CART
ADD TO
Daniel Krivacic, Rachel Cooper, Maheen Aziz, and Akshay Sree Kumar
Issue #1 September 2019
MISSION STATEMENT
This publication,”Add To Cart”, explores the world of consumerism; the businesses that are running it and the way they use powerful marketing tools. These marketing tools interact with the psychological and emotional parts of a consumer’s brain and influence’s them to purchase products. The articles in this magazine discuss the effects of the consumer on the economy and the environment. We discuss the different attitudes of customers that shop brands and how they react to the brand as individuals, rather than collectively. Furthermore, we explore how businesses use clever marketing to possibly manipulate and create an image of a product as desirable, dwelling on how businesses use endorsements to connect and engage with consumers in order to drive the progression of consumerism.
CONTENTS 2-3
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
4 What is consumerism? 5 Benefits of consumerism 6 Disadvantages of consumerism 12-13
PERCEPTION IS REALITY
14 In-Store Manipulation 22-23
INFLUENCER MARKETING
24 What is Influencer Marketing? 25 Why use them? 29 Who’s doing it? 30-31
VOICE THE VOICELESS
32 Don’t underestimate the power of vigilante consumer. 40 Don’t consume? 41 It’s not me, it’s my wallet!
PRODUCTIO AND CONSU
ON UMPTION
How business and consumers determine the supply and demand of products and how it effects the individual, economy and environment. By Daniel Krivacic
What is Consumerism? Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. Consumers have the freedom of choice to purchase products and services as they like which brings benefit to the business in favour of the sale. Businesses focus on enticing consumers to purchase their products through advertising, sales and improving features in their products and services in order to increase their number of sales with the goal of making larger profit. Consumer satisfaction is important to a brand to ensure customer loyalty to continue purchasing their products and services.
“Supply the needs first and the wants later, for one can only obtain true peace, love and joy when one supplies the needs first and not the wants.� - David Benedict Zumbo
Benefits of Consumerism When consumers continue to spend and purchase products from a specific brand they bring increased revenue to the business and demand to the products sold. Businesses in turn need to increase their supply to keep up with consumer demand bringing benefit to the industries that supply the business providing more jobs and injecting more money into the economy. Market competition ensures that brands continue to improve their products to get an edge over other brands to ensure they keep up their sales therefore benefiting consumers with new and improved products. Consumerism has brought innovation and new technology, new fashion and luxury goods that have all benefited society.
Disadvantages of Consumerism Major brands that dominate the market continue to entice the consumer to purchase products even when their products are overpriced and/or unnecessary due to customer loyalty to the brand. Major brands focus on the obsolescence of their product by creating faults in their products causing leading their products to fail and become unusable at a set time. At the sime obselecence the brand releases a new product to lead the consumer to continue purchasing from them. This ensures the consistancy of sales over a long term period. Consumers are usually enticed by the popularity of specific products and are usually led to believe that there is only one option and that product is the one. Over consumption of goods is determined by specific brands making consumers believe that their products are a necessity and that they are saving money by purchasing them at a certain time. Through the promotion of goods by reducing prices on goods brands are gaining more consumers due to gaining customers and sales they wouldn’t normally achieve. Consumerism can lead to an increase in personal debt and wasted money on products when it can be saved and used for better use. The effect of this is due to the power of marketing from wealthy businesses leading smaller businesses to struggle. smaller businesses suffer due to having less profits to market their product and franchise it making them invisible to the consumers eye. Smaller businesses often fail due to the harsh competition of major companies that steal the market. Major business create an image that consumers trust and are reliant on and believe that they should continually purchase from them over other companies even though they may not provide the best service.
Produce Purchase Reproduce
“If you didn’t need to buy it at full price, you don’t need to buy it on sale.” ― Joshua Becker
“All over the place, from t propaganda system, ther make people feel that they role they can have is t to cons
― Noam C
the popular culture to the re is constant pressure to y are helpless, that the only to ratify decisions and sume.�
Chomsky
Consumerism has led to businesses focusing on efficiency and making large profits on their sales by developing production lines and new technology to reduce the labor and manufacturing costs resulting in lower wages and less jobs to the working class. Due to living in a throw away society consumers are unaware of the effects of continuously buying products from one source. The effect of overproduction of goods and obsolescence has had a serious negative effect on the environment as there is an increase in waste when products gone beyond its planned time for usage. The constant reproduction of goods through manufacturing has lead to pollutant emissions, increased land-use and deforestation, and impact of climate change through large masses production of goods. The problem with consumerism is that money is the only driver so consumers will continue buying and businesses will continue to produce without consideration of the effects.
