6 aspects to explain how brands "brainwash" consumers

First, let me ask you a question:

Assuming the prices are the same, why would anyone buy "semi-finished" ingredients instead of choosing directly cooked food?

That’s the food marketer ’s trick.

In addition to playing on people's desire to feel in control, it also takes advantage of the fact that most people (especially mothers) feel it is a sin to give their loved ones takeout, as if doing so does not care about their loved ones.

Our lives are surrounded by thousands of brands and a variety of marketing methods. Even a marketing master is not immune to it, let alone ordinary people like you and me. We cannot get rid of brand marketing, but we should understand how brands market and "brainwash" us.

Below, this article will explain how brands conduct marketing from these 6 aspects:

1. Unconscious signals
2. “ Game +” consumption
3. Selling hope
4. Nostalgia Marketing
5. Celebrity Marketing
6. Start with the kids

1. Unconscious Signals

Why do some fresh food stores use blackboard chalk to mark prices?

What are unconscious signals? Simply put, it is the subconscious mind that people are familiar with. You must be curious about how the subconscious mind, which even we cannot control, is cleverly used by marketers and even used to deceive ourselves?

I believe everyone is familiar with the story of "looking at plums to quench thirst". The inherent concept of "plums" makes us subconsciously saliva. In fact, marketers' use of the subconscious mind is very similar to "looking at plums to quench thirst". I don’t know if you have noticed the water drops and green leaves on the fruits in the supermarket. Although our reason tells us that the fruits in the supermarket cannot be so fresh, our subconscious mind still associates the naturalness and freshness of “water drops” and “green leaves” with the fruits sold.

Here is another example:

A famous beverage company found that the sales of its popular products had been declining in recent years. After much research, it was found that the reason was because the water drops on the beverage bottles were removed in TV commercials. So the company found another unconscious signal - the special "pop" sound when opening the can. The sales of the beverage began to gradually increase after the new advertisement was released .

Old wooden boxes, paper seals on cans, and other unconscious signals are frequently used in various offline scenarios. There are not so many coincidences in the world. Be careful not to fall into the unconscious routines carefully designed by marketers.

2. “Game+” Consumption

Do you still remember Jack Ma’s “Collecting Five Blessings”?

What marketers dream of is that consumers can become "addicted to consumption." When it comes to how to make people addicted, in addition to drugs, I think most people think of one thing - games. Therefore, combining consumption with games not only increases online and offline interactions with consumers, but also effectively increases consumer purchasing behavior.

I believe that most people have seen offline activities of various brands in large shopping malls. There will be a passionate host and a variety of small games associated with the brand. Through this form, consumers unknowingly increase their silence cost and connection with the brand during game interaction, especially establishing a memory connection between the brand and the pleasure of the game. The next time they see the brand again, they will naturally develop an inexplicable liking for it.

Another online example is the familiar Double 11 Shopping Festival. Before Double 11, Taobao and Tmall

Multiple rounds of red envelope rain have been prepared and distributed in the form of games, such as "Double 11 Red Envelope Lottery" and "Tug of War with Tmall to Get Red Envelopes". Active contribution, probabilistic rewards, and cumulative feedback are the fundamental reasons why games are addictive, and the design of the red envelope game is strictly based on these three points, and finally achieved good results.

3. Selling Hope

Don’t you know that “energy” is “calories”?

In reality, each of us has a lot of hope. You want to be slimmer, so you buy an annual gym membership. You want to escape from your busy work, so you buy camping equipment. You want to wake up early, so you join a check-in group. This is selling hope.

Marketers have discovered the potential value and business opportunities of "hope" and have set up a series of hopeful products for us. Have you ever noticed that since when, it seems that all products’ nutrition labels have added words such as “natural”, “green”, “organic”, “energy”, and “pollution-free”, and all products with such words are more expensive than similar products, but sell better. This is the product premium brought about by people’s ardent hope to stay healthy.

In addition to hoping for what we can achieve, we also hope for what kind of person we can become. Certain attributes of a brand or product can indeed help us establish our own social image. For example, by adding environmentally friendly attributes to detergents - "phosphorus-free laundry detergent", purchasing this type of laundry detergent satisfies your desire to become a social image of a "person who cares about the environment". Another example is purchasing a new energy vehicle , which satisfies your desire to become a social image of a "person who saves energy". Therefore, apart from the premium caused by various costs, there is always a part of the price paid for your "hope".

