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A LEADING marketing expert has warned shoppers should be aware of retail giants, including Walmart, Amazon, and Target, using the tactics of cults to lure shoppers into buying products they don’t need.
Dr Mara Einstein, who was featured in a new Netflix documentary released this month exposing the dark arts used by major brands, says companies deliberately target vulnerable people.
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Netflix has just released a new documentary, Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, revealing the tricks and covert strategies brands use to keep consumers locked in an endless cycle of product purchases.
In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, Einstein explained how companies prey on people’s emotions to get them to buy things they don’t need.
She said this includes using before and after photos and creating a sense of false community through cult-like brands.
Einstein is a New York based marketing expert and author of Hoodwinked, helping people protect themselves against deceptive and coercive strategies used by some of the world’s biggest companies.
Using the example of before and after photos, Einstein said brands deliberately prey on shoppers’ vulnerabilities.
Marketers use the same tactics as cults and one of the key tactics is to recruit people when they are vulnerable
Mara Einstein
“Advertisers do before and after photos … my hair looks terrible, my face is breaking out, whatever it is, use my product and you will feel better.
“Nine times out of ten, the product doesn’t help, but you’ve tapped into people’s vulnerabilities and the hope that their life will be better or if I use this product, my life will somehow improve.
“The idea that no advertiser is going to tell you that you are okay exactly the way you are, because if you did that, then you’d never go out and buy their product.”
Einstein also revealed major brands target vulnerable people by creating “in and out” groups.
Einstein says brands have sought to lure consumers in by creating online communities in the absence of church groups or decreasing religious organization.
“Fewer people are going to church or have a connection to organized religion, and we don’t have connections to jobs the way we used to,” Einstein said.
“So what has come in their place is brands, and brands become the things we use to create our identity.
“It’s about making a statement about who we are because of the brands we buy. I’m not just a Mac or a PC…you’re Starbucks or a Dunkin’.
“All of these things come together to define who we are, so they’re much more important to us, and because they’re more important, they have more relevance in our lives, and then we buy almost anything they have to sell us.
“Apple is a great example; they’re not just a brand community, but a brand cult.”
HOW TO SURVIVE HOLIDAY SEASON
Einstein also said brands collect data from us “every time we go online” which they then use “to sell us as many things as they possibly can.”
With Americans predicted to spend up to $1 trillion this holiday season, Einstein urged consumers to follow some simple tricks in order to protect themselves from overconsumption.
Firstly, shoppers should unsubscribe from all promotional emails to “pull yourself away from some of those sales messages.”
“The best thing you can do for yourself is unsubscribe from everything the second you finish buying it,” she said.
MAKE A LIST
Einstein also said shoppers should make a list of what they want to buy and stick to it, to prevent themselves from getting sucked into buying things they don’t need.
Consumers are also advised to track the price of goods leading up to the holiday period, as some brands artificially inflate the price of the item and then reduce it for the holiday sale.
“In terms of Black Friday sales, many of those sales aren’t really sales. They are prices that existed on those products six months ago,” Einstein said.
TRACK THE PRICE
Lastly, Einstein said people should be aware of brands using the tactic of “loss leaders,” which is when retail companies take a loss on one product to make money on another.
For example, a department store might mark down a small item in the hope you walk out with a flat-screen TV.
“Something will sell at a very, very discounted rate with the expectation that you will come in for that sale and then spend money on a lot of other things that are probably not on sale,” she said.
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