How Retailers Like Apple Mess With Our Senses to Boost Sales (Infographic) Retailers are tricky. When they play to our senses, they smell money.
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
The best ads and sales tactics -- the ones that move us to get up, go out and buy something -- are a feast for the senses. And that's no accident. It's a ploy, in every sense.
Retailers, and the marketers who promote them, are master manipulators. They toy with our delicate senses -- smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch -- to have their way with us, all the way to the checkout.
Related: When Designing a Logo, First Comes Personality, Then Color
While sight is typically the strongest draw for consumers (specifically the sight of color, especially red), smell is also a powerful lure, a fact that's not lost on brick-and-mortar retailers. For example, Bloomingdales pumps different scents into different sections of its department stores to enhance the shopping experience -- and, more importantly, sales. The tropical scent of coconut wafts in its swimwear section, the gentle aroma of baby powder in infant wear and the sweet bouquet of lilac in lingerie.
Apple is more touchy-feely. The iconic computer giant displays sample products in clever, carefully plotted ways that tempt shoppers to reach out and play with them. Before each meticulously uncluttered Apple store opens, employees tilt Macbook screens open to a seductive perfect viewing angle of 70 degrees. It's not a coincidence. It's an effective sales tactic or Apple wouldn't bother.
Related: How a Warm Drink and a Hard Chair Can Improve Negotiating
Meanwhile, studies show that offering customers a soft, cozy chair to kick back in can improve negotiations in ways that favor retailers. Comfort is key to establishing brand trust and brand trust often leads to sales.
To see even more sneaky sensory tricks retailers use to woo us into to opening our minds and wallets, feast your eyes on the AlternativesFinder.com infographic below:
Click to Enlarge+
Related: The Scent of Abercrombie Stores Is Giving Shoppers Serious Anxiety