“What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.” ― W. H. Auden, The Dyer’s Hand
PERCEPTIO REALITY
ON IS It’s no secret that companies have mastered the ability in manipulating perception in order to sell their products and implment techniques used to make you spend more. But how do they do it? By Rachel Cooper
In-store Manipulation Have you ever gone to Kmart to get two t-shirts only to walk out with a pillow, two candles, a fake plant and a toaster, well you aren’t alone and no it’s not your fault (completely). It’s not just your poor impulse control, you have just been a victim of strategic placement and brand manipulation. So what is it exactly that makes us get all this unnecessary crap. These are the 5 most common ways they psychologically manipulate you.
1. 2.
Colour psychology
Colour can change your mood, evoke a feeling or even suggest and idea. For example, red if a frequent colour in sales since it evokes action and if you think about it, lots of well known retailers use red; McDonalds, KFC and Kmart which might help explain all those impulse purchases.
Layout
Retail stores in particular are designed to be attractive mazes that are easy to get lost in. It’s no coincidence that your exit is blocked by 15 displays of random, cheap crap you don’t need.
3. 4. 5.
Eye level
Stores strategically place higher-priced items at eye-level, forcing you to crouch to find the more affordable items.
Pricing
Ever notice that a lot of items are prices $9.99 or $14.95? This is called “left-digit effect” as consumers are more likely to look at the left-most number so when choosing between a pen that is $1.99 or $2, consumers are more likely to look at the “1” when deciding.
Strategic placement Whenever you are at the checkout there is almost always cheap items at the front such as chocolates or small bracelets. It is also common that these items also surround you when you are waiting in line to be served.
Human beings are not rational creatures, but rather emotional beings that can be easily manipulated without notice. - The Huffington Post
We are constantly manipulated by companies into buying things and that thought is unsettingling. Not only is it true but it’s the very thing that makes us human—empathy, emotion, and exhaustion to name a few is what influences and distorts our thoughts and judgments. Advertising companies will go to great lengths to make it seem like it’s your idea when you buy their product. They carefully craft messages to turn wants into perceived needs. Think of all the things we consider necessities today that years ago would be luxuries: smartphones, coffee, internet service and fast-food. Through commercials, product placements in movies and social media, advertising has convinced people to believe that these things are a necessity.
We are emotionally driven beings and company utilise this by suggesting that their product will make a difference in our lives by either making us happy, giving us status, satisfying a desire or providing security. “Limited time only” and “while stocks last” are the main phrases companies make us feel FOMO (fear of missing out) as studies have shown that fear overrides any other purchasing behaviour. Sales can have the same effect but they can also appeal to shoppers by giving them permission to rationalize and indulge in wants that they might otherwise resist. Packaging has been directly related to the perceived quality of the product, and it affects whether a product is noticed on the shelf. Things such as the logo can easily help customers identify
familiar brands and therefore more likely to trust the product. One of the most important aspects of advertising and packaging of a product is the colour scheme as 90% of immediate judgements on products are determined by colour. Colour can either calm us or rev us up and companies use this to evoke a specific emotional response from the viewer. For example, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s use red and yellow color schemes as these are considered more stimulating and energizing colors that grab the consumer’s attention. By playing to our emotions in this way, a master manipulator can trick us into believing that our feelings represent a larger truth, without a rational or factual foundation.
“Facts are irrelevan what the consu - Seth
nt. What matters is umer believes.� Godin
“...when you’re buying this, most of the cost is the plastic container. What’s inside is just worth 0.1 of a cent.” - Dr Fred Leusch
The ultimate example of companies manipulating perception is bottled water. Bottled water has to be the biggest scam of the century as companies have managed to convince consumers to pay up to 1000 times the price of tap for virtually the same product. People have abandoned rational thought and have absorbed what bottled water companies are telling them without having any facts to back it up. But people still insist on buying something which is essentially free. So how do they do this? Packaging is the key. Using imagery and language to suggest ideas and perception about bottled water such as evoking purity and connections with nature, making consumers presume that it is better and cleaner than tap water without actually saying it. You’ll see many images of mountains, rivers and forests on the label – the symbols for purity and nature.
In reality, bottled water is not superior to tap in fact when tested most people can’t taste the difference between bottled and tapNot only is it not better for you but it is bad for the environment . In a time where cutting back on plastic has become important it is surprising how much bottled water people buy. It also contributes to CO2 emissions from the process of making the plastic bottles and transportation. Water has passed soft drink in the largest beverage sales with sales this year reaching $688 million. It really goes to show how much power and influence companies have over our purchasing behaviour and our actions.
