Do you believe all the commercials? Are you influenced by TV? Read on and discover how advertisements work. You don’t fall for anything anymore… Or do you? Because advertisements can be very ingenious and influence you very unconsciously. By being more aware of this, you can think better about whether you really want something.
Advertisements
Of course you know that with an advertisement the creator is trying to sell you something. Sometimes you fall for it, and that happens more often unconsciously than consciously. Fancy licorice after a candy commercial? Fancy a drink after a liquor commercial? Or do you tend to snack more when an advertisement shows a lot of chips and other tasty products?
There’s a reason why people who sit in front of the TV snack, eat and drink more… and the trick to avoiding the trap is to become aware of the influence of advertising. You might be in the mood for something tasty when you see a new flavor of chocolate on TV. However, if you know that you have been triggered by the commercial, you also know that you are not giving in to a feeling of yourself, but to the feeling that a TV commercial gives you.
Choose better
Becoming aware of the influence of advertising can help you make better choices. Do you want to shop online with that one brand because they have good products there or because their advertising appears so often? And have you ever looked at alternatives to this brand? Who knows, you might be able to get the same product cheaper somewhere else. In short: learn to stay alert.
Save now!
‘Save now! Three DVDs for the price of two!’
The funny thing is that people believe that they really get a cheaper price when they buy something. Think about what you really do. Buy something to save money? How logical does that sound?
So first check whether you really need something.
No interest payable!
Fortunately, the text ‘Borrowing money costs money’ must now appear under advertisements where you can borrow interest-free. Even if you don’t pay interest, you are borrowing money. And what if your car or kitchen is already broken without being fully paid off? It is extra sad to have to pay the second half, even if you still have a warranty.
Herd behavior
If there is one sheep across the dam…
This proverb says a lot about the approach of our society. No one wants to buy a product that no one has. However, if everyone in your street has a flat-screen TV, you also want to participate. If everyone you know has a laptop, you want one too. It’s not just teenagers who use the argument ‘but everyone in my class wears this!’ to get something – even adults still want to belong.
Testers
In practice, this means that advertisements persuade you with statements such as: ‘as many as 80% of the testers would recommend this product’. How do they get this? First of all, there is a group of testers. This group receives a product and can try it out. The group then completes a questionnaire. Of every ten people, two are negative about the product and eight are positive. Consider whether two negative reactions out of ten are enough for you to doubt the product .
There is usually one question in the survey on which the percentages are based: ‘Would you recommend this product to others?’ You can answer this with ‘no, maybe, yes, I have already recommended it’ and, for convenience, ‘maybe’ is often also counted as ‘yes’. Of course, not all tests are so unreliable. For example, independent research makes a result a little more credible.
The consumer as tester
Sometimes you get a product for free or on a trial basis – if you don’t like it, your money back. You only have to give your opinion about the product and if you are not satisfied, you can return it. Besides the fact that people tend to be more positive about something they get for free (‘You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’), the outcome is sometimes very positive.
Suppose you are offered a product for free and you don’t like it. Would you then return it? Many people forget to do this or find it too much effort. Some feel reluctant to ask for money back. Then there is another group that will simply buy a different product from now on. A final group actually returns the product. That’s about a quarter of dissatisfied people. However, on TV you hear about this product: ‘No less than 80% are satisfied!’ This means that out of every ten people, two people have asked for their money back, while perhaps eight out of ten are dissatisfied.
Recommendations
The people of the street
‘Say, madam, what do you actually like about product X?’ It will not surprise you that this lady finds the product surprisingly fantastic. By hiring noble extras you cannot take these people at their word anyway. They get paid to like a product. Assembly can also do a lot. For example, you can ask people: ‘What do you think about free holidays?’ to paste the reactions people give behind the question: ‘How cool is product X actually?’
Over time, advertising makers understood that people who immediately think their product is great do not come across as convincing. That’s why they introduced the ‘critical’ people from the street. ,I didn’t believe it would work,, one man says convincingly. ‘I just noticed that it really is!’ People use the objections that you as a person may also have and then say that those objections have been completely removed. A clever trick, but again not always reliable.
From ‘experts’
There she or he is: the expert in whatever product the advertiser wants to sell. Trustworthy? No. In the theory of argumentation, ‘the opinion of the authority’ is an official means of reinforcing a message. So it is not surprising that companies put a white coat on actors in the hope that you will more quickly accept what they have to say. Still, it’s really about actors – so keep that in mind.
In certain cases, real experts are hired, as was the case for an energy company. A well-known Dutchman who had high regard for people said that his research showed that this society was very good. There was a commotion about this advertisement, because you are not allowed to convey untrue information from a reliable position. The fact remains that real experts also get money to give their talk in an advertisement.
You often hear ‘the most recommended by dentists’. Why? Companies send samples of their toothpaste product to orthodontic practices and dentists. They can give these away to their customers for free. This then serves as a recommendation. Well, it can easily happen that way. A variation on this is ‘… combats the points that dentists check most often’. Everyone wants to hear from the dentist that they did a good job. A text like this responds nicely to that.
Sincere advertisements?
Of course there are always exceptions. Some companies really stand behind their product and want to make it clear in an open and honest way that they want you as a customer. The trick is to remain critical and also consider the experiences of others in your purchases.