Madison Avenue - Emotion-based Decision Making

or

10 Steps You can Take to Avoid Buyer's Remorse

by Paul Beach

If there was just one message that I could get out to the world before I die (Why not live forever?) it would be this: Don't believe the hype!

Advertising is AMAZING! When I calculate the total amount of money being spent on marketing and advertising in this country, divide by the total number of inhabitants, including "illegal aliens", I'm left with only one thing to say: "I just want the money, Bob. Just give me the money!"

The Madison Avenue experts go to extreme lengths to climb into your head and the collective "head" of the average American consumer. And the communications revolution has aided them immensely in organizing information and discerning popular opinion. They end up making a bunch of ads that are largely insulting. At best the ads are amusing; at worst they are patronizing and condescending.

The spirit of their intentions is an innocent one. It's all done in the name of providing goods and services to consumers in a very competitive market, and that's great! Business of this sort improves quality of life and standard of living.

But advertisers and salespeople since the beginning have engaged in a practice that is somewhat less than innocent - they try to put you, the consumer, into a state of being where you buy their product, even if you are an Eskimo and they happen to be selling ice cubes.

It's rare on the scale of a unicorn sighting, but have you ever encountered a salesman selling some reasonably affordable item who said something like, "Oh, you really don't need this vacuum. Folks with carpet in their houses would benefit by having it, but you've got hardwood floors, so you might want to consider some other cleaning implement." And if you ever do hear a salesman say something like that, run right out and buy a lottery ticket 'cause it’s your week to win!

No, rather than give you the straight dope about making a purchase, regardless of how big or small, advertisers and salesmen will try to play on your emotions. They know that tugging on your heart-strings is the easiest way to loosen your purse-strings! Then you end up forking out the money for some thing that doesn't deliver any benefit.

Stop it! Stop making emotion-based decisions. I know that sounds academic and I might as well be saying 'stop hitting yourself' or 'stop micro-waving your shoes', but STOP! Just stop.

In addition to removing emotion from purchase decisions, approach the potential buy with rational, organized information-gathering tactics. Research the product or service in question. You don't have to spend a prohibitively long time on this research. You merely need to answer two simple questions - What are you getting and for how much? As you educate yourself you may even realize that you don't want it.

Here are ten steps you can take to avoid Buyer's Remorse. The steps are significant because the main key to avoiding Buyer's Remorse is to not make any impulse buys.

1 - Don't buy it - pretty academic, eh?

2 - Research the product or service in question - What are you getting and for how much?

3 - Sleep on it - there's nothing like a good night's sleep to clear your head, so you can keep your decisions rationally-based.

4 - Get a second opinion - this goes along with researching your potential purchase. Consult a friend whose opinion you respect, but don't take what they say as gospel.

5 - Get a third opinion - more research; take your time. Get more feedback, and then promptly disregard it.

6 - Strip Emotion from the equation - excitement and anticipation over your possible purchase will only serve to cloud and bias your judgment. Get rid of them before you decide to buy, along with feelings like sympathy, and confusion. Also, don't think of shopping as a cure for depression.

7 - Be realistic about the true benefits of the product or service in question - if you insert yourself into that car commercial, it is very likely that you will buy a "bill of goods." Remember, the people shown in ads are just actors.

8 - Get a fourth opinion - certainly, you don't want to make a nuisance of yourself to you friends, but if you have successfully stripped yourself of the obnoxious emotions of excitement and anticipation, your friends will more open to sharing their own highly-biased opinions. Take them with a grain of salt.

9 - Don't buy for anyone but yourself - unless it’s a gift. Then just shoot yourself, because there is no cure for Giver's Remorse.

10 - Make your decision only after you've acquired enough information to make an educated, informed decision.

You've probably noticed that several of the Ten Steps are repeated, reworded versions of previous steps. Am I trying to sell you a bill of goods with this very article? I promised ten steps and in truth delivered only about four. Did I misrepresent? I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself, but think of the ten steps like this - you need to figuratively take at least ten steps away from any product or service that you're considering buying, just so you can get focused on the big picture.

I can't walk ten steps down the street without seeing someone who is a victim of slick advertising. They might be perfectly happy with their purchase, but statistical indicators say differently. The ITEM RETURN lines at customer service counters are long. There are thousands of lawsuits over product liability every year. These are examples of people that simply bought without doing the necessary research. Their decision to buy and the resulting dissatisfaction ends up costing ALL of us.

Don't just think twice before you buy. Think ten times. Deliberate more if you need. Educate yourself, and lose the emotions that bias your judgment. Don't pay attention to clever advertising; pay attention to informative advertising, and then follow up with your own independent research.

The big problem with hype-filled advertising is that it assumes you are emotional and indecisive. Hype thinks you’re an idiot!

Don't believe the hype! If we get smart about buying, Madison Avenue will stop treating us to ads that are so insulting to our intelligence.

The Writer's Block<You Are Here

Music

Video

Podcast

Help People

Site Map