The psychology of how brands influence you

0:00 Companies spend billions of dollars every year

0:02 to manipulate your psychology so you feel desire, loyalty, and urgency.

0:07 All in an effort to get you to buy more stuff.

0:10 This isn't a conspiracy.

0:11 It's [music] not even a secret.

0:12 These are strategies shared in boardrooms,

0:14 bragged about in tech offices, and liked on LinkedIn.

0:17 Brands hide their true intentions from you through a slight of hand.

0:21 They seamlessly blend into culture, track your every move,

0:24 and hit you with relentless messaging.

0:26 Every word, every image,

0:28 and every offer is tested and optimized to get you to buy [music] more.

0:32 And the more I looked into it,

0:33 the more I realized how sophisticated it's gotten.

0:37 This video is sponsored by Surf Shark.

0:39 I'll share more about how they can help to keep your data private later.

0:42 If there's one thing I want to get across from the very beginning, it's this.

0:45 Don't be fooled by what companies say they value.

0:48 It's all [music] about the money.

0:50 They'll claim their mission is to make the world a better place,

0:53 to empower creativity, or to build a community.

0:56 We're a company that focuses on connecting people.

1:01 Let's be real, that's just the message they want you to hear.

1:04 The truth is much simpler and far less romantic.

1:07 They don't want to empower creativity.

1:09 They want more people to make free content for them.

1:11 They don't want to build a community.

1:13 They want loyal customers that keep coming back.

1:15 They don't want to make the world a better place.

1:17 They want you to buy more, more often, and without thinking too hard about it.

1:21 The business model is simple.

1:23 Capture your attention, shape your perception, [music] and turn it into profit.

1:27 This doesn't mean that every company is inherently

1:29 bad or that every advertising strategy [music] is evil.

1:32 It's just the nature of capitalism.

1:34 Maximizing profit is the goal,

1:37 and it's the same story we've seen played out for decades,

1:39 except now companies are getting smarter, using more sophisticated tools,

1:43 and making it so much harder for you to resist.

1:46 One of the oldest tricks in the books is for brands to get you to like them,

1:50 to build genuine affinity and trust.

1:52 And it all starts with branding.

1:55 Most people today are savvy enough to know that branding isn't just a logo,

1:58 colors, or style guide.

2:00 It's carefully engineered storytelling.

2:02 Because advertising doesn't just [music] sell products, it sells values.

2:07 Martin Lindström, marketing insider and author

2:09 of the New York Times bestselling book Biology, says,

2:12 "Brands that create an emotional connection to consumers

2:15 are much stronger than those that don't.

2:18 It's as simple and complicated as that." Luxury car

2:21 commercials don't talk about gas mileage or safety ratings.

2:25 They show you freedom, success, power.

2:28 Even everyday products like deodorant or shampoo are

2:31 pitched as the key to being a better,

2:32 more authentic, or morally ethical version of yourself.

2:36 And you know what?

2:38 It really works.

2:40 Brands invest millions into crafting their image, refining their message,

2:44 and building an identity that speaks to you.

2:46 Because they know it's going to help bypass rational evaluation.

2:50 You don't buy a new car because you compared every spec.

2:53 You buy it because you want it to say something about who you are.

2:56 Think about it.

2:57 If you remove the logos from three popular running sneakers,

3:01 most people, aside from sneaker heads, would struggle to tell them apart.

3:04 When so many sneakers use the same materials, shapes,

3:08 and manufacturing processes, it's the brand that makes the difference.

3:12 This was made very clear in a 2018 stunt by the budget footwear company Payless.

3:16 Amid dropping sales and on the verge of bankruptcy, Payless took a big swing.

3:21 They secretly took over the lease of an old Armani store

3:24 in Santa Monica and turned it into a fake luxury boutique called Paylessi.

3:29 The pop-up shop was extravagant and next to some

3:31 of the most expensive retailers here on Third Street Prominade,

3:35 they had the same 20 to $40 shoes on the shelves,

3:38 but with fancy lighting, minimalist displays,

3:40 and high-end tags that went up to $600.

3:43 They invited fashion influencers to the launch party, and [music] it worked.

3:47 People raved about the quality, the design, and how premium it all felt.

