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1. “Look how delicious!”
The sense organs are the most active allies of marketers. How many times have they told the world: “Don’t go shopping hungry!” Because the more you want to eat, the more unnecessary you buy. But even if you're not hungry, supermarkets have a range of ways to whet your appetite.
For example, the smell of freshly baked goods has proven itself very well: it tempts the buyer to spend a larger amount. Properly set lighting works well: the products on the showcase look festive, bright, juicy and exciting.
But one of the most powerful ways to induce salivation and the accompanying urge to buy something to chew on is free tasting samples. Firstly, they smell, beckon and you want to buy them. Secondly, having treated yourself for free, you begin to feel obliged to thank the store. If you didn’t get this sausage at the tasting, you wouldn’t even remember about it. And now it's in your cart. And, of course, in the check.
2. Hypnosis with music
If you hear cheerful music in the supermarket, turn your mindfulness to the maximum. Melodies at a fast pace are launched where it is important to increase the number of sales. A study conducted by the American Marketing Association proves that energetic music provokes buyers to spontaneous purchases.
Unconsciously adjusting to the driving pace, we put more expensive goods in the cart, and even more.
On the other hand, slow music is also a trick. Stores specifically select compositions with a rhythm that is much slower than the average heart rate. This forces people to stay longer at the shelves, spend more time on the trading floor and, as a result, buy more. And more by almost 30% - so, in particular, assures an American marketing consultant and author of the book “Brain Out! How marketers manipulate our minds and make us buy what they want.” Martin Lindstrom.
To protect yourself from this influence of music, go shopping with headphones on.
3. Color design
People are drawn into the shops, the walls and the entrance of which are painted in warm colors from the outside: red, orange, yellow. But inside the color situation is changing: cold shades in the interior - blue and green - make buyers spend more. CNN, citing a study published in Business Review magazine, claims that in stores decorated in blue-green shades, customers leave 15% more money than those whose walls and shelves are painted in warm colors.
4. Discount cards and loyalty programs
Do you think that discount cards are created for your savings? It must be admitted that this is partly true. But not all. The store saves much more on loyalty card holders for a number of reasons.
The discount card ties you to a specific supermarket
When choosing between two absolutely identical stores, you will surely go to the one where you have a loyalty program.
The map is following you
That is, it gives the store information about your shopping habits. Which meat price category do you prefer? How often do you buy dog food? Do you like chocolate or, say, sour-milk desserts?
Thanks to the card, the supermarket knows everything about your expenses and gets the opportunity to influence them.
If you have ever received individual offers like "Buy 300 rubles worth of chocolate and get a 15% discount", you know what I'm talking about. Of course, the offer seems profitable. But it is beneficial primarily to the store, which promoted you to buy more sweets than you are used to.
The card provokes you to spend more
Many supermarkets earn points for every ruble spent in their network. Later, these points can be converted into money by paying with the accumulated at the checkout. Profitable? On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, you yourself do not notice how the store makes you spend more in order to accumulate more cherished accruals.
5. Lure goods
“Buy 10 pieces for only 100 rubles!” It's a good old marketing ploy. Many peck at such an offer, as a result, buying more products than they need.
There are also more subtle manipulations. The store offers some popular product at a really good price. For example, meat during barbecue season or a large pack of brand-name diapers. This is bait.
A profitable product is actively advertised in order to get buyers to look into a particular supermarket. But if you already went to the trading floor for meat or diapers, why not buy something else? It is on these related purchases that the store makes a cash register.
The benefit that he loses on the bait pays off with the extra money that customers leave in the supermarket.
6. Complementary products
You walk into the store for a pack of your child's favorite crackers. And nearby on the same rack you find children's chocolate and marshmallows. "Oh, how on topic!" - you think and throw all three items into the basket. This is how combinations work.
Some combos are obvious, such as shampoo and conditioner. Some are thinner, like disposable plastic plates and pretty paper napkins. It seems to us that we decided to buy napkins on our own. In fact, your allegedly spontaneous purchase was predicted in advance.
If your hand is reaching for a product that you didn’t plan to buy a second ago, just ask yourself: “Do I really need this?”
Leinbach Reile, author of Retail 101 and co-founder of the American Conference of Independent Retailers
7. Packaging in which food spoils quickly
Fresh bread is often sold in a paper bag. Beautiful? Fact. But not practical: bread in such a package will dry out quickly, and you will have to go to the store again. This is also one of the marketing ploys. Therefore, after returning from the supermarket, try to repack your purchases so that they remain fresh for as long as possible.
8. Products with added value
Supermarkets play with prices, raising to the eye level those products that are especially desirable to sell, and lowering inexpensive goods that are unfavorable for the store almost to the floor level. The effect of the “magic nine” is widespread, when a product with a price of 199 rubles seems to buyers a better purchase than a product for 200 rubles.
Products that explain to customers why they are worth buying sell well. For example, a product might be labeled "Grown in our area, which means it will benefit our farmers." Studies show that buyers are willing to pay up to 25% more for similar products.
Another option is products with recipes that can be prepared from them. They seem more practical to buyers, and therefore the level of their sales is higher.
9. Reusable branded eco bags
Reusable eco-friendly bags instead of bags - a brilliant marketing ploy! Firstly, they are branded: retail chains place their logos on them, turning customers into walking advertisements. Secondly, they make customers feel trust in the supermarket: “Wow, he cares about the environment!” And thirdly, they increase the amount of the average check.
Harvard Business School has published a study proving that shoppers with branded eco bags spend more. Imbued with concern for nature, they first prefer more expensive natural and organic products, and then, already at the checkout, stock up on unhealthy products as a reward for their own goodness.
10. Checkout counters
At checkouts, marketers place expensive and not always needed little things: chocolates, jelly sweets in bright packages, ice cream, wet wipes, disinfectant hand gels, condoms, and so on. The calculation is made on the fact that you, tired of making decisions on the trading floor, relax at the checkout and buy yourself (or a child no less tired than you) a reward. And it works.
The little things on the counters at the cash registers can be considered the care of the store about the buyer: so you might have forgotten that you need wet wipes, but here they are! But if you went back to the trading floor, you would find similar napkins at a price one and a half times lower. It is inconvenient to return, so you buy goods at an inflated price, once again becoming a supplier of the "golden fleece" for stores.