What triggers impulse buying behaviour? - Bayleaf Global Digital
Have you ever looked at an ad or a webpage or a product and felt a strong and sudden desire to make a purchase? The instant-gratification of owning a product or experience becomes the goal and the outcome.
There’s a very real possibility that brands have tricked your brain into buying more. This is impulsive buying.
Impulsive buying is triggered by an irresistible desire to buy and an inability to evaluate its consequences. Impulse purchases occur when there is a strong and sudden emotional trigger, which arises from reactive behaviour. As consumers, we are confronted with various commercial stimuli that shape our choices. In this article we will explore the role of persuasive communication in a brand’s growth marketing strategy in order to trigger impulse buying.
But how does this work, and can it be engineered? Short answer: Yes! To answer this question at length let’s take a look at Dr Robert Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion.
As a salesman and later as a Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, Cialdini identified 6 key principles of persuasion that could trigger a person to take a desired action. These mechanisms are unconscious and significantly occur while we are making purchasing decisions. In 1984, he wrote the book ‘Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion’ which outlined six ways we humans are influenced – in both helpful and harmful ways. These were later popularly dubbed as Cialdini’s Six Principles.
These psychological principles are Reciprocation, Authority, Scarcity, Likability, Social Proof, Commitment and Consistency. More recently, he added a seventh principle, namely, Unity. While the applications of these principles are endless, read on to learn how they can be used in Marketing to communicate and engage with users to motivate them to make a purchase.
