Defeat emotional spending!
We’ve all been the victim of emotional spending. Sometimes referred to as “impulse buying”, emotional spending is when a product or service’s advertising makes you emit strong emotions that will separate you from your hard-earned money.
Marketing is one of those necessary evils. For people to know about goods and services, it’s needed and helpful. However, some have been refining marketing into a Harry Potter level “dark art” for over a hundred years.
Once upon a time, these marketing traps were called “snake oil salesmen” and were run out of town. Now, “too good to be true” marketing is the norm. This type of marketing is called “hidden persuaders”, and even ABC has an entire television program dedicated to it.
The key to the ploy is to make you feel a connection with the good or service. A bank’s ad might make you feel like “the whole gang is here”, making it feel safe to put your money with them as “everyone is doing it”. Then there are the ones that make you think that if you buy their “thing”, it’ll make life easier, make you younger, more intelligent, sexier, healthier, more successful, and even wealthier.
Do a lot of these products deliver on their promise? No. Do they get our money? Yeah, yeah, they do.
This type of marketing triggers the brain’s natural want for a shortcut of information. You have a problem; the marketing gives you the answer, and the brain releases the “feel good” endorphins. However, if you’re trying to save money, this type of “solution” will cause you more problems.
How to combat it?
One of the easiest ways to combat this emotional spending is to have a budget. Hopefully, a budget is created when the most logical part of the brain is in control. Having a strong enough willpower to see that whatever is advertised to you is not in the budget and overrules the emotional pull will be critical.
If the pull to the item is too strong, pencil it in for your following budgetary review with the promise that if you can fit it in, you can have it. By the time the review comes around, the allure of the item might have broken, and you can move on without it.
Another handy tactic is the tried-and-true method of research. If there is something, you think you need or that a company is offering, look at all the companies offering it. Read reviews and watch videos to decide which is right for you. This method also lets other people give in to the emotional spending work in your favour. If someone bought the item and then regretted it, chances are they left a review online. Follow them up to see if what is marketing to you is right for you.
Hopefully, these tips and tricks will help you recognise and combat emotional spending. However, if you still feel like you need an expert hand to guide you through the financial mazes of life, our team of experts are ready to help. You can contact them here.
