Black Friday has an increasingly greater impact on online commerce platforms, but many consumers continue to prefer to go to physical stores to take advantage of discounts. Seeing, touching or trying the products are just some of the advantages that large stores offer… With the downside that, almost certainly, you will end up buying more things than you need. The marketing managers of each establishment are clear about the best strategies to cajole the customer and all of them can be grouped under the umbrella of what is known as the Gruen effect.
This phenomenon associated with compulsive shopping takes its name from Victor Gruen, a pioneering architect in the design of shopping centers in the United States. Gruen wanted to convert these surfaces into spaces for recreation and social gathering, an objective that, however, his successors ended up orienting towards individualism and unbridled consumption. Next, we review the main persuasion techniques and explain why clients are not able to resist.
Thousands of posters and shop windows advertise Black Friday discounts these days. However, large stores use much more subtle strategies to encourage purchases. Specifically, the Swedish furniture giant Ikea offers its customers a predetermined itinerary through the store, often labyrinthine and full of stimuli. That is, you may go with the intention of looking for a dresser for your bedroom, when suddenly you will find the surprising bargains in the bathroom section. And if you use shortcuts, you run the risk of missing them. The goal is none other than for customers to constantly rethink whether or not they need a certain item.
After looking and looking, what most people want when they get to the Ikea checkout (or any other big box store) is to pay and leave. Once again a golden opportunity for marketing to take advantage of this state of vulnerability of customers. This is where the guilt lines come into play, that is, the shelves in front of the boxes full of gum, candy and the most irresistible items for the consumer at that moment. And the best way to reward your time and calm your mental saturation is to indulge yourself with something that you wouldn't buy if you weren't so tired.
Another characteristic of the Gruen effect is that the arrangement of the items is measured in such a way that you stay as long as possible in the establishment. The more time you spend in the store, the more likely you are to come across something you weren't planning on buying. The best at doing this are the hypermarkets, which usually place essential products in the corners to force the consumer to go through as many aisles as possible.
We can also refer to the proverb to comment on another of his tactics: big horse, whether he walks or not. This is because the presence of increasingly larger cars in large stores is a constant. Easy! A study has shown that the larger the capacity of the cart, the more items we will buy.
