TRICKS OF THE TRADERS WE HAVE WAYS OF MAKING YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY By David Edwards And Ann Gripper
IT may sound like a case of the bleedin' obvious, but it's real science with a real application. Psychologists at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne placed a poster featuring a giant set of eyes above the tea and coffee honesty box in their common room. They discovered that payments for hot drinks were 2.76 times higher than before because people subconsciously behave more honestly if they think they are being watched.
Score one for the boffins - but slick salesmen have been using similar techniques since the Serpent sold Eve the first apple...
MESSY FOLDING
CLOTHES shops deliberately fold items sloppily. Customers are less likely to pick up neatlyfolded clothes as they don't want to disrupt the display - and they are 80 per cent more likely to buy if they can pick up and feel the item.
DISORIENTATION
NIGHTCLUBS and casinos confuse visitors by not displaying clocks, ensuring staff don't wear watches and using special lamps to simulate daylight when it's dark outside. This confuses people into staying longer - and spending more.
THE ENTRANCE
SHOPPERS entering a supermarket immediately become a few degrees cooler thanks to specially-positioned fans. People are actually hungrier when they're cold - and research shows that a slightly chilly customer will spend more.
MIRRORS
WHEN you're shopping for clothes, don't pay too much attention to your reflection in the changing-room mirror. Some stores use tinted, curved mirrors to make customers look thin and tanned. Mirrors also make shoppers stay longer, as few people can resist looking at themselves.
FAST MUSIC
STAFF carrying out mundane, repetitive tasks are 20 per cent more productive if fast music is played while they work. Fast music in restaurants also makes people eat more quickly, speeding up a restaurant's turnover, according to psychologist Dr Adrian North of the University of Leicester.
SWEET MUSIC
IN 1999 researchers played French accordion music in a supermarket wine aisle - and French wine sold at the rate of 76 per cent compared to 23 per cent for German brands. When they played German Bierkeller music, German wines flew off the shelves.
AROMA THERAPY
SOME Japanese firms use scent diffusers to release different odours into the workplace. The smell of lemon has been proven to help clerical staff make fewer computer errors while lavender helps people perform mathematical calculations faster.
TRIANGULAR BALANCE
SHOPS will usually position their most expensive items in the centre of aisles, based on the "principle of triangular balance", which says the human eye will always focus first on the centre of a picture. We're more likely to buy the first item we see.
SCARCITY
MARKETING experts have discovered that advertising an item as a 'limited edition' will guarantee higher sales. Few people ask just how limited the edition actually is, though.
POSITIONING
ESSENTIAL items - bread, milk, eggs - are almost always positioned at the back of the store to ensure shoppers walk past as many other aisles as possible.
PACKAGING
MILLIONS have been spent on research into how wrapping sells food. Red and yellow - colours that stimulate appetite - are often used in food packaging while green is associated in the mind with freshness. Dairy foods might be packaged in blue and yellow, or green and yellow containers (yellow to stimulate hunger, green or blue to indicate freshness). Coffee is packaged in brown or black, to indicate style, with a touch of gold for extra quality.
STRATEGIC SEATING
WALK into a woman's clothing shop and you're likely to see chairs dotted around. Since men are notoriously reluctant shoppers, this is an effective way to prevent them interfering while their partners browse. It actually helps relax them by allowing more blood to be pumped to the part of the brain which makes them want to buy.
BEST MATES
TELEMARKETERS will often mention a "neighbour" who has recommended you as someone who may be interested in their products. That kind of familiarity makes you feel positively inclined to the salesman - and therefore more trusting.
COLOUR SCHEMES
COLOURS have a startling effect on people's mood. A study by the Department of Health showed that blue can subdue aggression in A&E departments while red in the canteen can stimulate the appetite. Purple, yellow, orange and green are the colours most likely to make people feel positive and are widely used in shops.
OPEN PLAN OFFICES
THE trend for knocking down walls in the workplace isn't just about making offices bright and airy - it also makes staff more productive. A 2001 study by psychologists at the University of Michigan discovered that open-plan workers achieved twice as much as staff in traditional "cubby-hole" environments.
USE YOUR LOAF
IF you're trying to sell your home, bake bread and make freshly-ground coffee. A 2001 study found these smells give houses a homely touch which made potential buyers more likely to put in an offer. They also found that people will try to visualise themselves living in the house, so you should clear clutter and family photographs to make this easier for them.
AND FINALLY ...
THERE'S nothing like a give-away to lure customers into a shop - but it can sometimes backfire. A study in the Journal Of Consumer Psychology found that free gifts can leave customers with a lower opinion of the merchandise they have actually paid for - and think twice before buying them again.
eefanincan wrote:The area from the inside of your wrist to the inside of your elbow is the same size as the bottom of your foot.
Go ahead. Give it a try, you know you want to.
Yes...I am a dork...my name clearly states is. I tried it. My foot is an inch short.
Always knew you were a freak!
I think it just means that you're highly inquisitive and like to test scientific theories (although you're the first person I've known who had this much of a difference)
