Retail Ninja Mind Trick #4: Habituation

Most of our purchases are mindless and habit-based rather than mindful and considered. Therefore, branded products companies know that once they've got us habitually buying their products, well, they've got us.

In prior posts here at Casual Kitchen, I've talked about how easy it is for consumers to settle into buying a specific brand of each of the various products they use.

And it's totally okay to settle into some habitual purchasing decisions. Honestly, if we spent time deeply considering every purchase, we'd never make it out of the grocery store. I'd still be in there deciding between 45 brands of shampoo. And I don't even have that much hair.

The problem is, if we are too habit-based, the company behind that brand can easily take advantage of us. They can put in stealth price hikes that we don't notice. They can gradually raise the price of their brand until it reaches a premium far beyond what it's really worth. Heck, they can stop making their product entirely and choose to outsource that product to the same factory that makes the nearly identical generic brand sitting next to it on the store shelf.

Over the course of a lifetime, a pattern of habitual and passive purchasing decisions will needlessly separate us from thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of our hard-earned dollars. That's why from time to time it's an excellent practice to reconsider the value of each of the brands you buy. An empowered consumer will occasionally look over the prices of competing products--including store brands--and ask: does the brand I normally buy provide value to me commensurate with any premium in price?

If it doesn't, you know exactly what to do: Drop that brand instantly.

One final thought: the laughably pretentious assumption that certain brands "say something about us" is just another form of habituation. It is also, coincidentally, deeply in the interests of consumer products companies for us to think this way.

After all, being pretentious can be habit-forming too.

Next up: Value and Discounting Biases


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If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retail Ninja Mind Trick #3: False Comparisons and False Expertise

When making major purchases, we often make false comparisons or fixate on irrelevant details and distinctions.

Imagine wandering into your local Best Buy to look at new televisions. What information will help you make the best decision?

Well, once you're in the store, there's an entire encyclopedic universe of things to know: Plasma, LCD, or projection? Which aspect ratio should I pick? What resolution do I need? Is the 70-inch screen best, or should I go big-time and get the 126-incher? Is the contrast ratio going to be high enough? The store's incredibly helpful salespeople will patiently answer all of our questions and share all sorts of information.

But this is all proxy information, obscuring a much more important fact that is completely counter to your interests as a consumer. No one in this store is going to help you decide whether to buy a TV.

Instead, we learn about differences that make no difference. The salesperson can tell us about some quantum color adjustment feature that makes the Panasonic TV's picture better than the Sony's picture. We never knew this difference existed, and quite frankly it matters only in a direct side-by-side comparison in the store. And of course once we get our new TV into our living room, any specific visual memory we might have of that difference will fade, replaced by vague self-reinforcing thoughts like, "Oh, yeah, the picture on the Panasonic was way better."

And yet this might very well be the key deciding factor on which TV we choose. Hey, it seemed really important at the time.

Buried in here is the fact that all these seemingly important distinctions displace questions that actually are important: Do I really need a new TV in the first place? Is this TV really going to be that much better than the three TVs I already own? Or most fundamentally of all: Does watching TV at all add any value to my life?

One final point. If you:

1) fancy yourself an expert on the subtleties of large screen TVs,
2) deeply understand the various moisture-wicking properties of Under Armour vs. Nike vs. lululemon sportwear,
3) are conversant in the key distinctions between iPhones, Blackberrys and Droids,
4) have an intimate understanding of whether oak, bamboo, cork or vinyl is a superior flooring material,
5) have mastered the use of the iPad and all of its subtleties,
etc.,
etc.,
etc.,

Then I have question for you:

Are these things that you know actually important?

Nope. Instead, an entire universe of knowledge has been created for you--in order to make you more ignorant.

Next up: Habituation


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retail Ninja Mind Trick #2: Hedonic Adjustment

Once you "get used" to luxury products and luxury brands, you're finished. Also, our joy in new purchases quickly wears off.

When I was growing up, I used to think that Hershey's chocolate was good stuff. Of course, once I discovered Lindt dark chocolate, well, the rest was history. I never went back.

Likewise, once I discovered Ben & Jerry's ice cream, I just couldn't go back to that old Sealtest brand my family ate back when I was a kid.

