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42 Mind-Control Techniques Employed by Modern Marketing Wizards

You’re getting very hungry...

42 Mind-Control Techniques Employed by Modern Marketing Wizards

April 24, 2024

The moment humankind invented marketing, we lost free will. Any chump in a suit with the right resources can make you eat when you’re not hungry, compete when you’re not in competition and generally consume when you don't need anything.

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42

Tricks to Make Food Look Good in Pictures GRACKED.COM All kinds of things are substitut- ed, like glue for milk or mashed potatoes for ice cream, or add- ed, like Scotchgard on pancakes or soap in carbonated beverag- es, to food to make it look bet- ter on film. It might look tasty, but you'd be in a world of regret if you actually took a bite. — Source

41

Colors M McDonald's M CRACKED.COM Have you ever noticed that all fast food restaurants have roughly the same color schemes? It's a lot of red and yellow, because yellow is a happy color but red is the col- or of alarms and stop signs and other things that lend a sense of urgency. Basically, they want you desperate to be happy. — Source

40

Apps and Kiosks CRACKED.COM All those digital kiosks and delivery services aren't just convenience mea- sures that also cut down on payroll overhead. You're actually more likely to order more food if you don't have to look another human in the eye and ask for a double bacon cheeseburger and 20 chicken nuggets and a Satanic mud- slide. The real lesson here is to let go of all your shame. Proudly slurp that natu- ral disaster of a dessert, for your wal- let's sake. — Source

39

Music Tempo

Music CRACKED.COM Restaurants can also encourage you to stay or go by adjusting the tempo of the music they play be- cause you'll subconsciously eat at the same pace. You're even more likely to order wine from the mu- sic's country of origin. Does that mean German wine sales go up when people hear Rhythm is a Dancer? We like to think so. — Source

38

Lighting People CRACKED.COM That's the same reason fast food restaurants all live in a fluorescent hellscape. On the other hand, fan- су restaurants keep the lights low so you have to lean in to read the menu, which encourages intimacy with your foodmates and keeps you talking and ordering outra- geously marked up wine. — Source

37

Grocery Store Misters

Misters CRACKED.COM Grocery stores mostly let their produce run through the sprinklers for two rea- sons: so it'll look better and weigh more. Some fruits and vegetables actu- ally degrade faster under too much moisture. — Source

36

Saline Meat CRACKED.COM Plants aren't the only things in the grocery store that get an aquatic fluffer. Lots of meat manufacturers inject their products with saline to make them look juicier and weight more. — Source

35

Decoy Pricing Low Price $ 1 CRACKED.COM You know how every fast food restaurant offers a large soda for five cents more than a medi- um? That's called decoy pricing, and it gets you to spend more by offering you a product just to make the expensive version look better by comparison. — Source

34

Seating CRACKED.COM Depending on how quickly they want you to leave, restau- rants adjust the comfort of their seats accordingly, which is why all fast food seats are twisted hunks of plastic deter- mined to make your butt the star of its own Hostel film. — Source

33

The Health Halo CRACKED.COM If you've noticed that fast food menus tend to feature big photos of salad front and center, it's not (just) because the markup on those is so high. It also makes everything else on the menu seem healthy by association. It's also why grocery stores put their produce sections at the front and packaged food com- panies are vying to get their prod- ucts placed there. — Source

32

Menus

Menu Psychology ДИЗАЙК КОКТЕЙЛ Нік Клак Cocktail of Pines Профіль / Обуриний, окладний paint و яскравим ароматом ялини TH сосни. Ӏнгредіенти Mac копчений післясмак сушеной дикої груші Джин a сушеною Co Апельсин CRACKED.COM Menu psychology is a whole field of study that holds the secrets to getting you to order what best suits the restaurants, not your tum. For example, people natural- ly look at the center of a menu first, then the top right, then the top left, so try to head straight to the bottom. That's where they keep the cheap stuff. — Source

31

Menu Animation GRACKED.COM Companies like McDonald's even use animation specifi- cally to direct your eyes away from the cheaper items, which is how you end up or- dering a $12 burger when you walked in singing a song about nuggies. — Source

30

Intentionally Confusing Menus NASI - LEMAX SIDES DRINKS - FOR - - - TEAM - - - Kac - - to F A I I ! I - - HOTEL SALADS I I - - - about - I - has - I Howker If Valeption - them - 10 1 - III 6 Roll SWEET - - Mago Nom with . - III I Name - 4 7 E - - I Mesca b New - окрая I Investment - - NALI YEAR INSPIRES OF - - Instructions STATE -PAIN WITH Response Vice KIDS - 1 - - - — Source

29

Scent CRACKED.COM While most bakeries do their knead- ing and seeding in the hours that shouldn't exist to make sure their goodies are fresh every morning, Panera bread does the opposite to make sure the store smells like fresh bread when you walk in. Cinnabon also places their ovens near the front of their stores to lure you away from smelling all the candles at Bath & Body Works. — Source

28

Meaningless Buzzwords CRACKED.COM The only legal requirement for calling a food fresh is that it's never been frozen; it doesn't mean it won't have the texture of a limp diaper. Like- wise, you are almost never eat- ing Kobe beef, and the term cage free is an impressive exercise in semantics. — Source

