What's Your Klout Score?

Klout is a measurement tool that accesses your social media accounts and precisely calculates how influential you are in the internet world. It provides you with a number between 0-100, 0 being no presence at all, and 100 being a massive online influence. The average Klout score is about 40.

Barack Obama with a score of 99, Bieber with a score of 92, and Zooey Deschanel with a score of 86.

Klout created a new product called Klout for Business, where companies can identify customers with high Klout scores to try and spread WOM (Word of Mouth) business. Cue in Brand Ambassadors. 

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Celebrities very often have higher Klout scores than your average social media guru. The larger the following the higher the score is more likely to be. Companies focus in on these individuals to be brand ambassadors by posting on social media about their products. 

Image courtesy of Adidas




Companies will pay big money for these celebrity endorsements. It is a worthy investment. The amount of impressions that an ambassador with over 7 million followers can rake in a large amount of sales or inquiries at the least.

Take Out The Trash

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How to dispose a product is just as important as a decision as buying something in the first place. As global and environmental affairs have been brought more to light in the recent years, consumers are becoming concerned of  their impact that their waste is having on the world. 

Images courtesy of The Daily Mail

Companies have adapted their products accordingly, to fit the wants of the consumer to purchase a more Earth-friendly product.

We have seen these environmentally friendly changes within our lifetime. Even with Chicago just implementing their plastic bag tax at grocery stores is a step in the right direction to encourage consumers to use reusable bags. This small change in a big city like Chicago has the potential to make a great impact.

Image courtesy of Viktor Fiker

fast pollution facts:

• Americans generate 30 billion foam cups, 220 million tires, and 1.8 billion disposable diapers every year, according to the Green Schools Alliance.
• Pollution in China can change weather patterns in the United States. It takes just five days for the jet stream to carry heavy air pollution from China to the United States, where it stops clouds from producing rain and snow.
• About 56 percent of the trash in the United States is put in landfills. Half of landfill space consists of paper. Recycling just 1 ton of paper can save 3 cubic feet of space, according to the EPA.

The 3 Deciding Factors

There are three categories of consumer decision making: cognitive, habitual, and affective. The amount of thought we put into product purchasing varies widely from consumer to consumer. The way that we evaluate and and choose products depends on the degree of novelty or risk relation to the decision. Some purchases are an automatic occurrence, while others consider great thought and are far and few between.

Example of a cognitive purchase decision:

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A cognitive purchase is deliberate, rational, and sequential. The purchase of a television set is usually one that is thought out, informed, and for reason.

Example of a habitual purchase decision:

A habitual purchase is one of habit. It is behavioral, unconscious, and automatic. There is low consumer involvement. If bread, milk, and eggs are a staple on your grocery list you will purchase them frequently with not much regard. 

Image courtesy of  Robin Miller Cooks

Example of an affective purchase decision:

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Affective purchases are emotional and instantaneous. A consumer could pass an ice cream store, they could associate ice cream with happiness, and purchase a cone to fulfill that emotion.

Fear Based Marketing - Does it work?

Marketers used fear-based advertising to provoke a feeling in consumers, to sway them towards a perspective of thinking, whether it be positive or negative. Using the attitude toward the act of buying model, rather than the attitude toward the product itself, marketers can focus on a particular perceived consequence (or lack there of) a purchase of a product.

Image courtesy of Asia Injury Prevention Foundation

Image courtesy of WWF.org

This image, taken from the text is

trying to persuade consumers to wear

a helmet when riding a bike or motorcycle, 

an easily preventable injury with severe

 consequences. This "what-if" tactic 

triggers a response emotion in consumers.

Trees are the lungs of the Earth, they provide oxygen and are essential to survival. The WWF is showing that we are slowly eating away at the organs of mother earth, encouraging consumers to go green.





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A popular fear-based ad campaign is the anti-smoking ads. Smoking has been on the overall decline since the 60's, and between adults and students since the mid-90's.

Image courtesy of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Cigarette warning labels were introduced in the 60's, hence the reason for the sharp decline. Anti-cigarette ads would be a prime example of how marketing can sway opinions and expose the harmfulness that smoking entails.

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The Ideals of Beauty

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The ideals of beauty play a very large role in influencing how consumers decide what to purchase. We are all subjected to stereotypes, whether it be based on gender, affluence, race, etc. Marketers influence children from a very young age in how they are supposed to look and act. 

Beauty, however, varies from country to country, and changes over time. A more robust figure in Spain and Columbia is more attractive than the stereotypical model that the USA would find attractive.

The way that we carry ourselves varies tremendously and the changing beauty industry will likely never stop looking for the next big trend. Marketers are able to capitalize on these trends and influence buyer decisions. If beauty is constantly changing, we as marketers will be able to profit off of the forever evolving beauty market. 

Image courtesy of Daily Mail

Ads: They Speak To You

Maslow's hierarchy of needs developed this pyramid in search of understanding how the consumer works. His discoveries say that in order to move up on the pyramid, one must be fulfilled in the prior levels. 

Marketers tap into this psychological behavior to try and focus on how they can help (or persuade) the consumer that buying their product will come with many benefits to help them fulfill their needs. It has it's limits however, it is solely based on Western culture so it may not have a large international impact.


Here is an example of an ad for each level of Maslow's Hierarchy:

Dasani taps into your physiological needs.

The Salvation Army addresses safety. 

Belong to the beginning of digital music.

This van will fulfill all of your egotistical needs.

YOUR story starts here. 



All images courtesy of Google Images.

Subliminal Advertising: does it work?

Subliminal advertising is a method of promotion that is meant to influence consumer's responses using images, sounds, and other various techniques without them being conscious of it.

Here's a famous example:

In 1957, a market researcher named James Vicary flashed the words "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" onto a drive-in movie theater.

The words appeared for only one single frame, not long enough for the conscious mind to be aware of it, but long enough for the subconscious to take it in. Supposedly this subliminal ad increased sales by 20% for Coke, and 60% for popcorn. 

That is a massive spike.

However, it was a hoax. But more recent experiments have shown that subliminal messages can affect behavior, in a smaller way. 

Image courtesy of businessinsider.com

The Pediatric Association Says That Coca-Cola Is Not Correlated To Childhood Obesity

Coca-cola had conducted and funded a study in 2015 done by the Pediatric Association Academy. They donated millions of dollars and essentially bought scientific results from the Academy. After the research was conducted, the PAA released a public statement saying that Coca-cola's products, soft drinks, do not contribute to childhood obesity. Trying to grow their profits, Coke wanted to promote healthy living by pairing with the PAA. By 2015, the average consumer, who is well informed, is aware that soft drinks are bad for health. However, Coke still has a social and ethical responsibility to tell the truth to the public, instead of buying research from credible medical associations. After this data was released, the Pediatric Association ended its partnership with Coke, but what is only because of the outlash of these obviously biased results? It seems that even the health of a nation can have a price tag put on it.

Demographics and the Informed Consumer

Consumers are more informed than ever. With technology they can access almost anything they'd like to know. How aware, or interested, are they in knowing how they are monitored and categorized by marketers and corporations? We use factors such as: age, gender, family structure, social class, income, race and ethnicity, the list goes on. The average consumer would probably declare this as big corporations just wanting information about their customers for their own benefit, but consumers don't realize how much power they have. Demographics are essential to marketing; to entice the consumer into buying our product is the ultimate goal. When all of this information is analyzed by marketers, the consumer will have exactly what they want and need.