Maintaining a home, health care, putting food on the table, studying… we can say that almost everything we do requires money. The issue takes on a different color when we think that in addition to the expenses incurred to cover basic, academic or professional needs, we are capable of spending a significant percentage of our income on impulsive purchases. In the US, for example, a person in such purchases. What does that money go towards? Foods that are not really necessary (ice cream, flavored chips, among others); fashion, home goods and shoes. If we reflect on our personal and family financial situation, it may happen that we find that we cannot get out of our credit card debt, or that we have monthly expenses on items that we did not really need and that end up being a limitation when an unforeseen event arises that needs to be attended to or even when planning savings.
This situation leads us to ask ourselves: why do we buy what we buy?
, professor of psychology at Santa Clara University, explains that, especially during these difficult times, being able to meet basic needs worries many people. However, we frequently make purchases that are neither necessary nor rational. Marketing and advertising are psychologically advanced industries, with the goal of influencing us, often unconsciously, to spend money. Matt Johnson and Prince Ghuman address this topic in their book, in which they explain that when we navigate the consumer world we make decisions that are not always conscious regarding how or why we do what we do.
We may think, for example, that we are choosing a particular food from the supermarket shelf because it tastes better, but the reality can be more complicated. In one study, a blind taste test of pâtés was conducted. Their methodology consisted of inviting the participants to taste five pâtés that had been presented in an appetizing way with a garnish of parsley. But one of the samples was dog food, which had been ground to a fine paste in a food processor to disguise its texture. After tasting all five samples, participants were asked to guess which dog food actually was. The results were surprising: their guess was no better than chance (Bohannon et al., 2010).
Another group of researchers served their study participants (students training to become sommeliers) red and white wines, and asked them to describe their taste. Researchers found that when red dye is added to white wine, students often don’t realize that something is wrong: they used words typically reserved for red wines to describe the flavors (Morrot et al., 2001).
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Johnson explains that many times we make decisions for reasons other than what we believe. It happens, for example, when we go to an elegant restaurant and spend a lot of money to taste delicious dishes of food, but in reality that “delight” does not come from what we taste through the mouth but rather occurs in the brain, and in this field Marketers have a lot of influence.
Presentation (packaging) and brand recognition are some of the main factors that influence our choices as consumers. To better illustrate this, it brings up the famous “,” a taste test challenge, which highlights that although most people prefer the taste of Pepsi. According to the findings of this experiment, when people believed that the drink they were consuming was Coca Cola, they reported enjoying it more than if it was Pepsi. The author highlights that, despite having worldwide recognition, Coca-Cola still invests billions of dollars annually in advertising because with each advertisement it can really influence our preferences.
To take back our power as consumers and avoid being so easily influenced, Johnson and Ghuman point out that by realizing the influence that marketing can have on us, we can make wiser and more deliberate decisions.
His fundamental suggestion involves shopping in a more conscious way. In particular, they urge us not to buy if we are excited, distracted, or hungry. All of these situations make thinking more difficult.
Our brains only have a certain amount of processing power. When a portion of our mental resources are being taken up by distractions, we simply have less brain power left to make good purchasing decisions. Likewise, whether we are shopping for food or any other product, when we haven’t eaten in a while, our brain doesn’t have the energy to make the best decisions possible. That means we are more susceptible to making impulsive purchases.
Keeping this in mind can help us be better prepared to deal with marketing strategies. In times of financial hardship for so many due to the COVID pandemic, any tool that helps us make better decisions as consumers and save money is invaluable.
References:
- Bohannon, J., Goldstein, R., & Herschkowitsch, A. (2010). Can people distinguish Pâté from dog food? In CHANCE (Vol. 23, Number 2, pp. 43-46). https://doi.org/
- Morrot, G., Brochet, F., & Dubourdieu, D. (2001). The Color of Odors. In Brain and Language (Vol. 79, Issue 2, pp. 309-320). https://doi.org/
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