How People Buy Cosmetics

Posted in: Blog, Human Psychology by admin on July 25, 2011

A university study has confirmed that people buy cosmetics for emotional reasons primarily. Now, any experienced marketer already knows this but my last two posts on topics like this were a little cynical so I thought I’d post just to pass on the info in case you’re in the beauty vertical.

University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) shows that people who use cosmetics buy these products primarily for emotional reasons. The study was carried out on facial creams (hydrating and nutritive ones, coloured or non-coloured, and anti-wrinkle creams) and body creams (firming and anti-cellulite creams).

“The study shows that both the emotional and utility aspect of cosmetic brands have a significant impact on consumer satisfaction, but that the emotional component has a greater effect,” Vanessa Apaolaza, a researcher from the UPV and lead author of the study, which has been published in the African Journal of Business Management, said.

Original story here.

What you can glean from this is use positive imagery in their brain to create good vibes for your stuff and you’ll win the sale. Paint pretty pictures for them to imagine.

Trust Seals Proven to Boost Consumer Confidence & Buying?

Posted in: Blog, Human Psychology by admin on July 15, 2011

Again, scientist prove what direct marketers have known for almost a century: people will pay to feel secure.

Online consumers thought to be motivated primarily by savings are, in fact, often willing to pay a premium for purchases from online vendors with clear, protective privacy policies, according to a new study in the current issue of a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS^®).

Check out TrustGuard guys. I think they’re pretty much been around the longest and therefore have the most eyeball trust. Again, don’t just blatantly trust. All I’m saying is it’s worth testing.

Original story here

Is a Little Negativity the Best Marketing Policy?

Posted in: Blog, Human Psychology by admin on July 14, 2011

So, a university finally figure out how quatifiably measure and justify what direct marketing agencies have known since the turn of the century. When you show a chink in your armor, it makes you more real and therefore people can bond with you and are more likely to buy your product or service. See original story here:

Dr. Danit Ein-Gar of TAU’s Faculty of Management at the Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration, working in collaboration with Baba Shiv and Zakary Tormala from Stanford University, has uncovered the “blemishing effect,” a counterintuitive benefit of negative information. When utilized in the right way, she says, a small flaw can actually improve consumer opinion of your product — and make people more likely to purchase it.

“Intuition tells me that if I have a small flaw in my product — nothing harmful, just a minor imperfection — I should hide it,” explains Dr. Ein-Gar. “But providing consumers with information about both strong benefits and a small shortcoming may improve their overall evaluation.” The surprising study will be published in theJournal of Consumer Research.

Not to be a humbug, I’m glad they put this info out there because there are ethical businesses who don’t know it and therefore are missing out. If they wanted to get to this conclusion quicker, they could have just run a A/B test on a direct marketing campaign and then look and their bank accounts.

Try google-ing ‘damaging admission’ and I’m sure you’ll come across some valuable info on this topic. Try it your marketing and reap the rewards.

GooglePlaces Local SEO

Posted in: Blog, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by admin on July 10, 2011