Demand Curve - Growth Newsletter #228

The Growth Newsletter #228

Why you buy sh*t you don't need

I hope your inbox and credit card survived the onslaught of BFCM madness.

On our end, our UNIGNORABLE Cyber Funday sold out in 3 minutes! 🤯

Given this, I thought it would be fitting to share a piece I wrote about the clever techniques companies use to convince you to buy things you don't need.

Because they also work to sell legitimately good products.

Let's dive in 🐧

– Neal

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Why you buy sh*t you don't need

Insight from Neal's Newsletter.

We’ve all bought something we shouldn’t have.

Especially during Black Friday & Cyber Monday 👀

Whether from an Instagram ad, a late-night infomercial, a BFCM promo email, a knee-jerk purchase at a store (possibly due to some sales pressure), or a significant purchase we’ve spent weeks considering.

We’ve all dropped our hard-earned cash on dumb sh*t.

Here I analyze 6 ways that companies get you to buy sh*t you don't need.

(Or... 6 ways you can get people to buy legitimately good products.)

Painkillers and Vitamins

First, let's go over the two fundamental types of products:

• Painkillers
• Vitamins

If you have a splitting headache, and you're in the desert, and someone has a painkiller—you'd be willing to pay an irrational amount for it.

And you won't need convincing. You'll understand the benefits immediately.

Because you’re actively feeling the pain it relieves.

“Get rid of my f*cking headache!”*

You'll buy a painkiller when the time comes.

And you’ll curse that you didn’t have any on hand for this moment.

The critical thing for Advil and Tylenol is ensuring they're the brand you reach for at the drugstore. They do that through branding and lots of ads.

And through clever positioning.

"Back painkillers” have the same ingredients as "headache painkillers," but if your back hurts, guess which one you’re reaching for.

I wrote about this phenomenon back in Newsletter #133.

On the other hand, you don't NEED a vitamin.

You also can't feel the benefits (if there are any).

Instead, people have been convinced of the narrative that taking vitamins will make them live longer and healthier lives. It may be accurate, but it’s still a narrative that needs to be sold to them and keep being sold to them because they cannot feel the benefits in the short term.

Most products are vitamins.

You don’t NEED them to solve a horrible and debilitating pain right this second.

These six tactics apply mainly to vitamins.

Read my breakdown of the clever ways AG1 has convinced people to spend ungodly amounts on their vitamins.

1. Time pressure

This is one of the most effective and most straightforward to use.

It’s simple. If someone feels rushed, they'll more easily part with their money.

Hence the effectiveness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

There are plenty of products that people might need, but just not right now. Or they don’t need them, but they think they might.

Time pressure helps push them over the hump to buy.

This is why sales are for a "limited time only." This is why Ticketmaster adds a countdown clock and says how many other people are looking at the event.

You feel pressured into making the decision faster.

And generally, a fast decision is in their favor, not yours.

2. FOMO or "Fear Of Missing Out"

Here, they convince you to take action because doing so will cause you to miss something exciting or important that will never happen agin

Or at least they make it seem exciting or important that will never happen again.

"Be there, or you'll miss Bill Gates leaping over a chair. Nothing will be recorded."

Who would want to miss that?

And yes, Bill Gates was known for jumping over desk chairs:

Candidly, I suspect that because this is the last cohort we're doing for UNIGNORABLE, it will likely sell the most. Even if we do nothing special to market it, the sheer fact that it's the last opportunity makes it more desirable.

3. Social proof

If you love and respect someone and you learn that they use a product, you're infinitely more likely to buy it.

Especially if you see them say how much they love it.

This is the whole point behind influencer marketing.

Social proof works whether they

• Actually love the product.
• Are friends of the owners.
• Were paid for the endorsement.

And, of course, even if it's not an influencer or celebrity, reviews and testimonials from everyday people are incredibly powerful.

We've consistently found that sharing the success stories of alumni of UNIGNORABLE is the number one driver of purchase intent.

4. It’s been engineered to be a habit

In Nir Eyal's Hooked, he talks about how companies turn vitamins into painkillers by making their product a habit.

For example, nobody needs to check TikTok or Instagram. But try taking a teenager's phone away for a weekend and see how they handle it.

Or remove a crypto trader’s ability to check the price of Bitcoin for a few hours (especially as it flirts with $100k).

They'll likely have a mental breakdown.

The companies have engineered their product to be the solution to a need. Often, the need to relieve negative feelings of boredom or anxiety.

That’s how they turn a vitamin (entertainment) into a painkiller (relieve anxiety).

5. Fear

If you don't take your daily vitamin, you will die earlier.

Or at least that's what the vitamin industry is getting at.

Another example:

Diamonds are more common than the price indicates. De Beers controlled the supply and launched the best marketing campaign in history.

"Diamonds are forever." 

Just like your marriage should be.

And the larger the diamond, the more you love them.

If the size and purity of your diamond are a reflection of the size and purity of your love, you better pay up, or you'll lose them forever.

This is how they created the convention of spending 2 months’ salary on a diamond ring that cost them a fraction to produce.

6. You’ve been sold a dream

A Rolex isn't 1,000x better at telling time than a Casio. But it costs that much more.

Rolex has positioned itself as the watch people wear when they've "made it." So when people earn lots of money and want to signal it, they drop 5-figs on a Rolex.

Google "rolex famous people" and you'll see some of the top male celebrities.

Rolex has worked for decades to ensure the biggest names wear Rolex to make people dream of owning one someday.

They want to make you feel like you can join an exclusive club with members like Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, James Bond, and Jay-Z.

It’s not just manipulations

Yes, these tactics are used every day to get people like you to buy sh*t they do not need at either inflated or deflated prices (depending if it’s BFCM sale or not).

However, they also work to convince people to buy or use legitimately useful products at fair prices.

Products that are good for humanity also need marketing.

In fact, they need better marketing because good is hard, and bad is easy.

So, use these tactics for good.

And try to resist when someone is using them on you for something that will not enrich your life.

Note: I originally wrote this piece on my personal Substack.

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Something fun

I hope all the Americans in the crowd had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.

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Thanks y'all!

Neal O'Grady

Justin Setzer