Oh, the backups you’ll buy!
A reflection on being susceptible to marketing tactics as a marketing professional
I’ve always loved the adrenaline rush that comes with making a purchase and receiving something I’ve wanted for a while. But over the past few years, as I’ve grown to learn more about commercialism and capitalism, I’ve taught myself how to control the urge to buy. Even with my personal growth, I’m consistently tempted by my favorite brands. These brands and their stellar marketing professionals somehow always find a way to reach me — if I unsubscribe to an email list, they text me instead. If I stop myself from going into the store, I get a mailer coupon.
As a communications professional, I know that consistency and the medium in which a message is given is critical to customer conversion, and we see ‘channel/medium’ in many communications theories. In my opinion, selecting the right channel to deliver a message, alongside the frequency of messaging, is arguably more important than the message itself. For example, personally, push notifications are an extremely effective form of marketing. If the notification or text alert tells me that a sale is going on, I’m more likely to click the link from my texts than search in an email or through organic searching online. I’m also susceptible to bandwagon trends — needing to be in the loop on all things in the industries and product categories that matter to me.
Let’s explore this further with a personal example. I spend an undisclosed amount of money on makeup. This is a love that I’ve had since I was in middle school, right at the time of the rise of the beauty influencer in the 2010s. These beauty influencers, very popular on YouTube, started the idea of a makeup “backup,” which means buying “backups” of product you use often so that when you run out, you already have one ready in your drawers. As you can predict, this thinking can cause extreme overspending, buying 5 “backup” lipsticks that you’ll never use. Many cosmetic brands send “backups” to influencers in PR packages who have expressed interest in their product, showing us that this wasn’t just an organic trend that came to fruition — it was born from a marketing strategy.
This need for backups was instilled in many of us young girls over and over again. YouTube isn’t a social media platform you visit once a month — most YouTube users use the platform every day. But this “I need to have it right now” sentiment isn’t just on YouTube and in the mouths of influencers. Commentary like this is heard in commercials, in magazines, in banner ads and just about anywhere that consumers are, too.
Even as a communications professional, I am not immune to marketing tactics and direct-to-consumer communications strategies that are rooted in bandwagon trends I am susceptible to. The definition of bandwagon is “attempting to convince people that everyone who is similar to them has accepted the idea,” and I feel this permeating through the content of the media and through influencers.
After writing this post, I feel silly stressing out over backups of lipsticks and perfumes. Maybe the key to breaking my consumerist habits is writing about them? Regardless, I know I can be tempted by the media and its influencers, and I hope to continue breaking the habit through uncovering the “why.”
