The Art of Purchase Persuasion!

Written by: Becki Cooper, Account Executive

Article Contributed by: Dave Simon, Creative Director

Ever experienced buyer’s remorse and wonder WHY DID I BUY THAT?! We’ll we have stumbled upon a resource that we found quite interesting that we’d like to share with you. An article from Wired Magazine takes a deeper look into what makes us tick as consumers, and how some of the leading brands have tapped into that knowledge. Below, you will find the summed up version of the article.  But if you want to learn more, we encourage you to visit the link at the end of this entry for the complete article!

Amazon: One of our favorite companies! The trick that this giant uses is eliminating small frictions. Having your information pre-saved and your options pre-selected is the money maker. These presets require you as a consumer, to do as little work as possible and to just spend moolah! What about that free super saving? Spend $25 and you qualify for free shipping.  Something in our minds triggers “Hey I’m saving on shipping, so why not buy more items?!” And oh yes, the benefits of Amazon Prime, for $79/year you get unlimited free shipping. Why wouldn’t you do all your online shopping there? You’ve already paid the fee upfront so of course you’re going to shop there and with impulse.. sneaky, sneaky Amazon.. but we still love you!

Netflix: No late fees? Unlimited movie rentals? Hmmm… I’m obsessed with movies, this sounds like the PERFECT solution. Except now that I know I have it, I’m surprised I’m not watching nearly half of what I thought I would! I really am planning on watching that classic movie and not just the new releases, that’s why I got the membership, duh! I want to become more cultured… I guess maybe in a few weeks…culture can wait! I have unlimited access whenever, so what’s the rush? What do you mean I’m not saving money from the amount of movies I watch? Oh, that’s because I’m not watching them, BINGO! Netflix you little geniuses you!

Groupon: I’ve got an idea.. let’s throw together the combination that we can anonymously be cheap, yet still socially accepted.. the result? Groupon! Everyone likes a deal, and when it’s encouraged in a group and you are relying on other people to get the deal, the stigma isn’t as strong as it once was. Not to mention the pressure, ONLY ONE DAY TO DECIDE?! I’ll never have the opportunity for this 50% off manicure again ever in my life.  Not to mention, how did I ever live without it before? Skydiving for $40?! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I MUST have it NOW.  Such a perfect combination of social acceptance, peer pressure and anxiety over regret. Sounds kind of like an anti-drug commercial a bit..hmm.. Oh well, Groupon sign us up!

Zynga Farmville- I’m basically a farmer,  let’s be serious it may be online but it counts. I’ve spent hours perfecting this online farm to make it the success it is. Local farmers take note! Therefore, I am invested in its well being, even if it is just a social media game. So what? It’s important and I’ve spent 98% of my time obsessing over it rather than doing something productive, like making dinner or socializing offline. That being said, of course I’m going to foster the growth of this booming business. This is my one chance at entrepreneurship!  An important note to my fellow farmers..we all know we have the opportunity to pocket “$10″ or pay it forward and give “$40″ to another fellow farmer, right? I do hope that you will take the ethical route, especially since we both know how hard it is to put in a day’s work on the farm. You know you should split the “$40″ with me, which you have the opportunity to do so, so what are you waiting for? Even though you technically can keep the money, I TRUST you. Wow, this interaction-trust-exchange thing is almost as good as substituting real money and dealing with real businesses outside my house. Nah..I’M GOING TO KEEP PLAYING ONLINE!

Facebook- Ahhh yes, the gift application. Simply spend a $1 to send a virtual gift to your friend on their birthday. Sure, I’m fine with throwing away money on a clip art icon in hopes that my friends will see me as loving and giving. And of course you can’t under appreciate the public approval when it posts to the famous news feed. Look at me everyone, I’m so nice and I have lots of friends and it only cost a $1 for 380 of my friends to see how wonderful I am. Oh, and the reach, 540 of my friend’s friends will see it on their wall too. That means 920 people know I’m a good person and I didn’t even have to leave my chair or go to the mall, BONUS!

Apple- Don’t you love how the app store doesn’t charge you right away when you purchase a new app from the iTunes store? You don’t have to worry about those pesky receipts till later on, even days later! How nice of Apple, we can enjoy our purchase without having to taint the experience that we paid for it (for now).. we’ll just face the reality of it later. By then, hopefully we have enjoyed it enough to make it worth it! AKA what economists call the pain of paying. Enjoy now, worry about it later!

Gaming Ourselves- What does this mean? Simply the following:

1. Email- A lot of the email we get is junk, but ever-so-often a golden ticket is thrown in there, as a result we feel the NEED to open nearly every piece because we don’t want to miss anything. Even worse, we are constantly available at all times because of technology on our phones!

2. Calendar- Suffering from empty calendar syndrome? I promise, you are still wonderful, charming and charismatic even if your calendar is not filled to the brim. As individuals, we tend to see an empty calendar and feel the rush to fill it in. Whoa there horsey, relax a bit, there’s no rush! That being said, people also are highly optimistic about where they will be time-wise and availability-wise in the near future, therefore agreeing to all sorts of dates and times. This can be a problem. The author of the article suggests: “When someone asks you to do something in a year, ask yourself whether you’d accept if it were happening in the next two weeks. Based on our calendar, it looks as if we will have nothing do a year from now. In reality, though, our typical week next year will look a lot like this week.”

Pretty interesting stuff, huh? You’ve got our take on the article and what we learned, but we definitely encourage you to check out the web site for the complete version of the article, including insightful statistics and details. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll learn!

View the full story: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/06/ff_gamed/all/1

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