By Jiahan Zheng
When’s the last time you’ve purchased a product because you saw an influencer promoting it or been peer pressured to “stay with the trend”? Marketing has long shifted from the olden days of simply promoting good products, and has now shifted to an era of psychological warfare. In a rapidly digitized marketplace, where products are beginning to look monotonous and competition getting fiercer, brands need to set themselves apart and grab attention, which means wielding psychological principles to influence consumer behavior. This strategy manifested itself across different platforms, from social media to retail, and will continue to create a web of influence that shapes modern consumer culture. With everything being said, one can only make informed consumer decisions if they’re aware of what they’re doing, so in this article, we’ll be diving deeper into the specifics of psychology strategies in marketing.
The Rise of Influencer Marketing
Let’s start with the most infamous form of marketing: influencer marketing. Nowadays, with hundreds of millions of people who use social media on a daily basis, influencer-ran businesses have become multi-billion dollar industries who use their fame to drive sales of their products. This is a successful marketing strategy as influencers don’t need to spend as much as traditional marketing in order to get their product out to the market; they simply leverage their fame to reach their target audience. However, this also comes with a myriad of problems, mostly being that the product is only as good as the influencer themselves.
Take Logan Paul and KSI’s beverage Prime. While not every Walmart scooter mom is buying Prime for their kid, it’s undeniable that Prime has established itself as a prominent branding in the minds of many Americans. Despite all the health issues that Prime has associated itself with, everyone seems to still purchase it for the sake of popularity (or FOMO) . This reinforces the bubble of promoting bad products with popularity. However, as soon as the branding starts to lose effect, or finds itself in hot water, it can push the marketing efforts back, and it becomes just another terrible product that won’t be able to compete against traditional brands with long-standing reputation. This quick spike of marketing following the inevitable crash is not a sustainable long-term marketing strategy.
“Get Me The Views NOW!!!”
Speaking of grabbing attention, marketing, especially advertisements, has shifted itself from thoughtful, long ads to short form ads. This is mostly due to the expectation of consumers having short attention spans and companies competing for that attention. While it has created some innovative advertisements (for example, Toyota Yaris’s 4.9 second parking advertisement completely bypassing Youtube’s 5 second skip feature), much of the marketing that we are accustomed to haven’t adapted to our attention span.
This speaks to a deeper issue about consumer psychology as consumers are no longer able to stand longer forms of advertising. In 2022, 61% of TV ad spending was on ads between 16 and 30 seconds, and 31% was on ads under 15 seconds. As mentioned earlier, the 6-second ad was popularized on YouTube and has seen a significant increase in use. Consumers are no longer willing to care for better, more complex narratives that require storytelling or emotional engagement. This emphasis on immediacy may lead consumers to focus on the "buy now" mentality, possibly promoting excessive consumerism and prioritizing convenience over quality or brand ethics. Not only that, but brands may struggle to make a lasting impression, and consumers may quickly forget them in the crowded advertising landscape.
Fast, Cheap, and Good?
However, not every aspect of the consumer landscape hasn’t shifted for the worse. Famous American film director and screenwriter Jim Jarmusch once famously coined that “Fast, cheap, and good… pick two. If it's fast and cheap it won't be good. If it's cheap and good it won't be fast. If it's fast and good it won't be cheap”. However, a tight market with less quality goods means consumer expectations aren’t satiated with only two of the requirements here anymore. Now, with giants like Amazon proven to nearly achieve the trifecta, consumer demands have also come to match that quality service. As quality increases, other companies now have to try harder to meet customer expectations, which does improve overall standards for American consumerism.
With that being said, this is a double-edged sword, with consumers feeling entitled to receive quality products at a low price with good service. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the “Karen” caricature, where a middle-aged white woman who has nothing better to do with their day than to complain to their manager in order to get all three criteria. The customer isn’t always right, and frankly, it’s unrealistic to set expectations this high and expect everyone to be able to cater to your standards. Consumerism and producer responsibility are a two-way street, and it requires mutual respect and reasonable expectations from both sides for everyone to be happy and successful.
Buy Me Prada, Balenciaga
A bit more into the aspect of marketing is that branding does matter, and no, I’m not just talking about Feastable Burgers. As briefly mentioned, branding is a unique aspect of marketing that breaks all rules of marketing (catering to quality product/service at a low price with good services). You can be treated like absolute trash at a Rolex shop and may have to sell a kidney or two to get that limited time Daytona watch, but at the end of the day you’re still willing to do it. Humans have the impulse to show off, and what better way than to spend ridiculous amounts of money on luxury goods. This differs with influencer marketing, as traditional branding has the time aspect and trust working with them.
Even so, timeless brands have began to see themselves integrating into more experimental marketing techniques. Examples like Gucci's virtual garden in Roblox and Balenciaga's Fortnite collaboration are interesting to examine. Despite the fact that kids probably don’t have the type of money to buy luxury goods, these brands are leveraging time in a way where they expose branding at an early age. This will inevitably establish a loyalty system, as people are more comfortable with what they’ve always been familiar with rather than something new. For reference, 88% of people in six countries could identify the McDonald's golden arches, making it more globally recognizable than the Christian cross. Imagine the most popular religion being less recognized than a bright yellow M, truly marking that consumerism can be more powerful than religion itself.
Competition: Consumer Edition
Not only are brands expensive, but they are designed with that exact reason in mind. Limited editions and exclusive drops tap into fundamental scarcity principles that enhance perceived value and create urgency. Whether a product seems more valuable due to scarcity, competition for it making it look desirable, or to flex on your friends making it look worthwhile, scarcity marketing is a true and tried technique that riles people up psychologically and physically.
Think back to a time when Supreme merch was popular. Yes, hundreds of people camping outside for a limited time Supreme branded crowbar. Other than having it for the sake of having it, people seemed really desperate to get it for a multitude of reasons, and this is where it started to hit the fan. Scarcity marketing can lead to customer frustration, and scalpers take advantage of that in order by reselling these limited items at a ridiculous markup price. While companies are alleviating some of that pressure, such as having a bot verification before checking out, consumers are still feeling futile in the era of scarcity marketing.
So What Now?
As marketing psychology and consumer behavior becomes ever more complicated (and quite frankly, scammy), there’s a higher demand (no pun intended) for ethics to be brought into the conversation. There needs to be lines drawn for manipulation on influence aspects, normalizing short attention spans, the shopping experience, and more. Now, with AI as the emerging savior for humanity, there’s hope for future developments of ethics, and maybe some of these issues will be fixed. For example, AI-driven analytics could help marketers better understand customer needs without relying on exploitative practices, or AI-driven recommendation engines can reinforce consumer habits, encourage impulse buying, or promote echo chambers, potentially exacerbating issues like short attention spans or unhealthy spending habits. Only time will tell.
Conclusion
The intersection of psychology and marketing continues to evolve, presenting both opportunities and challenges. While these techniques can create more engaging and valuable consumer experiences, they also require careful ethical consideration. The future of psychological marketing lies in balancing effective engagement with responsible practice, ensuring that marketing psychology serves both business objectives and consumer well being.
As technology advances and our understanding of human psychology deepens, marketers must navigate an increasingly complex landscape. Success will depend not just on the effective application of psychological principles, but on their ethical implementation in service of genuine consumer value. So keep shopping for all the useless stuff, but be aware of what you buy and what’s influencing you to buy it.
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