Have you ever noticed how products promoted to you online fit your lifestyle personally? If yes, this article is for you. In today’s article we summarize marketing tactics used to sell products to consumers globally. We explain how social media is the perfect vessel to drive forward the promotion of a product. We explain the importance of researching the product for yourself before spending your hard earned money on something that is being promoted by someone who is getting paid to sell it. We talk about the percentage of our sample that was polled that gravitates towards these items. If you are interested in the propaganda surrounding marketing, read on!
We ended our last article by explaining to our readers the importance of seeking out knowledge instead of believing everything that is fed to you. The same goes for consumption of products. Seek out what you are interested in buying instead of waiting for an add to pop up perfectly curated to attract your attention, and more importantly your wallet. Your browser history depicts your ads which makes it very tempting to want to buy the products that pop up on the side of a website when you are doing something as habitual as research for a school paper. Extra caution: if there are ads on a website it generally decreases the credibility because you can assume that the website is online for business purposes instead of educational.
Ever notice how your explore page is suited to your general interests? 82% of people polled believe the same that their explore page is suited to them and their lifestyle:
Similarly to how information can become a positive feedback loop. This means that the information that you are constantly being given is always in consensus. A more formulated way of receiving information would be to have conflicting or objective opinions in order to broaden and complete your perspective. Lets say you have a certain opinion formed surrounding a topic and articles that voice that same perspective keep popping up on your Facebook. Your lens will become very subjective and one sided. In the same way, your ads become the same companies over and over again and you will not generally be introduced to anything out of the ordinary, new or underrated. Maybe you haven’t done your research on a certain bag that you like and an ad pops up so you buy the bag right away because it is exactly what you want. However, if you had spent a few extra minutes doing your own research you could have found a better product retailed at a more affordable price from a competing brand.
Here is an example of how social media can be used positively to promote and improve a brand:
If someone is overly promoting their brand, it should not be a sign that you need to buy it. It should show you that the product is not selling itself and instead of investing money in the efficiency of the product, the companies money is going into marketing. I’m not saying that this is always a negative as brands need to promote their products in this day and age with such a competitive market. However, it is something that you should pay attention too.
If a social media influencer is promoting a product to you, they are most likely being paid to promote the product and therefore you are paying not only for the product but for their salary. Social media marketing seems to drive up the cost of items and it’s important to think about that as well.
Yet, 41% of people have bought products promoted to them through social media.
It’s also super interesting to consider how online shopping has become such a convenience for people because of their desires of instant gratification. Just like with knowledge instead of going to the library to research a paper, students will use the first website that pops up on google simply because it’s fast and easily accessible. Websites that pop up first are not always the most credible. Online stores that pop up don’t always sell the best products. Although online shopping is fast and easy, it also becomes fast and easy to get carried away. Don’t just buy from the first store you look at, just as you should not only use one online source for your research paper.
In conclusion, Research! Research! Research! Whether it be with products or with knowledge. Remember that most things that are fed to us hinder a more complete perspective or another great brand. Make sure to do your own hunting instead of falling into a pattern of buying from the ads or forming your opinions based on what pops up on your explore page.