27

26

Prices end in 99 SALL because our brains are bad at numbers. hoes 59.99 Styles Intellectually we know that $59.99 and $60 are functionally the same, but we subconsciously see a big difference - perhaps because we read from left to right and see the lower number first. So you see $59.99 as in the $50 range rather than essentially $60. GRACKED.COM — Source

25

Grocery stores shuffle their merchandise on purpose so you can't find anything. The more time you spend wandering the aisles, the more stuff you are likely to buy. CRACKED.COM rearrange-merchanse-48056.html — Source

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24

Some grocery stores use smaller tiles in the aisles with higher-priced items. They give shoppers the illusion that they're moving more quickly, so they slow down. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Stores with doors on the right do better than those with doors on the left, because people move in predictable patterns. In fact, retailers use those patterns to sell more stuff, by placing the items that you came for at the end of the route you'll take through the store. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Retailers use environmental fragrancing to make you spend more. In the swimwear aisle, you smell coconut. Baby clothes, baby powder. One experiment showed that sales nearly doubled when men and women's clothes were strategically placed near masculine and feminine scents. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Printer ink cartridges have fail switches inside them that make your printer think they're empty when they're not. к CMY BLACK COLOR And some printers use chips to prevent you from using third-party cartridges to get around it. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Ever wonder why everything at the mall is so shiny? It's human instinct to think shiny things are valuable. Even babies are drawn to shiny things. It probably has to do with early man's quest to find clean, drinkable water. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

You're more likely to buy something if its packaging and display have round edges. And rounded aisle designs in stores result in a 15% increase in sales. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

17

Ever wonder why the first walk things you see Hor when store you into 219 200 the grocery PETE VIII are flowers? PREFSIO 499 RANUNCULUS 10 STEM 5.99 +TAX Those stores are psyching out your brain, priming you to think everything in this store is fresh. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Smart Mannequins

Some stores have begun using mannequins that watch you shop. These dolls use facial recognition to identify age, gender, race, and how long you spend browsing. Those analytics are used to evaluate the store layout, displays, and staff. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Stores have obnoxious fluorescent lights and terrible music for a reason. Bright lights and annoying music keep you from making good shopping decisions. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Kiosks with impulse items are placed near mall entrances to get you to start spending. People go through two phases, when shopping- deliberation and buying. An early impulse purchase puts the brain into buying mode, where it stays. CRACKED COM — Source

13

Shopping malls are designed to make you do a lot of walking. Similar shops are never grouped together, so you have to pass as many storefronts as possible. GRACKED.COM — Source

12

Clothing stores have mirrors to make you feel terrible about yourself. Most people, when they see themselves in the mirror, think they look lousy. The idea is to motivate you to buy a new outfit. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Grocery Stores

Food samples in stores are there to get your gastric juices flowing. Once your stomach gets rumbling, you'll buy more food items to satisfy it. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Amazon is absolutely swimming in fake five-star reviews by companies trying to dominate sum Rev search A results. 5 4 3 2 1 4.8 3,870 Reviews summary What to look for: Generic user names; repetition of words or phrases; bad grammar; a ton of reviews in a short timeframe; and unverified purchases. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Consumers perceive sale prices to be a better value when they're printed in a small, light font. This is according to marketing professors at Clark University and The University of Connecticut, who explain that in our minds, physical magnitude is related to numerical magnitude. Most retailers get this wrong. GRACKED.COM — Source

8

- Cereal mascots - are OUT 1 designed with their eyes looking downward. Kellogg's MON Kellogg's Kellogg's K HONEY HONEY LE SMACKS SMACKS KS Separated Polled Direcent - Swemand Putled I Canval What Germal COCOA KRISPIES I en - - I - INSIDE! E 17.6OZ. NETWE TOPPE NETWT TARO - EW and That's deliberate, to catch FROOT children's eyes in the store. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Potato chip manufacturers trick you into paying more by selling big bags that are more than 50% AIR. This is such a big problem that environmental groups are appealing to the FDA, because the waste is bad for the planet. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

The clearance rack is hidden in the back of the store on purpose. Stores want you to look at all their regular-priced merchandise, first. It's also a mess on purpose, so you won't be able to find anything, and will return to the tidy, more expensive items. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Sometimes retailers only OCHI have one or two of their advertised door buster bargains in stock. 40° FULL HD 40 FU FULL HD - the Get und Get W your fin BARGET TV TARGET In 2010, an Alabama WalMart didn't stock ANY of the Xbox systems it advertised as its Black Friday special. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

A major retailer was caught using an in-store version of their website that shows higher prices than the prices in the store (and on their actual website). So if you were shopping in the store and trying to decide whether to make a purchase, the clerk would show you a fake, higher price for buying online. GRACKED.COM — Source

3

Retail

Retail stores have cluttered, crowded aisles to slow you down. The longer you linger, the more you'll shop. The more you shop, the more you'll spend. GRACKED.COM — Source

2

Product dates are tricking you into throwing away good food, and buying more. SELL OCT 14 08:53 BY Don't get rid of milk because it's past its date. Check it first. The date on the carton is a sell-by date-which can be changed at random by retailers-not an expiration date. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

If a retailer removes the dollar sign from a price, you're more likely to buy. The dollar sign makes you think about money, and spending, and debt. Without it, the cost becomes just an abstract number. CRACKED.COM — Source

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