You are at home in bed, tired, hair tied up, wearing your old socks, and a big t-shirt, trying to watch “Marley and Me”; it is at the part where the two main characters are adopting the dog from the pound and then a commercial comes on. It is not just a normal commercial, it is the ASPCA dog commercial. The sad music plays and pictures of cute, injured puppies appear on the screen, a voice then begins to tell you about how these animals deserve to be treated like people, and donating to their foundation will help save them. This is a type of psychology because you’re already feeling sad because of the movie, but now you’re seeing a sad commercial about dogs; this can make you think that adopting a dog is a good idea and is really what you …show more content…
But many successful marketers regularly employ psychology in appealing to consumers. Smart, skillful, honest markets use psychology legally, ethically, and respectfully to attract and engage consumers, and compel them to buy” (Rosenthal, 1). There are five psychological tactics marketers use to influence consumer behavior, those five are: run emotional ideas, highlight your flaws, reposition your competition, promote exclusivity, and introduce fear, uncertainty, and doubt. “ Run Emotional” discusses how there have been “studies that show emotional and psychological appeals to resonate more with consumers than feature and functional appeals. Demonstrating how that new computer will improve a potential customer’s life tends to have more influence rather than explaining how it works: (Rosenthal, 4). In “Highlight your Flaws” it brought up how they will bring up the companies flaws rather than letting the consumer find out/ discover them then comment on them. It is better that the marketer does this before the consumer because then it prevents putting negative images or thoughts in their head. Next “Reposition your Competition” is about changing the position a certain business has in the consumer mind, meaning make their product or company become more important to them than it might have previously been. Also, knocking down other companies under yours in the consumer 's head without the consumer even realizing you are doing so. “Promote Exclusivity” is where you make the consumer feel important. “People want to feel important; like they’re part of an exclusive group. That’s why advertising sometimes days: “We’re not for everyone.” Perhaps the most famous modern example of exclusivity in advertising is the American Express tagline: “Membership has its privileges.” But to make an exclusivity appeal work in the long run, marketers must mean what they say. Empty claims tend to be counterproductive” (Rosenthal, 10-11).