4. Nostalgia Marketing

Why aren’t my Maltesers as delicious as they were when I was a kid?

Why do we always feel that the same scenic spot was more beautiful when we were young, and the same snack was more delicious when we were young?

This involves a psychological phenomenon called "rose-colored memories" . When we recall the past, we always selectively ignore the unhappy memories and constantly strengthen or even beautify the happy moments. That’s why we always hear “Things nowadays are really bad, when I was a kid…”

Marketers certainly won't miss the opportunity. Taking advantage of people's fond memories of the past, you see "campus era" theme restaurants, "post-80s and 90s" memory restaurants, "those years" coffee shops, etc., and even a kind of snack shop that specializes in selling childhood snacks - fruit danpi, marshmallows, spicy strips, gold coin chocolate, everything you can think of.

In addition to exploiting "rose-colored memories", nostalgia marketing actually takes advantage of people's fear of getting old. People enjoy a moment of youth by consuming in nostalgic-themed settings or purchasing products that do not match their age. The most typical example is the midlife crisis. For example, a middle-aged man buys a Ferrari sports car. He tries to tell himself and others that he is not old yet and is still energetic by buying and driving a sports car.

So stop shouting about how good it would be to go back to the past. You are just selectively forgetting the trouble of doing the questions.

5. Celebrity Marketing

If you want to know the best excavator technology, go to Lanxiang in Shandong, China

Asking celebrities to endorse products is probably one of the most commonly used means of brand promotion in the market today, using the trustworthy image of celebrities in our minds to endorse products. Even after numerous incidents of celebrity-endorsed products violating regulations or containing illegal additives, there is still a huge disparity between products endorsed by celebrities and those not endorsed by celebrities. Foreign surveys have found that even actors who play doctors in TV dramas endorsing health care products can still have a huge impact on consumer choices.

Besides believing that products endorsed by celebrities are more trustworthy, there is a deeper reason why we choose to buy products endorsed by celebrities - we seem to feel that celebrities have endowed the products they endorse with certain attributes that they themselves possess, and when we buy the products, we can obtain the same attributes as the celebrities. After purchasing the SKⅡ Facial Treatment Essence endorsed by Tang Wei, you feel that you are one step closer to becoming a goddess like her. By buying a Rolex endorsed by Federer, you feel that you are one step closer to becoming a successful person like him.

I call this feeling the moment of elitism. Today, the scope of celebrities has far exceeded the definition of stars. Celebrities' stylists, makeup artists, stylists, and even their children have also become celebrities in related fields. With the vigorous development of self-media , various types of internet celebrities have also expanded the scope of celebrities and have the celebrity effect. This is why the top-ranked internet celebrity sellers have an annual turnover of more than 100 million on Taobao stores.

6. Start with the children

The brands a child is exposed to before the age of 7 will affect his or her preferences throughout his or her life.

In the United States, many children have been exposed to and memorized dozens of brand names before the age of 7. Even the first word many children say is not "Mom and Dad", but brands of snacks and toys. Studies have found that brand preferences formed in childhood are highly persistent and may even last throughout the child's life. These findings have led marketers to turn their attention to children, and brand marketing begins with children.

There is a candy company in the Philippines that distributes candy for free to children's hospitals and kindergartens. When children cry, doctors or teachers will give them candy. As these children grow up, they have developed a certain degree of loyalty to this candy brand.

Apple also adopts an implicit brand marketing strategy targeting these small consumers. I don’t know if you have noticed that Apple Experience Stores are now almost equivalent to nurseries, especially abroad. The children were playing various APP games in the experience store, so when the experimenters handed the children BlackBerry phones , the children's first reaction was to swipe the screen. So the question is, why are the electronic devices in Apple Experience Stores installed with small games that children like?

The trend of younger consumers purchasing adult products has gradually spread to various industries. It is true that children themselves do not have the purchasing power, but their parents do. This is the purchasing power of children. Adidas kids, gxg kids and other brands already exist on the market, and there will surely be more and more children's series from large brands in the future. Maybe in the future your daughter will ask: "Dad, can you buy me a YSL children's lipstick?"

(Note: The brands and copywriting involved in this article are required for the purpose of writing)

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

This article was compiled and published by @余折腾(Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map