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Why You Buy So Much
It's not a surprise that spending is an emotional activity. Most people feel good when they spend money.
And, it's equally true that often people feel sorry they bought something shortly after buying it. This happens so often there is a special term for it: Buyer's remorse.
And this is not lost on advertisers. Nearly every advertiser will tell you that their ads appeal to your emotions. They want you to believe that you will feel better after buying their product. They even tell you that you will feel good about buying a particular product.
David Ogilvy (Time Magazine called him the most sought-after wizard in the advertising business), in Oglivy on Advertising, indicated that "Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status, and so on."
For most products, people buy because they want the product, not because they need it. Products are often associated with an emotion. Wanting to be seen as beautiful; wanting easy and quick nutrition in a vitamin tablet; wanting to be free from pain; wanting to be seen as smarter than someone else.
"Wanting" is why you buy a particular brand, or a particular product.
Words have a power to get inside your head and make you want a certain product. The right words can help trigger a person into buying a product they don't even need.
The famous advertiser Joseph Sugarman in his book Triggers wrote that "The real underlying psychological triggers that motivate, inspire and influence a prospect to make a buying decision are often unknown to even the most experienced salesperson. Knowledge of these trigger can be a powerful weapon in the battle for your prospect's business."
Oh, when a consumer is asked why they bought something, they'll tell you about the value and the good deal they got. But, the reason they bought it is primarily because the advertising message convinced them that the product would satisfy an important emotional need.
They had a strong desire to buy. But, they also needed a reasonable justification to allow them to buy. When a "desire to buy" meets up with a "justification to buy", there is a high probability that the consumer will buy.
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AIDA Advertising Formula
There are several methods or formulas for presenting an ad. One of the most popular is AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.
In this formula:·
Attention represents an attention getting headline·
Interest represents an interesting leading sentence that draws you in to read further.·
Desire represents the presentation of benefits in such a way that it increases your desire for the product.·
Action is the call to action requesting you to buy the product, go to a dealership, or call a toll free number.
Once you are drawn in by the AIDA formula you are much more likely to buy the advertiser's product.
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Look at the ads on TV. What do they tell you? Just think about some of the new car ads you've seen. They give you a fact that justifies the purchase, and after that they appeal to your emotions:
- You'll look good in this new car
- Be the first to own the new model
- Everyone will turn to watch you go by
- You'll feel great flying down the highway with the top down and your hair blowing in the wind
It is important to realize that you buy non-essential products because of emotion mixed with justification.
As an experiment, watch ads on TV in order to decide what emotion the ads are appealing to. What are the words or phrases they are using in get inside your head to make your desire the product?
And, what facts do the ads provide as a justification to buy?
The more you realize how advertising works and the more you analyze the ads you see, the less you will be affected by those ads.
And that means you will spend less money buying products you really don't need.
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