How sales get us to buy stuff

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If you’re one of those people who line up for the Black Friday sales, jump online for Singles Day, or are thinking that you’ll line up outside Myer or DJs on Boxing Day for the “real bargains”, rest assured, you are not alone (as you probably noticed).

Just like the thousands of people who line the harbour in Sydney or squeeze into a tiny spot down at The Rocks just to get a glimpse of the New Year’s Eve fireworks, or the crazy Melbournians who sleep outside for days for AFL grand final tickets, we’re all victims of some basic psychological factors.

The need to belong

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Hitting them where it hurts

In this episode of Listen to this, we look into how young people can change the course of history, how advertisers should probably choose where to put their money, and the ins and outs of ethical behaviour in marketing.

Listen to this – Hitting them where it hurts

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FOMO, Ooshies and wines: Why we collect

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If you’re still searching for a gold Simba Ooshie, you’re not alone. Whether it’s Lion King Ooshies, Coles Little Shop, footy cards, Star Wars memorabilia, jokes, books, cacti, spoons, cars, houses or wines, it is a natural human instinct to acquire, collect and display our accomplishments.

Many of us collect material objects, ideas and even experiences (such as travel destinations or visits to restaurants), in some form or another. One estimate is that one in three people collect something in a methodical way. One way to think about collecting is that it is a common, engaging form of consumption.

Rest assured, if you collect you are not alone.

Listen to this… special episode

In this special episode of Listen to this, I speak to Lehmo on ABC Radio Melbourne about weddings, online shopping and dogs.

Listen to this – Special

Identity Dissociation and Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel, Huawei, the Catholic Church, and Boeing are all in the news for basically the same thing, but a little bit different. What am I talking about?

Well in this week’s episode we delve a bit deeper into reputation management, online trolls and identity dissociation to work out how these brands are going to dig their way out of their current troubles.

Plus, what is a nerd space and how is privilege like bad breath?

Those questions and more are up for discussion this week.

This is your guide to marketing, culture, and the world of business, and you should Listen to this…

Wealthy people tend to think that everyone else is as wealthy as they are

Wealthy people may be likely to oppose redistribution of wealth because they have biased information about how wealthy most people actually are, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings indicate that people use their own neighborhoods and communities as a gauge of how much wealth other people possess, leading wealthy people to perceive the broader population as being wealthier than it actually is.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Santa Claus is coming to town

Many people see marketing as a form of manipulation, particularly prevalent around events such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. But the best kind of marketer knows that rather than trying to manipulate people, it is much easier to understand and work with innate human predispositions.

In fact, only amateur marketers would think that they can manipulate us – although those who are “good” at their jobs do manipulate the environment in which we consume. Indeed, a good marketer aims to move us toward certain decisions that benefit their particular agenda, i.e., selling us stuff, without us consciously engaging too much on what we are doing and why we are doing it.