According to Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of our buying decisions are made on the subconscious level. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With all of the things we have to process in a day, either online or in the real world, it can be a little overwhelming. Our subconscious can access all of our experiences over a lifetime and help us to make some good decisions – they’re just not conscious ones.
A Bigger Bag
Another key thing that marketers have learned from scientific research is that consumers will usually make purchase decisions based on perceived value. The product in question may be a better deal, but it might not be – the key is that we feel like we’re getting a bargain.
A good example is a bag of potato chips. The bags have gotten bigger over the years, but the amount of potato chips in those bags hasn’t increased. The makers of our favorite snacks have used marketing research to appeal to our desire for a better deal. Our perception of reality is skewed by a clever marketing ploy.
