The Hidden Reality Behind Spectacular Discounts
Advertising offers with exaggerated percentages flood physical and digital stores, creating a false sense of urgency and unique opportunity among shoppers 🛍️.
Psychological Mechanisms of Deceptive Marketing
Commercial tactics rely on showing the maximum discount applicable, even if it only affects testimonial products with minimal stock. The rest of the catalog maintains nearly original prices with insignificant reductions between 5% and 15%.
Key elements of this strategy:- Announcement of the highest possible discount percentage as the main hook
- Extreme limitation of available units for star products
- Compensation with high margins on items with minimal discounts
Once inside the store, the consumer ends up buying less discounted products to justify the time spent on the visit
Consequences on Customer Perception
Shoppers invest effort examining promotions and traveling to physical stores with inflated expectations from manipulative advertising. Upon discovering the deception, negative emotions and distrust toward the company arise.
Documented negative impacts:- Immediate frustration when verifying the real conditions of the offers
- Growing skepticism toward future promotional campaigns
- Progressive deterioration of the brand-consumer relationship
Paradoxes of Contemporary Consumption
It is curious to observe how the super-discounted item is always sold out when the customer arrives, while alternatives with barely advantageous prices abound. This commercial magic consists of convincing you that you missed the opportunity of the year, while you acquire products you initially had not considered buying 🤔.