3:51 Within hours, Payless sold thousands of dollars worth of inventory,

3:55 beautifully demonstrating the power of branding and how

3:58 emotional storytelling can shift your perception of a product.

4:01 And no, the irony doesn't fail me that this itself was

4:03 a clever marketing stunt by a company looking to sell more shoes.

4:06 Brands have smartened up a lot over the years.

4:08 They know it's much easier to tap into your current

4:11 emotions and behaviors than to fundamentally change your beliefs.

4:15 This is one of Ram's most recent commercials.

4:18 Americans, we can do anything we want except one thing.

4:24 We just can't stop being American.

4:27 If you were to reverse engineer this ad back to its origins,

4:31 you'd probably end up in a room with a handful of brand and marketing experts.

4:34 [music] This is where it all begins.

4:36 It's their job to figure out how to make people want a Ram truck.

4:39 And they don't just come up with this stuff out [music] of nowhere.

4:41 It's not based on their own intuition or feelings.

4:43 They look at their competitors,

4:45 panalyze [music] the cultural climate, and study their target audience.

4:48 Learning, among other things, that conservative Americans see the US

4:51 as the greatest country [music] in the world.

4:53 Even though among high-income nations,

4:54 it ranks 33rd in infant mortality, 20th in education, 40th in life expectancy,

4:58 and has one of the worst healthare systems in the world.

5:00 But facts don't sell trucks, feelings do.

5:03 So these brand experts decide that they want

5:05 to harness the feeling of America is number one.

5:08 After months of research, meetings, script revisions, production schedules,

5:12 and expensive shoots, this is what you get.

5:15 Americans, we [music] can do anything we want except one thing.

5:21 Lower the [music] rates of infant mortality.

5:23 If you're anything like me,

5:24 you watch this commercial and see it as completely absurd,

5:27 out of touch, and embarrassing.

5:29 Like one YouTube comment put [music] it,

5:31 "The ad feels like a Grand Theft

5:32 Auto parody commercial." But if that's the case,

5:35 if that's how you feel, it's just because you aren't the target audience.

5:38 They're not talking [music] to you.

5:40 They're talking directly to the person who

5:41 wants to believe America is number one,

5:43 who wants to see themselves as tough, rebellious, free, and proudly patriotic.

5:48 They're saying, "If you want to feel like a real American,

5:51 then buy a Ram." It's not telling you what to value.

5:54 It's figuring out how you think, feel,

5:56 and behave, and selling your values back to you.

5:59 This commercial is just one very small example

6:01 of how brands show up in the world.

6:03 15 to 30 second commercials or TVC's

6:06 as the industry calls them are starting to take

6:08 a backseat to even more subtle and effective

6:10 messaging in the form of organic content,

6:13 email marketing campaigns, user generated content,

6:16 and my favorite, comment marketing.

6:18 Microsoft Burger King, Gatorade, and others use the comment section as another

6:22 touch point in their marketing [music] strategy.

6:24 With speed, wit, and originality,

6:26 they drop into conversations to show the world,

6:28 hey, [music] I'm a multinational corporation just like you.

6:31 I mean person.

6:32 I'm a person just like you.

6:34 Every component a brand is sending, every signal it sends,

6:38 any interaction you have with a brand is a brand.

6:42 The most effective brands in the world

6:44 are masters at storytelling across every medium.

6:47 Wendy's reinvented itself from just another fast

6:50 food chain into the internet's snarky [music] friend.

6:52 Liquid Death is literally just water in a can,

6:55 but its content makes you feel rebellious and irreverent.

6:58 And if you feel the urge to jump to the defense of any of your favorite brands,

7:02 that's most likely because their marketing worked on you.

7:05 Look, it would be pretty one-dimensional to just sit here and say, "Brands bad,

7:08 marketing bad." Plenty of companies out there

7:11 offer products and services that genuinely add value.

7:14 We need razors to shave and jackets to stay warm.

7:17 And even beyond the basics, there's nothing wrong with wanting a new

7:20 pair of sunglasses or noise cancelling headphones.

7:22 But if you're someone who's trying to make more intentional

7:24 decisions about how you spend your time and your money,

7:27 if you don't like being deceived into wanting things you don't need,

7:30 or if you've felt buyer's remorse more times than you'd like to admit,

7:33 the problem isn't you.