INFLUENCE MARKETING
ER G Influencer marketing is a new form of marketing technique used by companies to connect with their audience to increase profits. By Maheen Aziz
“Influencer Marketing, is when a brand engages said Influencer to promote their product to their audience with the intention of growing awareness or making more sales.”
What is Leading to influencer influencer marketing? marketing. A recently popular marketing strategy many companies have adapted to sell their products, is marketing through influencers. According to an article by Danielle Lewis (n.d) influencers are people with a huge audience that follows them on their social media platforms and is popularly viewed online. They have tremendous power in persuading their audiences to purchase and trust certain products and companies. Hence, if companies work with the right influencers, they can garner attention and rake in profits. The use of celebrities and influencers is so common now and we see many famous people using social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram or YouTube etc. and talking about brands or products they use or enjoy. We clearly see an agenda or motive behind celebrities talking about brands but what drives us to succumb to trusting these influencers and buying their advertised brands and how is this widespread marketing strategy helping companies?
The rise in influencer marketing came as more ad block technology became readily available and more people started using it, according to Deborah Weinswig (2016) in her article for Forbes found data showing that 47% of consumers used this ad block technology thus making the conventional methods of advertising almost ineffective. To work around this problem’s brands have invested huge sums of money into influencer marketing, according to Bloomberg (2016), approx. $255 million is spent every month. This method works as it takes advantage of an audience’s strong connections to the influencers and make their product seem more genuine and relatable if it is being recommended by someone consumers follow or watch on a regular basis. The Influencer Marketing Factory (11 March,2019) specifically talks about Instagram influencers and state that the marketing strategy works because people ‘’… believe a friend’s endorsement over something a brand is trying to ‘market or sell’ to them.”. This allows many brands target audience to feel a more genuine connection and open mindedness into purchasing influencer advertised products because people have a loyal connection to the celebrity who shares their lives with followers on social media. According to Scrunch, a company that links up brands and influencers, 84% of consumers purchase products after reading about them in a blog. This goes to show the how brands working with influencers can tap into the emotional side of a consumer’s brain to sell products in an effective way.
Why use them? Influencers are also a better choice in terms of marketing for many companies as the companies themselves would not have to put in a whole lot of effort into creating ads or content. Many influencers be it on Snapchat or You Tube are content creators and post videos or content on different platform with creative titles and subject matters in their videos in order to stay relevant and maintain their follower base. When they are sponsored by brands influencers must use their own resources to take advantage of a brands generous sponsorship and promote it on their platforms in a creative and engaging way. This saves the company the trouble of having to create content for ad as the marketing is left in the hand of the influencers. Influencers know their audiences and have already built a relationship with their followers (Scrunch,n.d) that big companies wish to build with their customers. They bridge the communication gap between the company and their target market by using their already built follower network.
David Jones (2019).Gucci Retrieved from https://www.davidjones.com/product/22904519
“Influencers are the golden children of marketing strategies right now.�
“Influencers build relationship Without that mutual connectio harder to start building that r
ps between their followers and your brand. on, or middle man if you will, it’s a lot relationship.�
David Moth (2015) gathered some very notable examples of influencers being used in a marketing campaign. A very surprising one being Barack Obama, although not a company or brand, Barack Obama bridged the gap between him and the public by inviting Vloggers Bethany Moka, Hank Green and Glozell Green to the White House and answering questions under the hashtag #YouTubeAsksObama. This effectively ‘promoted’ Obama and made him more genuine and ‘consumable’ to his target audience and be used to promote his presidency and popularity. Other examples can be anything from Kim Kardashian’s Snapchat promoting an Air BnB (Weisnwig,2016) to beauty Vloggers on Youtube such as James Charles promoting his own make up brands.
Influencer marketing can be seen everywhere and is prominent on every social media platform, we may not be paying attention to promotions or recommendations of brands given by our favourite celebrity or Insta model but subconsciously we do feel inclined to purchase or try a brand if influencers we follow had mentioned them. Alas, it is unavoidable and is a innovative technique to maintain the cycle of consumerism and urging people to chase more brands.
Rhianna.(2019).n.a.[Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BxAAVNzhORD/
Kim Kardashian.(2019,August 29).n.a[Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/B1w0Ol2gdwz/
Who’s doing it?
B2B Integration (September, 2019) [Image] Retrieved from https://www.spinr.io/selected-use-cases/b2b-integration
VOICE THE V
VOICELESS We know how businesses illustrate their brands to the public. But how does the public really respond to these illusions. Interviews we undertaken with five of Sydney’s youth to obtain facts, statistics, and other opinions on brand loyalty and consumerism.
