The manipulation of public opinion

"Advertising may be described as the science of stopping the human intelligence long enough to get money," Stephen Leacock 

In 1957 the journalist Vance Packard wrote "The Hidden Persuaders," a book that revealed the psychological tricks and tactics used by marketing to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy. 

Book disturbing for its time. Today, however, advertisers have become more skilled, cunning and ruthless. 

Thanks to the new technologies, discoveries in the field of behavioral, cognitive psychology and neuroscience, they know what affects us much better than we ourselves can imagine. 

Scan our brains and bring to light the hidden fears, dreams, desires; retrace the footsteps that leave every time we use a loyalty card or credit card at the supermarket. 

They know what inspires us, what scares us and seduces us, and finally, they use this information to conceal the truth, mentally manipulate and persuade us to buy. 

Let's see some of the strategies put in place by the "persuaders." 

The Kids marketing 

Much of the marketing budget is used to implant the brand (trademark) in the brains of small consumers, because our preferences for the products take root in us even before birth. The mother's language is audible from the uterus, but what we did not know is that the music leaves a lasting impression in the fetus able to shape the tastes that will have as adults. 

The latest findings confirm that listen and advertising jingles uterus predisposes us favorably towards the brand associated with it. The marketing knows this and has begun to devise ways to capitalize on this phenomenon unscrupulous ... 

With kids marketing will involve the children in games, monitoring their behavior and preferences, all to update the sets of supermarkets: redesigning the shape and color of the shelves, enrich the totem placed next to speakers, etc.. It is no coincidence toys and snacks are placed about one meter from the ground, out of reach of children. 

Children under three years (watch 40,000 commercials a year, and they know more names of people that advertising animals), only in the United States, representing a market worth $ 20 billion! 

At 6 months, babies are able to form a mental image of logos, and in fact the bottles and strollers are decorated with characters ad hoc. The logos recognized at 18 months will be preferred even by adults. 

Finally, conditioning children to purchases also influence parents: 75% of spontaneous purchases can be traced back to a child and a mother of two buy a food that has been asked by his son. 

Marketing of fear and nostalgia 

Fear is an emotion that stimulates the secretion of adrenaline, triggering the primeval fight or flight. This reflection in turn produces another hormone called epinephrine that determines ultimate pleasure. The blood flows to the muscles and limbs, so the brain will become private, and that makes us unable to think clearly, the fear is very effective persuader (drugs, vaccines, etc..). Pharmaceutical companies spend tens of billions of dollars to invent new diseases and feed our fears. The result? Sales of prescription drugs in America reach 235 billion dollars a year. 

Often the approach consists in evoking negative emotions, then submit the purchase of the product as the one and fast way to get rid of that emotion. Advertising more sophisticated endeavor instead humor as positive reinforcement: to make people laugh is a great way to sympathize with the product. 

Conversely, pining in the memories improves mood, self-esteem and strengthens relationships. 

Our penchant for nostalgia due to the fact that the brain is programmed to remember past experiences as more pleasant than she had voted in the moment. We tend to evaluate past events in a rosier light. 

Even our perceived age is a crucial factor in purchase decisions: age more and more regret the past. The "marketing of nostalgia" is a very effective strategy, in which advertisers bring to life images, sounds and commercials of the past to sell a brand. 

the dependencies 

Foods high in fat and sugar (chocolate, potato chips, snacks ...) are among the products that generate the most addictive. The companies specifically enrich their products with substances that create addiction (monosodium glutamate, caffeine, corn syrup, aspartame, sugar). 

A study published in "Nature Neuroscience," shows that these foods affect the brain in a way almost identical to cocaine and heroin! 

Sugar stimulates the secretion of dopamine, the neurotransmitter-being, while caffeine inhibits its absorption, making us feel lively and vibrant, and the other stimulates the adrenaline that makes us feel loads. 

Even games give a strong physiological addiction, the brain reacts in fact releasing more dopamine. This is why companies are trying to increase sales of Playstation and Wii, because they have found that when games are designed properly, they do not only develop a gambling addiction, but they can reprogram your brain by making employees by the Act to buy, from shopping. 

They use video games to turn us into addicts shopping: brandwashing. 

Vanity sizing 

It 'a sinister trick with which some stores sell clothes wider for us to believe that wearing a smaller size. 

The sizes given in the clothing labels often do not correspond to the real ones: they are of a size lower. Neuromarketing knows that men and women buy more willingly a product that makes them look slimmer, even if it is not true. 

Celebrity marketing 

Exploit the fame of celebrities (actors, athletes, etc..) To wash the brain because a product associated with a famous person exerts a powerful upward subliminal. 

The "celebrity marketing" refers to the fact that we dream of becoming famous, beautiful and popular, we want to be them or at least be like them. 

Not surprisingly, the number of famous people has multiplied in recent years, thanks to programs created in the art reality show, entertainment, etc.. Increase the testimonial to use them for advertising. 

Data mining 

It is a huge business that is to trace and analyze the behavior of consumers, and then categorize and process data and use them to persuade us to buy and, sometimes, to manipulate us. 

