Marketers often use psychological tactics to sway consumer action

How big brands keep your loyalty

We perceive ourselves as rational decision-makers—but research about our consumption habits suggest we are easily played by clever marketing. Here's how big brands design their branding to keep you coming back.

Exclusionary ads can help win over customers, some marketers argue

Slogans like "if you don't like dark roast, this coffee isn't for you," also known as "dissuasive framing," can entice specific groups of customers, some marketers say. The shift comes from the perceived authenticity of a company admitting that a product is not perfect for everyone.

'Telephone, telegraph, tell a woman:' Listen to Estée Lauder's legendary vision for word-of-mouth marketing

Without a large advertising budget, Lauder focused her marketing strategy on making high-quality products that women would love enough to tell their friends about. Those friends would later inevitably buy Estée Lauder products.

Dollar stores often place staple items at the back of the store

This forces customers to encounter other, less-necessary items on their way there, leading to impulse buys. This video explains other ways that dollar stores make money while selling extremely cheap products, keeping dollar store profit margins relatively high.

Regular coupon users pay less attention to the actual price of what they’re buying

The psychology of coupon users can feel counterintuitive: Research suggests regular coupon users actually prioritize coupon availability over actual price comparisons.

'Deinfluencing' explained

You’ve probably heard of influencers, but have you heard of “de-influencers?” Basically, the de-influencing trend started when creators began making videos about products you shouldn’t buy, rather than sponsored content promoting things you should purchase. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson recently cracked some jokes about the trend, and its companion “under consumption-core.”

‘The consumer isn't a moron, she's your wife’ is among David Ogilvy’s most memorable pieces of advertising advice

Some of David Ogilvy’s maxims include, “talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels” and “never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read.”

There’s a psychological explanation for ‘FOMO,’ or the fear of missing out

This video breaks down FOMO—what it is, how it works, and why it happens—showing how social comparison and uncertainty trigger anxiety that pushes people toward risk-taking and constant checking behaviors.

Psychology research shows that conspiracy theorists tend to have a desire to be unique

While conspiracy theorists are often understood to have feelings of powerlessness in their lives, research suggests they may also be inclined to set themselves apart from the masses.

Bear raiding is a manipulative tactic to bring a stock price down—and part of why short selling can be controversial

Bear raids occur when short sellers use manipulative tactics—like spreading false rumors or coordinating trades—to artificially drive down a stock's price and profit from short positions. Although bear raids are an illegal form of market manipulation, they can spook investors, prompting large selloffs of shares and causing a company's value to plummet. As a result, investors may be hesitant to invest in the company in the future, creating a feedback loop of stock downturn.

The difference between marketing and advertising: Advertising is technically a type of marketing

While the terms are often used interchangeably, technically speaking, marketing is any effort to promote a product or service. Advertising, on the other hand, is any paid effort to promote a product or service. Learn more about the difference in this article.

Several major artists have embraced manipulating the Billboard charts

Billboard is supposed to be an accurate, objective representation of the country’s listening habits, but artists and their fans have discovered ways to manipulate the magazine’s methodology in order to push tracks to the top of the charts. In 2018, Taylor Swift rewarded fans for purchasing her album multiple times; in 2020, Justin Bieber reposted suggestions that fans repeatedly stream one of his songs while they sleep.

Four psychological tools for a happier, calmer life

The perennial debate on how to be happy involves various aspects of life, and one of the most essential is our psychological attitudes toward experiences. This piece lists and explains four basic tools to strengthen your "psychological immune...

Scientists are learning to guide your dreams using sound and touch

Researchers are using a technique called "targeted dream incubation"—where stimuli like sounds or vibrations are introduced as you drift off—to influence dream content and potentially improve creativity, memory consolidation, and PTSD treatment. With the same mechanism, companies could theoretically target sleeping consumers with brand suggestions while they're unaware and neurologically susceptible, or assist in reducing nightmares.

Advent calendars have become a major seasonal driver for brands

Companies now treat Advent calendars as key holiday products, expanding production as demand surges across categories. Retail data shows beauty and self-care calendars consistently rank among the most popular, as some brands report selling out yearly, and retailers order months in advance.

Are you hypnotizable?

What causes some people to genuinely fall under the spell of hypnosis and others not? The technique only appears to work easily on about 10% of people, and a variety of both genetic and psychological factors determines one's susceptibility. Researchers suggest effective hypnosis has more to do with a person's self-control than with external influence—and the technique can have tangible benefits.

The drama of the car dealership quota

Car salespersons are often under a ton of pressure to meet quotas at their dealership, at least partly explaining why they are known to stoop to such lows to sell cars. In this now legendary podcast episode, "This American Life" host Ira Glass and...

How to win a negotiation

Chris Voss, former FBI hostage chief, explains how logic and argument rarely convince someone; instead, he claims emotional intelligence is the most important factor. Watch this brief video where the expert lays out the three most important skills...

The term 'low T' was coined in 2002, recasting testosterone therapy and elevating demand

The marketing shift and accompanying awareness campaigns, both by the company behind the first testosterone product approved by the FDA, changed the landscape for testosterone product demand. Testosterone is often considered low when it's below 300 nanograms per deciliter of blood. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The lipstick index is just one niche so-called 'recession indicator'

When consumers think an economic downturn is looming, the "lipstick index" economic theory argues that sales of more affordable luxury items (such as lipstick) go up. Other weird alleged recession indicators include Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan's suggestion that men's underwear sales could help predict an economic downturn.

The rise of the campaign speech

What compels an audience shifts over time, meaning yesterday's popular speeches might not go over the same way if delivered today. However, impactful campaign speeches across time share some qualities, including taking the audience seriously, inviting listeners to engage with or respond to presented materials, and using everyday, informal language. Additionally, US political candidates typically promote themselves in their speeches, an approach initially considered vulgar in Australia and Britain.

Pepsi uses augmented reality to prank people at a bus shelter

Commuters at a London bus stop have seen alien invasions, monsters from the sewers grabbing pedestrians and tigers running down the street as part of an elaborate advertising campaign.

Scientists still don't know why DEET is such an effective bug repellent

This chemical, used to keep ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, and other nuisance bugs away, is used by an estimated one-third of the US population and has been available to consumers since 1957. Researchers theorize that multiple mechanisms may be at work to deter bugs, including perhaps masking or confusing bugs' olfactory receptors.

Horror stories often rely on tropes

All literary genres use tropes, a word used to describe established plot devices, character types, and themes. Horror has many of them, like the "Creepy Child" and the "Evil Mask." Some are based on folklore, like the "Deal with the Devil."

Was Dalí an artistic genius or a marketing whiz?

Punk poet John Cooper Clarke and art historian Professor Dawn Ades explore Dalí's enthralling life and decipher whether he was an artistic genius, a marketing genius, or both. Listen to the full podcast here.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.