Don’t Underestimate The Power of The Vigilante Consumer “We buy, we sell, and we beg”
Alex Little 19 Design Student at Western Sydney University
As a student, what sort of products do you look forward to purchasing and what brands do you associate with them? I love shopping for new clothes and apparel. I have to make sure Im dressed properly for every occasion, whether its class or a friday night party. When it comes to brands, I find the ‘Culture Kings’ brand to highlight my personality. Sure, it can be a bit pricey, but hey, who doesn’t want a fresh look?
If you found that ‘Culture Kings’ suddenly increased their prices by a large margin, do you think they would still obtain a large number of customers? Absolutely! Customers know how ‘Culture Kings’ operates. Its all about the experience and the atmosphere when you walk up those escalators. Some people will save up a weeks worth of money just to splurge on a day at ‘Culture Kings’. Thats just how business works, we buy, we sell, and we beg. If it was revealed that ‘Culture Kings’ failed to abide by any law in general, be it environmental or tax even, do you think you could still maintain brand loyalty with them? Yes. As long as they learn from their mistakes.
“The urge to shop never stops, everything and anything is available.”
Hadi Hussain 19 Graphic Design/Education Student at Western Sydney University
What brand would you say you identify with, and claim to be your go-to brand when shopping for any new product If I had to choose, I would have to say ‘Adidas’, only because I like their products more than other competitors that are priced much higher. I feel ‘Adidas’ has many price points that are suitable for a lot of consumers Do you find yourself purchasing more than you need from ‘Adidas’? For example, if you were to purchase a top with ‘Adidas’ branding situated on the front of it, would you feel inclined to purchase matching track pants to complete the overall look? Not particularly, but its not a secret that many consumers feel the need to “complete the overall look”. Shopping online or in store, consumers will come across the brand within seconds of browsing and be presented with various products ranging from hats to shoes, even if all they are searching for is a pair of socks.
Karl Beattie 19 Screen Media Student at Western Sydney University
What brands would you say are your favourites, or what brands would you say you are loyal to? The only brand im particularly loyal to is ‘Apple’. I mean, if im looking for absolute perfection, where else would i get it? ‘Apple’ has been a leader in technological advancement and to be part of that brand is pretty cool. You mentioned ‘Apple’, and claimed that they are a “leader” in tech advancement, however what about other brands like ‘Samsung’ or ‘Huawei’? What makes you say they aren’t leaders? So far, our first two interviewees have presented their opinions in responses. When it comes to brand loyalty, most consumers need a reason to come back and remain loyal. In the first interview, the well known store ‘Culture Kings’ was mentioned and spoken of in high regard. What makes this store so sucessful in maintaining consumer loyalty does not reside in any underlying tactics that may seem unethical. But instead, the store focuses on ensuring consumers maintain an enjoyable experience within the store at all times. To do this, ‘Culture Kings’ would hire live music in the form of DJ’s to play music throughout the day, and set up an instore basketball hoop for customers to be eased into shopping at the store. Consumers having a good experience within their shopping experience is a key factor in consumerism and a key benefit of being a consumer. Businesses need consumers to function and thus, making sure consumers remain loyal to their brand, is an absolute necessity.
Well, I guess they are. But ‘Apple’ has its elegant aestethic to its brand and whenever i pull out my iPhone or Apple Macbook, I just know my money was well spent by just looking at it. What is your opinion on the new Mac delivered by ‘Apple’? The stand costing almost $1000usd and much more on top of that. Would you not say that ‘Apple’ charging that much is a general deterant to previous and potential consumers? No. Its simple, if you can’t afford it, then you can’t have it. Do you believe most consumers will be able to “afford” the products that tech companies market in the future? Who is to say that the other companies dont start charging $1000 for earphones for example? I’m sure if ‘Apple’ charged $1000 for earphones, they’d be damn good earphones.
Alexander Dunn 19 Design Student at Western Sydney University
Do you fear for the future of consumers in a market that requires businesses creating illustions in their marketing to attract customers? In 2019, I think consumers should be aware of their consumer rights and what ethical marketing strategies are. In the environment we shop in at the moment, businesses will treat consumers like royalty. And I’m alright with that.
Businesses are more inclined to follow guidelines and ethical standards in 2019. Why would you say this is so? Well, with a big focus on publicity and social media, businesses will want to make sure that all their areas are covered and make sure that the opinions in consumers of the business are held high. If a business were to fail to pay tax for example, consumers would be less inclined to pay attention to that brand because of its mispractice.
