritarian.

12) Use click-bait titles implying 'mystery' or 'you'll never believe X...' to entice our curiosity.

13) Make a 'Top X List' to trigger our natural attraction to rounded numbers and patterns.

14) Repost the lies enough into reaching pseudo-"fact status" creating illusions of déjà vu.

15) Play on a constant loop in as many outlets as possible to whittle down our attention spans.

16) Suggest necessity to exploit our fears of insecurity.

17) Obey. Buy. Consume. Die.