7 Ways Marketers are Exploiting Your Decision-Making Powers!
99% of Marketing is playing with Consumer Psychology. One key aspect that brands play on is Cognitive Bias.
Here are 7 of the most common ones that affect your daily decision-making. You’ll be blown away by these!
Cognitive biases are “mistakes of reasoning.”
When people put more value on:
-Their environment
-Pre-conceived notions
-And social factors
They make decisions that might not be as rational as they think. You can tap into these cognitive biases to persuade.
Examples ahead…
1. The Availability Cascade
This is the classic “repeat something long enough and people will believe it to be true.”
If you’re seen everywhere, you’re likely to be associated with whatever you’re doing.
Eg: Multi-channel advertising on platforms like Google FB & Instagram.
2. The Bandwagon Effect
When a large group starts believing in something, others will jump on the popular opinion to feel like they belong.
Eg: Alcohol is labeled as an acquired taste because most people might not like the taste initially but indulge in it for social bonding.
3. The Confirmation Bias
People want to search for, interpret or remember things in a way that confirms their beliefs or hypothesis.
Eg: I want Jordans not because of the HYPE but because of their top-tier quality. It’s something I have told myself.
4. FOMO
People don’t want to miss out on seemingly rewarding experiences. It’s their desire to stay continually connected.
Eg: Creating countdown timers or limiting supplies is a way to tell people you might miss out on this.
5. Herd Mentality
Individual thinking is too much effort, so people like to believe that if so many others are doing this — it must be right.
Eg: Brands give a ton of social proof and reviews to tell customers that if so many people are choosing us, why aren’t you?
6. Anchoring
The first piece of information people get is usually what they rely heavily upon.
When you get fresh information, you see it from the reference point of your anchor.
Eg: Items on discount persuade faster because our point of anchor is the original price.
7. Framing
People see things based on how it’s presented to them.
If you show them positives, they tend to think about potential gains.
If you show them negatives, they tend to think about potential losses.
Eg: Saving X amount of money v/s Getting X amount of money.
So you see, that’s how most of our decisions are guided by internal biases.