What is your take on brand loyalty? To be honest, brand loyalty exists as much as the tooth fairy. Consumers now will obviously benefit from gaining rewards cards and loyalty cards from businesses but it certainly doesn’t stop me from comparing prices in other stores to make sure I’m not paying extra from something I can purchase for less. So if you are saying you are not brand loyal, what exactly does a business have to do to obtain you as a customer other than provide the necessary product at a reasonable price.
If you were to make your own brand today, how would you go about promoting it to the public and making sure consumers recognised it? I think social media is a strong start, making sure I have a brand name and logo is an absolute. But after that I guess working with other small businesses to help promote eachother might be a good way to strengthen consumer awareness. If a brand was revealed to be mispracticing consumer rights, do you think they would be able to bounce back with ease?
I mostly value my experience at the store. There will be backlash, but business is business at the end of the day.
Jason Lam 19 Commerce Student at UNSW
What platform do you usually use for purchasing products from big brand companies? I guess online shopping is a big market that is suitable for me as I don’t live too close to any big shopping centres. This way I can avoid employeecustomer interactions and just get my task done as quickly as possible. Do you feel that most companies should adopt a full fledged online market instead of focusing on instore experience shopping? Consumers in 2019 know whats available and where to obtain it. With social media, YouTube, and general online ads, we can find what we need within a few google searches and clicks. Its not hard, and helps us save time. Its almost as if we feel obligated to consume. With that said, do you feel businesses also benefit from online shopping? Brand loyalty is a lot harder to maintain when online shopping. Consumers have the whole market infront of them when online and can compare the market within seconds
“We feel obligated to consume”
Don’t Consume? Hearing from young consumers helpeed gain an insight into what the public think about consumerism and how businesses handle maintaining their brand. A formal relationship between consumer and business is vital in our economy, and providing product to consumers is vital for businesses. However consumers hold the keys in their hands as they are free to choose where to spend their money and express their interests. With brands firing at eachother with large arrows piercing eachother with the next big sale, or next big flagship product, consumers are always going to be catching up to the ‘present’ level of products and will feel negativity to losing track of what the new exciting product is in the market. We heard from Mr. Beattie’s interview claiming that ‘Apple’ has created an elegant brand with a prestine aesthetic in which customers should have a “I must have it, if I can afford it” attitude. It is true that this mentality exists, however the important fact is that consumers did not generate this thought on their own. From the very beginning, involved in promotions, marketing, advertising, product placement, and pricing, ‘Apple’ has succeeded in placing its own brand as a high level brand in the eyes of consumers and maintained that level of importance for years. But consumers will never stop consuming. We can’t make a stand to businesses and tell them that we will stop consuming until they meet our needs and wants. And this issue doesn’t reside in business per say, but instead in us, the consumers. Because we are unable to stop consuming and purchasing goods that we may or may not need, but certainly want.
It’s not me, it’s my wallet! We feel the urge to splurge! Consumers find How people react to your product or service that new products will grant them quick satis- shapes your brand reputation. We each faction and prepare them for a new day. formulate our opinions based upon personal experiences, yet often before we buy, we Who is to say that businesses don’t plan this? seek to get a feel for how others perceive the Minor one-day sales that seemingly pop out of benefits, usefulness or enjoyment a product nowhere when a competitor might be advertis- or service offers. This is probably the reason ingg a new product, or when theres holidays “perception is reality” became so prevalent a and business just assume that consumers will turn of phrase. rush to the shopping malls to purchase all the stock before it runs out. And they are right, it Nothing is seemingly more important than is exactly what we do. Christmas, Boxing Day, what consumers think of your brand, but it’s Easter, Black Friday, and other holidays are al- even more than that. In fact, brand perception most like 1 day grants for consumers to spend heavily factors into a consumer’s choices in hundreds and hundreds of dollars on gifts, the marketplace. Consumer perceptions of presents and goods. The holidays for us con- your brand, in addition to your competitor’s sumers, might be the hardest working days for brand, can heavily influence their purchase businesses. intent one way or another. When a consumer sees or hears a brand name, and is aware of that brand, something unique and psychological happens. Whether the consumer is aware of it or not, an initial reaction that entails their thoughts and feelings towards the brand almost always takes place. This mental reflection is a result of what the marketing world translates into brand perception
Luckily, brand perception, like any relationship, is fluid and can evolve over time. The more experiences and interactions a consumer has with a brand, the greater the potential for their brand perception to change.
Consumerism, businesses conquer it, and we worship it.