ADVERTSINGTRICKS

ADVERTISING TRICKS

PARADE (2009) January 4,

LINDSTROM/10-11

There are some new and not so new advertising and marketing strategies that suggest we can still be duped. No one says anymore that humans are rational or irrational, but that we are somewhere in the middle and it is called non-rationality. We do look out for the best buys, but in the process get side tracked. Here are some of the latest.

1. Some products have to feel just right. A loaf of bread in thicker plastic with traditional labels and a slightly harder crust is going to sell more than easily squeezable bread in a plain plastic cover. However, the bread is really just the same. Have you ever looked at remotes that change your channels? Two exact same remotes are given to you. One is filled with metal where there is space and the other is much lighter. Which is the one that you are more likely to purchase and approve? It is the heavier one. It must have better, stronger circuitry.
2. It is tradition. We fall for it much of the time. There is a beer with a lime slice in it. It goes all the way back to…1981. As soon as they advertised with a slice of lime to enriched the flavor, the beer  went to first place among foreign beers.
3. Music appears to change sales. If the music is German folks buy more German beer. If it is French? By now you know the answer.
4. You want to buy that special perfume with a great name. It comes from Flint Michigan where the head office is located. The perfume did not sell so they opened an office in Paris and indicated that Paris was the origin of the perfume. Sales dramatically increased.
5. The shape of the bottle helps. Curvy bottles filled with feminine smelling perfumes do better than angular bottles.

And so it goes.