7:35 At the end of the day, people know that they're being sold to all the time.

7:39 But what most people don't realize is

7:41 just how calculated and manipulative it's become.

7:44 And at its worst, it crosses a line to being completely unethical.

7:48 Out of all the advancements in marketing,

7:50 the sophistication of tracking and targeting has arguably made the biggest

7:54 impact on what you buy and why you buy it.

7:56 And Facebook propelled this to an entirely new level.

7:59 People started sharing personal information in a way they never had before.

8:03 Suddenly, advertisers didn't have to guess who you were or what you cared about.

8:08 They had it all in a neat little profile volunteered by you.

8:11 Today, datadriven advertising has gotten so good,

8:14 it often knows what you want before you do.

8:16 As far back as 2015, advertisers were implementing haptic targeting,

8:20 picking up on your phone sensors and physical cues to understand what

8:24 you're doing and then using that data to sell things to you.

8:27 So, if your phone detects that you're running,

8:29 you might start seeing ads for a sports drink.

8:31 Or perhaps you just dropped your phone.

8:33 What a perfect time to send you an ad for a rugged phone case.

8:36 One of the most common forms of advanced targeting is called microargeting,

8:40 and it's used by virtually every big brand today.

8:42 Instead of blasting everyone with the same generic ad,

8:46 microtargeting allows brands to send specific messages

8:49 to different audience segments [music] like new parents,

8:51 anxious college students, or luxury shoppers.

8:54 These narrow groups are defined by shared behaviors,

8:57 interests, demographics, and even emotional triggers.

9:00 Exactly how messed up does this kind of targeting get?

9:03 In April 2016, a leaked internal document revealed that Facebook was offering

9:07 advertisers the ability to target 13 to 17 year olds on its platforms,

9:11 [music] including Instagram,

9:13 specifically during moments of psychological vulnerability.

9:16 That meant serving ads when teenagers felt quote unquote worthless,

9:21 insecure, anxious, or stupid.

9:23 They even identified moments when teens were worried about body confidence,

9:28 making them prime targets for products promising a fix.

9:31 Sarah Win Williams spent years inside Facebook

9:33 as the director of global public policy

9:36 and revealed in her book Careless People how

9:38 manipulative and destructive this kind of targeting got.

9:41 The company is is always trying to push further and further

9:45 in the tools it develops to [music] meet what advertisers want.

9:50 In one example, she describes how Facebook would

9:52 retarget teenagers who had just deleted a selfie,

9:55 serving them beauty product ads at that exact moment.

9:58 In her book, she says, "There's a reason why you erase something from existence,

10:02 why a teen girl feels that it can't be shared,

10:05 and surely Facebook shouldn't then be using that moment to bombard

10:08 them with extreme weight loss ads or beauty industry ads or whatever

10:12 else they push on teens feeling vulnerable." The weird thing is

10:15 that the rest of our Facebook co-workers seemed unbothered about this.

10:19 It's very very hard to wrap your mind around the amount of data

10:24 [music] that this company has on each person who logs on to its service.

10:29 Don't let Mark Zuckerberg's rebrand fool you.

10:32 Changing his wardrobe doesn't change their business model.

10:34 According to Williams,

10:35 nothing at the company changed after these allegations were brought forth.

10:39 They simply put out a PR statement to help

10:41 repair their brand image and proceeded on business as usual.

10:45 So, adding a brand sponsorship into this video is a bold move.

10:50 Let's see how it plays out.

10:51 So, one of the main ways that I make

10:53 an income and invest back into my videos is through sponsorships.

10:57 And since I started over 10 years ago,

10:58 I've been very selective about the brands that I partner with.

11:01 I only recommend products and services that I

11:03 actually use myself and that I can vouch for.

11:06 That's why over the years, I've only worked with about a dozen or two brands,

11:09 and I say no to 99% of opportunities I get.

11:12 But Surf Shark is one of those rare companies that was an easy yes for me.

11:16 After years of being lazy and giving away my data,

11:19 I've started to get more serious about protecting it.

11:21 Surf Shark is a VPN that encrypts

11:23 your internet traffic and hides your IP address,

11:26 making it much harder for companies, trackers,

11:28 and even internet providers to watch what you're doing.

11:30 When everyone wants a piece of your data,

11:32 this is a very simple way to put more control in your hands.

