Transcription
Let's say you're strolling through Knightsbridge in London and something in the Harrods window catches your eye. It could be a piece of jewelry, an item of clothing, or even a luxury trip.
Now imagine you start to develop strong feelings of desire. You decide you simply must have it. Do you see the prize? And snap! You're hit with the reality that your bank account isn't sufficiently full enough to buy it. However, you somehow find yourself propelled, as if by magic, into Harrods and before you know it, you've bought the bloody thing.
Why do we buy things we know we can't afford? The answer requires a look at how our brain functions. If you think of buying a luxury product as a sport and the brain as the team playing the sport, there's a whole host of players with different purposes on the field. So you've got neurotransmitters, hormones, and cognitive biases playing roles.
The prefrontal cortex is the main player, which shapes how we make decisions. It shapes our social behavior, how we express our personality, and evaluate the level of desirability a particular luxury product has. It also deals with the potential consequences of buying that product.
The prefrontal cortex works hand-in-hand with the limbic system, including the amygdala and the hippocampus. And these are responsible for the emotional responses and how we form memories. This emotional engagement, it's essential because luxury is very much about evoking strong feelings of desire, status, and belonging.
So neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin then start to surge, reinforcing the pleasure centers when buying these luxury products. Dopamine, in particular, heavily influences buying decisions because it elevates the feelings of anticipation of pleasure and reward. Then serotonin levels the impact that our mood and perceptions of social status, and creating an addictive, powerful cocktail.
Hairs trust also plays a huge role in buying luxury, as does the idea of being part of something bigger. And this is controlled by the hormone oxytocin, which creates these social bonds. Things like personalization, exclusive events, VIP treatments, and so forth, these are going to release oxytocin. It's the feeling of belonging hormone.
And finally, cognitive biases play a massive role. Things like the bandwagon effect, for example, or confirmation bias, are both hugely powerful behavioral drivers within luxury. The bandwagon effect drives us to want what other people have so that we're not left behind. It drives us to be admired and popular. TikTok trends are a classic example of the bandwagon effect.
So back to the question: why do we buy when we know we can't afford it? That addictive and powerful mix of hormonal and psychological activity means that we block out the negatives, like next month's credit card bill, and focus only on ensuring everything we see and hear is positive and pleasurable. And armed with this information, luxury brands control your environment to enhance these positive feelings and to get you to buy even more often.
Now, some people call this manipulation. I prefer to call it influence. Let me know what you think.