Now, most of you would argue that the incremental costs of good chocolate and good ice cream are minimal, and it's worth it to pay up for good stuff. I suspect most of you would also qualify that statement by saying "it's worth it--up to a point."

Which brings us to big-ticket and huge-ticket items. A simple and particularly expensive example: The difference between a high-end car and a regular, good-quality Honda can mean tens of thousands of dollars' worth of incremental payments over that car's loan period. And if you start buying high-end luxury cars early on in your life, you'll most likely "never go back"--just like I never went back to Sealtest ice cream.

Therefore, practicing this particular form of hedonic adjustment over the course of your entire driving life can mean pissing away several hundred thousand dollars.

That's why I feel pity and compassion when I see a twenty-something driving an expensive car. A young person who's hedonically adjusted to a high-end car will never be able to backtrack. To him, the idea of driving a Honda for seven years instead of leasing a new BMW every 24 months would be laughable. And vaguely humiliating.

And it should be no surprise that this bias plays right into the hands of the auto industry--and it will separate this poor kid from a substantial portion of his life's personal wealth.

It gets worse. The pleasure we get from making new purchases tends to wear off very quickly. Which, conveniently, makes us want to buy still more stuff. Thus not only has our hypothetical BMW driver hedonically adjusted to his high-quality car, he's also hedonically adjusted to the idea of paying for a new one on a regular basis.

And he doesn't know it yet, but he's also adjusting to an entire universe of other expensive purchases that he'll need to make in order to have an internally consistent lifestyle. An automotive Diderot Effect, if you will.

Normally, I'd encourage readers to reconsider the nature of the "happiness" they get from many of these purchases in the first place. You know intellectually that it's not real happiness, and you know, thanks to hedonic adjustment, that it can't last. So why do we make these purchases in the first place?

It's easy for CK readers to think through this question carefully and consistently, because they value their wallets over voracious consumerism. But have you talked about this subject with normal, regular people? These questions and these ideas draw at best uncomprehending stares--and at worst viscerally negative reactions. Quite frankly, it's a question the average person can't really process.

Why? Because--once again--buried deeply within these ideas is a tacit understanding that the traditional, modern, urbane consumerist life is fundamentally... empty.

Nobody likes being told they live a fundamentally empty life. Yeah. Better not think about that. Hey, why not go buy a little something to brighten my day instead?

Next up: False Comparisons and False Expertise


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. Each Retro Sundays column serves up a selection of the best articles from this week in history here at Casual Kitchen.

As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Avoiding the "Yes, But" Vortex (August 2010)
Where I discuss an important complaint script that repeatedly shows up in reader comments--not just here at CK, but in almost all food blogs. I was extremely proud of this post, and writing helped me process and organize a lot of my own thinking about the psychology of excuse-making.

A Question of Food Quality (August 2009)
When I wrote my highly controversial post Guess What? We Spend Less Then Ever on Food, one reader suggested that the quality of food today is meaningfully worse than it was in our grandparents' era. What's your take?

Spreading the New Frugality: A Manifesto (August 2009)
If there was ever a time for the frugal lifestyle to go viral, with all of the financial and environmental side benefits that accrue with it, it's right now. This post is even more relevant today than when it first ran back in '09.

Sauteed Penne with Broccoli and Chickpeas (August 2008)
A quick, delicious and healthy meal, perfect for when you don't have time to cook. With a bit of practice you make it in under 20 minutes.

Doing Your Favorite Thing: How to Spend Exactly the Right Amount of Money For an Important Celebration (August 2008)
Have you ever noticed how there's often a shockingly low correlation between what you spend on celebrating something and the actual value you get from that celebration? One of my early efforts at exploring mindful consumption here at CK.

Cajun Meatloaf (August 2007)
Once you try this recipe, from my all-time favorite Cajun-Creole cookbook, you'll look at meatloaf in a whole new way. Possibly the single least healthy recipe in all of CK's Recipe Index, but also one of the most profoundly delicious.





How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday August 5, 2011

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
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Breaking down the dumbest myths of organic farming. (Scientific American) Bonus Posts: Histrionic and defensive responses, respectively, from Mother Jones and Grist.