11:36 Using Surf Shark can help reduce the amount of targeted ads you

11:39 see and push back against some of the psychological tricks brands use.

11:42 Additionally, Surf Shark offers practical benefits that go beyond basic privacy.

11:47 It can help you avoid price discrimination,

11:49 a shady practice where companies show higher prices based upon your location.

11:53 And it can also protect you on public Wi-Fi by encrypting your data,

11:56 making it much harder for hackers to intercept.

11:58 Go to surfark.com/mattavevela or use code mattavela at checkout

12:03 to get an extra 4 months of Surf SharkVPN.

12:05 And remember, when you use my link,

12:07 you're not only getting access to a great service,

12:09 but you're also helping to support this channel.

12:11 So, thanks for considering.

12:13 Here's the thing.

12:13 It's not just about finding you at one vulnerable moment.

12:17 Sure, it helps, but to really shape how you think about a brand or product,

12:21 they have to hit you again and again and again and again and again.

12:25 So, marketers have long known that one impression isn't enough.

12:29 The classic rule of thumb in advertising is seven touch points.

12:33 That's seven times to get into your head and eventually into your wallet.

12:36 This number goes up or down depending on a lot of factors,

12:40 but what brands know for certain is this.

12:42 They need to show up a lot to get [music] you primed to buy.

12:45 After all, you're a respectable consumer.

12:47 You're not going to let Apple you on the first date.

12:50 The most effective companies in the world have content creation engines,

12:54 both [music] paid and organic,

12:55 that continue to target you with brand messages through their sales funnels.

12:59 They are trying to drive you from awareness,

13:01 hearing about the product for the first time,

13:03 to conversion, making the purchase.

13:05 This is what it might look like.

13:07 You learn about a new energy drink in a viral stunt,

13:09 then hear about it from an influencer, spot [music] it in a paid Instagram ad,

13:13 catch it on a billboard, and finally,

13:15 you get a special offer in an email that's not so special at all.

13:18 In fact, it's an offer that they run 24/7

13:20 that really doesn't make it much of a discount at all

13:21 and more of a strategy to change your perception

13:23 of value and make you feel like you're getting a deal.

13:25 You click add to cart and get a sudden hit of dopamine.

13:29 You solved a problem.

13:30 You're trying something new.

13:31 You're a consumer.

13:32 What a rush.

13:33 The future of all these marketing strategies is [music] getting scary.

13:36 Instead of generic messaging or even

13:38 microtargeted messaging based on personality types,

13:41 brands are going to talk to you [music]

13:42 directly at an individual level with dynamic targeting.

13:45 Today, this marketing is still in its early stages and [music]

13:48 its applications are most often used with text and photo-based ads.

13:51 An online retailer can reserve the exact sweater [music]

13:54 that you added to your cart but didn't buy.

13:56 Or a travel site can show you flights to a city you just Googled.

13:59 With AI, the future of dynamic targeting is going to go even [music] further.

14:02 Imagine hyperpersonalized advertising for every

14:05 person connected to the internet.

14:07 5 billion different personality [music] profiles,

14:09 5 billion different ad campaigns, 5 billion different messages.

14:13 Brands will shift their messages subtly to speak directly to you,

14:17 your desires, your hopes, your fears, and your dreams.

14:20 [music] Instead of just changing a headline

14:22 or showing you a product you looked at once, AI is going to be able to generate

14:26 completely custom content [music] for you in real time.

14:29 Hey Matt, as an American man with a smaller than average penis,

14:34 you deserve more respect.

14:36 That's why you need a new Ram truck.

14:39 I mean, listen, I'm not a great marketer, but you can imagine how they'd use it.

14:42 Just because these tactics are widely used and highly

14:45 effective does not mean they are easy to implement.

14:48 Even the biggest brands in the world make mistakes or go bust.

14:51 But the ones that succeed have the deepest pockets

14:54 and [music] the most experienced marketers asking three main questions.

14:58 How can we turn this product or offering into a feeling?

15:01 How can we get as much data about our audience as possible?

15:04 And what's the precise message our audience needs to hear in what

15:07 order to get a sale with the least amount of money possible?

15:11 The winners answer these questions, break through to cultlike affection,

15:14 and create affinity with millions of people around the world.