Advertising – Have You Been Sold On Buying?
By now you may have realised that shopping is a habit which are based on skills that have been developed over time, but do you remember taking that course on shopping in school? How on earth did you ever get trained so well that shopping is now a habit?
Previously you learned that habits can changed and added to existing habits, and that doing so makes it easier to create new habits.
So what happens if a skill/habit that has been ingrained into the human species for hundreds of thousands of year gets extended a little?
You get one powerful habit that can be tricky to break!
So let me take you back, waaaaaay back, when we wore little, lived in nature, and started our days by:
- Searching for the food we were after,
- Collecting/Killing that food
- Then eating/consuming the food.
This is not just how humans survived, but pretty much every other living organism on the planet! This habit ensures our survival as a species – so its pretty damn important and strong!
So what do we do when we shop:
- We search for what we want
- Once we find it, we purchase it
- Then go home and consume/use it
Looks almost identical to our core survival habit doesn’t it?
And that last little step of consuming the prize of our efforts did not just satisfy our hunger but also fired off chemicals in our brain to make us feel even better! That’s a nice little reward!
Over time advertising was born to manipulate “consumers” to purchase products, even if they were not even in the act of shopping!
I need to make one thing perfectly clear, I am not saying that advertising is bad. We are being sold to many times during the day, from seeing a billboard on the drive in to work with “Eat at Joes” emblazoned across it, to hearing a friend say “I can’t learn to drive!” Both are trying to sell you on an idea, a concept, a feeling, whether conscious of it, or not. Either way – you are being sold too!
Advertising started of as simple street vendors shouting about how good their products were.
This evolved into store fronts, advertising boards, news papers, magazines, radio, movies, TV’s, phones, and now the Internet with all its various forms of communication.
Advertising can manipulate other habits and instincts – for example, colours!
RED! Did you instantly think of danger?
GREEN! Did that feel more relaxing, more nature like?
BLUE! Do you trust me a little more now?
That’s the reason why Fire Trucks are RED…..
Its also the reason why you wont see as much red in advertising…..
