Why do people say marketers use psychology to manipualte us I think they use it to help them help us?

Question

They try to figure out what would get us to buy that new car and we need cars to drive so its not like the are trying to get you to buy something that you dont need right? So why is it manipulation?

Answer 1

You have a rather idealistic view of marketing! I don't think marketers are humanitarians. They are in the business of making money. They use psychology to manipulate us into buying things we may not want or need. How do they do this? They study human behaviour. They understand our motivations. If for example, you know that sex motivates men, then sell sex. (If you use this cologne then throngs of women will attack you -- the axe effect.) If for instance, you recognize that women are vain & insecure then appeal to their insecurities & make them join weight loss programs & buy anti-aging creams.

If you truly think that marketers are trying to help you by making you want to buy a fancy new car or anything else then they have really done a number on you!

Keep your eyes open. We are bombarded with advertising more than we realize. We are so saturated with commercialism that we become brainwashed into buying things we don't need & then stress ourselves out working hard to earn enough money to pay for them. If marketers had our well-being as their top priority, ads would be a lot different: love yourself the way you are. You don't need anything. Buy a cheap car that gets you from a to b, hey buy a used car so you're not throwing away cash because it depreciates the instant you drive it off the lot. If marketers told the truth they'd go broke. So they sell us lies. That's ok. It's a business. We live in a capitalist society. Just be a smart consumer & don't fall for the hype...

I have to say that I do admire Dove's campaign for real beauty. They've been showing real women instead of unrealistic anorexic models. Still, they are clever marketers, appealing to women like me who are sick of looking at fake perfect people & find it refreshing to see real people in ads for a change. Brilliant.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think marketers are evil, any more than any other sales person or business person. They are doing what they can to make a living.

Answer 2

I would have to agree with you on the whole car thing, becuase most people won't be easily manipulated on buying such a costly item, unless they really need it.
I believe when you say that marketers use psychology to manipulate us, I think your implying to other, less costly merchandise?
For example, on T.V you continously see adds on different items ranging from candy to clothes, yet people use pyscology to bend them a little to make them more appealing. So when you see a person eating a chocolate bar and having lots of fun eating it, youre probably saying to yourself "I want to have some fun so i'll just buy that chocolate bar". However, you won't instantly jump into your car and drive to the nearest supermarket to buy it. Youl'll probably wait until you run out of milk and see it in the supermarket and buy it.
The whole process is funny, and there are MANY different techniques used to get us to buy things. The question is, how do we resist temptations?

Answer 3

Yes, once I had the same thought as you. The products are good, there are needs to fulfil. And profession of marketer actually could have been as noble as doctor.

But then I faced the reality... they often use psychology and customer's needs to fatten their pockets. They connect many unrelated things and make misleading statements, e.g.: If you want to be a man, you've got to smoke cigarette X. Or: If you want to be adored, you should go to Y boutique. In fact, cigarettes can't make you a man; it can only make you sick. Expensive clothes can't make you adorable; it's your personality that makes you adorable. And the worse thing is, some salespeople cannot deliver what they promised, even some take your money away.They measure success by dollars, not by customers' satisfaction. Those things make me feel ashamed to be a marketer.

Answer 4

To a large extent marketing consists of finding out what people want to buy and then selling it to them. But before the sale can take place, the seller has to give the potential buyer permission to believe that what he is selling is what the buyer wants.

Providing permission to believe is only manipulative when the advertising message is delibertaly false and deceptive. Most such messages are in a sense false because, to use your example of buing a car, the car company tries to convince us that our entire lives will be richer and fuller if we purchase what they are sellling. In fact, the purchase of the car may make us feel good about ourselves, but in the end its just transportation.

Answer 5

Because they use it for bad not good.
They use it to bump up there sales commission by adding on, you need this and that .. and don't forget these things..
But what they don't tell you is the bottom.. line..

That really that extra 2k isn't really going to help you. Sure it might if all the conditions are perfectly the same as written in teeny tiny writing on the contracts etc.

But in the long run it dose make there pay packet thicker at the end of the day.

Answer 6

Because they make you associate products with emotions and or achievements that you otherwise wouldn't. Eg most car adverts whether the car is in the countryside or the city show fast smooth driving without traffic. Show me a city like that and I'll eat my hat (As in city, not town with city in the name). This gives you false subconcious idea that driving this car will be fast and easy in cities. Sounds stupid I know, however its very effectiveness is proved by your belief in marketing execs altruistic motives. Look at the last 5 things you bought that you first saw or heard of in an advert and ask yourself whether they've really given you what the advert promised.

Answer 7

Because they are trying to make you pick their car over the competition. You might need a car but why buy a crummy pickup when you can drive a hummer.

Answer 8

they not trying to get us to simply buy a car. they want us to buy their car. they try to make us feel unhappy with what we have and make us think we will be happier if we buy what their selling. i don't think it's bad that their doing that, we just need to be smart consumers and not fall for their so called "manipulations".

Answer 9

I admire your good nature. In short, company strategists will use psychology or whatever else is legal [in most cases] to extract the dollars from your wallet.

Answer 10

Are you a marketer? I'm looking for a truck. Whick one should I buy? I think I know what I want, but maybe I'm wrong. What do you think I should buy?