15 Marketing Tricks & Fake Deals You Shouldn’t Fall For!

We all sometimes fall into the sticky web of fake offers while shopping and end up buying things we don’t want or need just because it’s “such a great deal”. They end up being false advertising and fake deals. Keep reading to find out what to look out for when shopping at the supermarket, the mall, or even going out for a meal.

1- Congratulations! You’ve won: but you must pay for shipping the gift, and in most cases the product is of poor quality, expired, or not useful to you and not necessary.

2- Supermarket offers: always check before you purchase the product because it can be nearing its expiration date or not useful for you.

3- Discounts in clothing stores: most of the time the discounts are on a few items while everything else in the store is sold at original price.

4- Read the fine print: sometimes the offer or discount is only applicable when you buy “X” number of the product but it is not clearly explained and you only discover this when you the check the bill.

5- Changing the placement of products in supermarket aisles: this is a marketing trick intended to make you move around more and see more products. You end buying much more than you intended and most of it not even on your grocery list.

Know which is the better option for you: Supermarkets vs. Shopping Applications, which is Cheaper?

6- Buy one, get one for free: this is a big marketing trap. In most cases the product is of low quality or the price of both is more expensive than normal, so you end up paying for both anyway.

7- Discount up to 50%: be careful that sometimes these items are flawed.

8- Because you are a valuable customer: …which is why we are giving you a 30% discount today. This is something we hear a lot don’t we?

9- Price change from 10 to 9.99: when prices end with odd numbers especially .99 sales increase dramatically even though the price is the same. It’s a psychological pricing tactic.

10- An expensive item in the menu: As for restaurants they will usually have one or two items that are much more expensive than the rest of the menu. The goal is not to get you to buy the expensive dishes, it is to make you feel that everything else on the menu is much cheaper in comparison. 

Use Faydety’s online restaurant bill splitting and tip calculator to calculate the tip and divide the bill between you and your companions for free.

11- Playing with emotions: many companies utilize this tactic to attract customers by hiring beloved celebrities as their spokespersons for example.

12- Fun/catchy advertising content: many times, you end up buying a product because the advertisement was very catchy or amusing, and in most of these cases you don’t really need this product or you find that it is overpriced.

13- Relaxing music: lets you calm down and improves your mood so end up spending more time shopping and as a result buying more.

14- Tricky phrases: such as last chance, limited quantity, or last piece in stock. They all make you feel like you are going to miss out on something amazing.

15- Check the price in more than one place: If you are shopping online don’t forget to check the price on more than one site. Ignore all the catchy marketing phrases!