How to grow amazing herbs for next to nothing. (A Little Bit Of Spain In Iowa)

What to expect when you try to pass a soda tax law. Read critically. (Accidental Hedonist)

Think you're helping by eating only the "correct" fish? Think again. (New York Magazine)

Recipe Links:
Perfect for using up all that fresh in-season produce: Garden Vegetable Chili. (Make and Takes, via Cafe Johnsonia)

Hilariously easy: Spicy Roasted Chickpeas. (Chow and Chatter)

Make your own perfect Homemade Pickles! (Foodie With Family)

Off-Topic Links:
How to live on practically nothing. Please check your excuses at the door. (WikiHow)

An oblivious Iowa town shuts down a little girl's lemonade stand because she hadn't obtained a permit and a health inspection. (The Blaze)

What is "intermittent reinforcement" and why does it annihilate our creativity and productivity? (Jonathan Fields)


Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retail Ninja Mind Trick #1: Association

Retailers create powerful and artificial associations for us--without us even knowing it.

Why do 50-something men buy red sports cars? Why do 30-something women buy $1,000 pairs of shoes? And why do teenagers demand a specific brand of clothes and refuse to wear anything else?

Because these products and these brands somehow make us feel a certain way. A red sports car symbolizes youth, vitality and hair. A pair of $1,000 shoes symbolizes sexiness, strength--and bunion surgery. A certain brand of jeans can be the difference between a teenager sitting with the cool kids and sitting with the band geeks (extra credit for any reader who can guess which group I sat with).

But why do these things carry powerful associations? They're just things, right? How is that they can make us feel anything?

Well, partly, it's because life as we know it is kind of ... empty. We have to work really hard to make life meaningful, and because most of us spend almost all of our time looking after our stuff, our careers, our mortgages and our kids, there's so little time left over that many of us find ourselves taking shortcuts to a meaningful and happy life. So we buy things that represent "meaning" to us.

But here's the thing: who decides these associations? Who creates them and who gives them meaning--to the point where people will even choose their friends based on a brand of pants?

Hint: if you actually think you decide, you're already doomed. Don't bother reading any more of this series.

Next up: Hedonic Adjustment


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

How to Defeat the Retail Industry's Ninja Mind Tricks

If there's one truth about humanity, it's this: we are products of cognitive and psychological bias. And our biases often trip up our minds in unexpected and costly ways.

And it's funny: by some odd coincidence, certain industries--namely, the retail industry, the consumer products industry and the food industry--have become exceptionally skilled at using our own worst biases against us.

It turns out that this highly convenient "coincidence" not only affects our consumption decisions, it also directly affects our financial wealth, our perceived status among our peers, even our personal happiness and satisfaction with our lives.

If we let it, of course.

That's why empowered consumers must have some working knowledge of the most common forms of cognitive and psychological bias. More importantly, we should also understand exactly how these biases are used by marketers and advertisers when they sell us the stuff we buy.

As consumers, we have an obligation to fight back and think for ourselves, rather than allow ourselves to be misled. And in this upcoming post series, I'm going to walk through several of the most important biases we face as consumers. Biases that cause us to spend more of our hard-earned money than we want to, that cause us to misjudge value, or that cause us to take action when we shouldn't.

A quick side-note to readers: This post was originally a 4,000-word monstrosity that would have shattered all records at Casual Kitchen for post length. That was before I decided to have mercy on my readers and break it down into a multi-part series. Just be warned that for the next couple of weeks the post frequency will increase to two articles a week, with a new post running every Tuesday and an extra post on Wednesday. As always, I live for your comments and feedback.

Finally, I invite you to share how you've learned to counteract each of the biases we discuss. What ideas and solutions work best for you? By sharing your thoughts on any of the upcoming posts, you too can help the thousands of readers here at CK become more savvy and more aware consumers.

Tomorrow I'll start with a brief post on the most subversive (and expensive) bias of all: Association.

Finally, here's the entire archive of articles in this series:

Retail Ninja Mind Trick #1: Association
Retail Ninja Mind Trick #2: Hedonic Adjustment
Retail Ninja Mind Trick #3: False Comparisons and False Expertise
Retail Ninja Mind Trick #4: Habituation
Retail Ninja Mind Trick #5: Value and Discounting Biases
Retail Ninja Mind Trick #6: Rationalization and Justification
Retail Ninja Mind Trick #7: False Urgency
Retail Ninja Mind Tricks: Conclusions


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!