Humans are such sensory creatures. Take a gander at the pretty, shiny tomatoes above. Don’t you want to touch them? Look at how easily you're strung along by your senses - like a love-sick teenager. We all are. And, like a love-sick teenager, it’s pathetic at times.
Yet, experienced advertisers and, even more so, the wizards of merchandise marketing know how to use this liability to turn a profit. And they’ve been doing it a long time.
Sound, smell, color, light, touch, taste, temperature and even moisture are all managed in an effort to make you want to first, buy, and then second, to stick around. They’re keenly aware that these stimuli can drive even the most serious recovering shopaholic to spend.
Merchandise Marketers Know All the Tricks of the Trade
And it doesn’t stop with just sensory manipulation. They’ve got psychology on their side too. Not just with shopaholics either.
Because even if you liken a grocery trip to oral surgery, you’ve likely been taken - at least to some degree - by these tactics. Because they’re THAT good.
Read on to see if you’ve been bamboozled. (You have.)
1. Turn, Turn, Turn
This one falls on the psychology side. Because, as it turns out, humans are also very psychological creatures. Which is also a little pathetic at times.
Anyhow, it’s a fact that when people are blindfolded, they walk in circles. And since those of us in the U.S. drive on the right, most people tend to walk in a circle that turns to the right. (Those in the UK and Japan tend to turn left when blindfolded.) So what does this have to do with grocery stores?
Well, in spite of the belief that people would prefer to move in a straight line, this blindfolded circle-walking shows that they naturally prefer to turn. Armed with this knowledge, stores will give you a reason to turn by blocking the center of the front end with checkout stands. They literally bait you into a big right turn which is comforting… in some strange way. Silly humans.
2. Grocery Store Smells
We’re talking about the good ones, of course.
This would be the scent of fresh-cut flowers when you first walk in, or that of freshly ground espresso from the coffee bar. As you venture further into the store, you might catch a whiff of freshly-baked bread from the bakery. And once your stomach starts banging around down there clamoring for food, the warm smell of rotisserie chicken gets you all in a tizzy.
Soon you’re transformed into believing you’re walking through a warm, healthy and fragrant haven that five minutes before was the grocery store. What a nice place to spend the rest of the day and a good chunk of your money.
3. Supersize the Cart
Grocery store carts are getting larger. In fact, in recent years,
4. Cross Marketing
Those potato chips are normally $3.99 but you’re getting them for $1.99 with a coupon. You’re really stickin’ it to the man!
But you’re also feeling hungry from the smell of the rotisserie chicken in your giant cart and just plain excited after all those right turns. This heightened state has convinced you that you MUST have the special caramelized onion dip sitting right there with those chips. It’s $3.99. So much for saving with that coupon.
Oh, and don’t forget the soda - conveniently located next to all of those salty snacks. While you’re there, you might as well pick up some tortilla chips, queso dip and salsa. Nuts would be good too. No half-empty cart for you.
5. Listen to the Music
There’s almost nothing worse than being exposed to music that you don’t like and trapped in that space. You know this firsthand if you’ve ever been to a state fair or have a teenager at home. It makes you want to run screaming.
That’s why stores tend to choose easy-listening music such as one might hear in the lobby of an office building. Or the dayroom of the psych ward. It invites you to stay around for a while. Though by choice.
6. Free Food for the Kids
You have to grocery shop. And you have to do it with your kids.
Your kids might turn up their noses at fruit when offered at home. But when they’re at the store and free to pluck an apple or banana from a basket at their eye level, they’re suddenly all about that fruit.
It’s a win-win for everyone. The kids don’t pitch a fit and start whining to go home. The parents are pleased because their kids are eating fruit. And since they now have more time to shop, the stores are happy. It’s like the supermarket version of world peace.
7. POP Displays
Point of purchase is that captive zone by the registers. Marketing specialists take advantage of this.
You’re stuck waiting in line. You’re tired and hungry. They know this is the perfect time to grab that shiny little overpriced bag of pretzels to tide you over so you don't start tearing into that rotisserie chicken like some crazed predator.
8. Shelf Placement
It’s no secret that the products with the highest profit margin are at eye-level, while the lower-priced and more generic brands are on the bottom. Products at kid level are going to appeal to them - products that promise to explode in a sugary firecracker of cartoon color and dancing toys - #childsimagination.
Then there are the aisles.
The most popular items are going to be located in the middle of the aisles. This will force you to walk past all sorts of things you don’t need while you’re bee-lining it to the Kraft Mac and Cheese.
So if you don’t get snagged into buying Hello Kitty Brillo Pads on the way there, you might end up with a jar of garlic stuffed olives that now seem absolutely essential.
9. Other Tricks
Suffice it to say there are others. But we'll stop here. We suspect you get the point by now. And it’s this:
Merchandise Marketing Promotes More Sales
Supermarkets know this. And now you do too.
But is it going to completely change how you shop? Yes. Just as long as you strip yourself of all your senses and free yourself of your own psychology.
So then, no. Probably not.
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