This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles. Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott. iDesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
TIffany WoolleyWelcome to the iDesign Lab Podcast.
Have you ever gone into a store for one item and walked out with many?
Scott WoolleyOr logged onto Amazon to buy batteries and somehow ended up spending like $200 on other stuff?
TIffany WoolleyWe've all been there. And if you've done it, you're not alone.
Scott WoolleyAnd you're also not crazy. In many cases, the store, the website, packaging, and even product placement were designed to influence exactly that behavior. Nobody thinks they're being influenced.
TIffany WoolleyWell, they don't think so, but maybe they're going to believe it after they listen to us here. Most people think it's all rational buying decisions.
Scott WoolleyThe reality is that their buying decisions are often emotional first and logical second.
TIffany WoolleyWe like to think we bought something because we needed it.
Scott WoolleyBut many times we bought it because we wanted to feel associated with
it. Let me tell you a little story. When I had my grocery stores, I learned something fascinating very quickly. Customers would come in with a shopping list, like most people do, and every intention of sticking to it. But I also knew something. Most buying decisions weren't made by the customers that entered the store. They were made while they were walking through the store.
TIffany WoolleyAnd that surprises people because they assume shoppers know exactly what they're going to buy.
Scott WoolleyNot even close. In fact, I used to joke that people had to buy their way through my stores. And I carefully merchandise products so customers would constantly be discovering new items on the end caps, on the corners. I mean, all over the store. Specialty displays, seasonal products, new products, limited time offers. By the time most of my customers reached the checkout, they were spending typically $20 to $25 more than they originally planned because most of the items that they were buying weren't on their list. They were impulse items.
TIffany WoolleyAnd it wasn't because anyone pressured them.
Scott WoolleyExactly. They generally wanted products, the products. We simply created opportunities for them to discover things they didn't know they wanted five minutes earlier.
You know, packaging itself is sometimes the silent salesperson. Packaging may be the most underappreciated salesperson in the world.
TIffany WoolleyBecause customers often decide whether to pick something up long before they know anything about the product.
Scott WoolleyAnd sometimes packaging isn't protecting the product, it's selling the product. You know, there's a real philosophy in that.
TIffany WoolleyYeah, think of the Cartier Red Box or the Tiffany Blue box.
Scott WoolleyOr the Apple White box.
TIffany WoolleyExactly. People often assume luxury buyers are purchasing better products.
Scott WoolleySometimes they are, but many times they're buying something else. They're buying status, they're buying exclusivity, they're buying a story, they're buying how the product makes them
feel. One of the most powerful forces in buying behavior is social proof. If everyone else wants it, well, I assume that I must have it as well.
TIffany WoolleyIt's why restaurants with lines attract even more customers. It's why five-star reviews do matter, and why bestseller signs work on online shopping. It's really a science. And this is how you know people really connect.
Scott WoolleyYeah, online retail retailers know more about buying behavior than ever before. They know what we're looking for, what we clicked on, what we're almost going to buy and almost bought.
TIffany WoolleyWhat's in our shopping carts? Sometimes it feels like Amazon knows what we're thinking before we even do.
Scott WoolleyYeah, it's the retargeting effect.
Let's talk about Target because somehow people walk in for toothpaste and leave with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff they don't need.
Scott WoolleyTarget has practically become a national case study on impulse buying.
TIffany WoolleyAnd that's not an accident. It would be by design.
Scott WoolleyRight. And just how they the layout of the product and the placement of the displays, the merchandising mix, all those are designed to encourage discovery.
TIffany WoolleyAre
we buying products or are we buying feelings? Maybe the bigger question isn't why we buy things we don't need. Maybe it's why we want them in the first place.
Scott WoolleyThat's exactly right. Most purchases are connected to a feeling: comfort, status, convenience, security, excitement, hope.
TIffany WoolleyBelonging. The product is often just that vehicle. The emotion is what we're really buying.
Scott WoolleyAfter spending years in retail, I learned that people rarely buy based on logic alone. The most successful brands understand human nature. They understand emotion. They understand desire, and they understand the shopping experience.
Which means the next time that you walk into a store for a milk and you leave with three bags of things you never planned on buying.
Scott WoolleyYou'll know there was probably a lot of design behind that decision than you realized.
TIffany WoolleySo I hope you enjoyed that tidbit today. Listen in for Design Lab Podcast and hear our next one. Stay tuned.
Voice OverWe'll see you soon. iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors. To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWInteriors.com.