Companies can learn about our habits, ethnicity, gender, address, telephone, number of family members and much more. The technical name is "motivational research", and in practice they go in search of the motivations that underlie the purchasing behavior of consumers. 

Analyzing the data of loyalty cards and crossing them with those of credit cards, you can find out the disturbing things about all of us. 

The "loyalty programs" in fact exist only to persuade us to buy more. 

Whenever we use these cards will be added to our digital archive indication of what we bought, quantities, time, day, and the price. When we use credit cards, the company stores the number and the type of goods: each transaction is assigned a four-digit code that indicates the type of purchase. 

Where these data are cramming is easy to imagine. 

Career and Guidance 

Did you know that you spend more if we move counterclockwise in the store? 

The right arm has more leeway to grab the products; driving the car, except some countries, it is right and we read from left to right, so that our eyes tend to follow this movement even when you are in front of a shelf. 

Supermarkets are designed to facilitate the movement of customers from right to left, with the result that the things you buy are always on the shelves to the right. The big industries, knowing this, position their products owl always right. 

The front door is always right, and this is a sneaky way in determining the shopping flow counterclockwise. 

Finally, the twisted paths within serve to make us walk slowly, and slowly we move, we will see more products ... and we will be tempted to buy. 

The basic necessities such as salt, sugar, etc.., Are located far away from the entrance and hard to find, forcing us to retrace repeatedly turn lanes making the entire supermarket. Even in many supermarkets change places the products once a month, to keep us from easily find what you are looking for. 

The institute ID Magasin, which specializes in behavioral research and market, has developed a device to record what the customer looks for when it comes to when it comes out, discovering that the area most observed on the shelves is about 20 centimeters below our visual horizon. 

A product placed in a meter and a half in height is most likely to be noticed and then being purchased. 

The music is served 

What music is better: rock, metal, samba or symphony? 

This is what we think companies like Muzak, the "audio architects" who have designed 74 music programs in 10 different categories, ranging from rock to classical, and all have an effect psychological well-defined and different. 

The speed and rhythm are important. In supermarkets, the music is slow because we have to move more slowly to buy more, while in fast-food restaurants is faster in order to accelerate the pace of chewing, so they push us to leave before to serve more customers. 

Shopping carts 

In 60% of trucks are coliform bacteria, the same public toilets. One study found more bacteria than all other surfaces analyzed, including water and head restraints trains. 

The cart was invented in 1938, with the sole intention of stimulating purchases, and over the years have increased the size allowing it to hold more products. 

Today trucks are of a smaller size for children, and in this way on the one hand they are accustomed and indoctrinated from an early age to use it, the other can fill it with the products placed at their height. 

Exhibitions 

The industries pay to place their products where they can be seen more easily by people: one and a half meters from the ground, and right end lane. 

Positioned at the end of the lane, where there is more space, high-profit products, such as chocolate and inspiring compulsive purchases. 

People buy 30% more for products that are placed in the exposures at the end of the lane, than those in the middle aisle, because he thinks that "the real deal is the end." 

Attention to friends 

Paradoxically, the most powerful hidden persuader are just friends. The marketing and companies can not nothing compared to the influence exerted by a consumer on the other. Nothing is more persuasive than observing a person that we know and respect intent to use a product. 

When there is a brand recommended by another person, in our rational brain areas and procedural turn off. These mechanisms explain why the advertising based on word of mouth it stays in my head for weeks, while we do not remember the television commercials seen in the morning. 

conclusion 

He was right Edward L. Bernay, father of Propaganda, when he wrote in 1928 that "men are rarely aware of the real reasons that underlie their actions." 

This article is incomplete because the material on these topics is colossal, but after reading this maybe we'll be a bit 'more aware of the diabolical plan of neuromarketing. 

Awareness, along with a path of growth and spiritual evolution, remain the most powerful tools to defend themselves from conviction ... and not only. 

Starting from the hic et nunc, here and now, it is very important to be present as much as possible in our lives. The TV, as an instrument of manipulation prince, unless we look at it the better it is for everyone, especially for children. Finally, do not go shopping during lunch and dinner times, because the sense of hunger encourages compulsive shopping, do not use the cart and always carry a shopping list. 

These tips are platitudes or may shake your wrists to multinationals? We'll know if we will put them into practice ... 

Taken from: 

- "Neuroschiavi: techniques and psychopathology of political manipulation, economic and religious," Marco Della Luna and stretch under Paul, ed. macro 

- "Lies of neuromarketing: how companies orient our consumption," Martin Lindstrom, ed. hoepli 

- "Neuromarketing", Martin Lindstrom, ed. apogee 

- "The book that multinationals would not you ever read", ed. pocket Newton 

- "Propaganda: the manipulation of public opinion in democracy," Edward Louis Bernays, ed. Fausto Lupetti 

- "The Hidden Persuaders" by Vance Packard, ed. Einaudi 

Marcello Pamio -   taken from Effervescienza nr. 46 insert Biolcalenda month October 2012