Special offers want you to spend, not save

Special offers want you to spend, not save

Yesterday I was taking a rare non-work related trip in my car to the discount supermarket when a radio advert pricked up my ears and immediately alerted my fine-tuned consumerism warning system that something may be amiss. The advert started off relaxed and friendly, lulling you into a false sense of security; kids playing the background, adults chatting amongst themselves.. that kind of thing, when without warning I was hit by this whammy of a statement:

“You might want to use the car a bit more this month”

You what? Now why might I want to do that?

“Because Sainsburys are offering 10x Nectar points for ever litre of fuel”

Followed by a couple of mock coversations which went along the lines of:

“Lets drive to the store for a change” “Forget the bikes, I’ll drive us”

Had I gone mad or had I really just heard an advertisement genuinely try to encourage more car use just to benefit from a few extra reward points?! I got home and confirmed my suspicions:

nextarfullup

Just for clarity; The 10x points of fuel is actually just 10x the 1 normal point you’d get, so 10 points per litre. I guess by saying 10x it sounds like a greater reward than just 10. Regardless, 10 Nectar points equates to 5p worth of points.. meaning you’re getting 5p from every ~110p litre of fuel, less than 5% return. Are Sainsbury’s really trying to suggest people would use their car more just to gain a 5% reward back? It seems so.

This isn’t a new tactic either. One of the most commonly used marketing techniques is to encourage a purchase by making you believe it is good value. It doesn’t matter that you probably wouldn’t have purchased the product in the first place.. if you think it’s good value you’re more likely to buy it anyway. Far too many times I’ve overheard people in a supermarket saying:

“I know we don’t need this super expensive premium branded product because we’re totally happy with the basics range and have been for some time, but their 10% off the over-priced shelf listing makes it seem like such a good bargain that I’d be losing money by not purchasing it”

… or something along those lines anyway. All the time we’re bombarded by marketing which constantly tries to reassure us that shops want us to save money. That by shopping with them you’re saving money with every purchase and so why worry that you’re spending on things you wouldn’t have purchased in the first place?

morrisonscheaper
Morrisons in a price war with itself

If you wouldn’t have bought something, no amount of discount or special promotion is going to save you money! Which brings us back to the original point:

Special offers aren’t there to save you money, they’re there to make you spend money you wouldn’t have done normally

It’s the same for both discounts and up-sells. Pick up any menu in a restaurant and there will be some form of encouraged up-selling promotion. Thing’s like “Go large for £2 extra” or “Add onion rings for 50p” etc. Ask yourself; before you sat down and read that menu.. were you thinking:  Hmm, I could really go for some onion rings with whatever I’m about to order? If you weren’t then guess what.. you’ve just lost money. Promotions like up-sales create artificial consumer demand for something we probably wouldn’t have even considered had it been offered in isolation. Would you have ordered onion rings on their own if they were listed for 50p? I suspect not.

sainsburysoffer
I can’t remember the last time I spent £60 in a single shop

Want the know the best way to save money? Don’t spend it!

8 thoughts on “Special offers want you to spend, not save

  1. So true and once you are aware of it the blatant over-marketing becomes really noisy and annoying. The multi-buy deals are usually the worst, especially when it’s on perishable goods and people get suckered into buying multiple packs of meat or veg that in reality they didn’t need and probably won’t use.

    These days I tackle a trip to the shops like I would plan for an Oceans 11 style bank-job. I’m armed with an iron clad non-deviating list and aim to be in and out in the quickest time possible. One of the refreshing things about the Aldi/Lidls is that they don’t really have offers bar the Super 6 type deals so the marketing rubbish you have to deal with is much less. The major supermarkets act like they’re doing you a favour by giving you a “great deal” when in reality they are still there to make money and you’ve ended up being suckered into buying something you wouldn’t have ordinarily bought.

    The best “deal” is the one you didn’t buy so grab a 100% discount and put those 3 cartons of Tropicana back on the shelf!

  2. Sales, I love them. Everytime a bargain comes up I can’t resist buying some more. I spent $6000 on ‘grab them while you can’ bargains last week.
    The bargains – the long term income paying shares that I have or want in my portfolio. So in effect, when I by a bargain on the sharemarket I’m getting a long term income at a discounted rate.

  3. Special offers in supermarkets aren’t necessarily bad. The one you quote is kinda useless though

    Its mistaken to blame advertising as sales is the main vehicle of communicating options in a capitalist society

    Being familiar a little with the retail trade special offers are generally used to:

    – boost footfall by establishing value credentials with consumers
    – block out purchasers of competitors products for a period (e.g BOGOFF/multibuys/supersized packs)
    – clear excess inventory
    – get consumers to just try a product, goddamit

    None of these are against a customers interest, provided the customer has enough common sense to buy something they actually will use

    For instance a while back Tesco started selling own brand Jamacian blue mountain coffee at £7 a pop (bit expensive for supermarket branded coffee). They discounted it to 50% at times, we would buy it quite a few packs at a time in fact. It was pretty nice I thought, but I’d never pay £7 for a pack of coffee. Eventually they gave up selling it

    Did I need to buy Jamacian blue moutain coffee? no

    Did I enjoy it? yes

    Was it good value for money? at 50% off I was happy with the trade

    Where a special offer in a supermarket might actually provide greater value for money is if it replaced a more expensive activity – e.g. going out for a meal or a trip to a wine merchant or costa

    My long winded point is you can’t blame advertisers for your own dumb choices, its up to you to make your own choices about what you want to do with your money and you shouldn’t complain about being offered an option

  4. I still get tempted by BOGOF offers but as I have a grocery budget these days, they are limited to non-perishables (or food I can put in the freezer) and always something/same brand that I usually buy.

    I also pay attention to the labels, eg price per weight etc, on the shelves as often, they’re either priced incorrectly or deliberately priced so that people are duped into thinking they are getting a bargain when clearly, they are not.

    Although I do have Nectar points, I wouldn’t be tempted by that offer as I collect Tesco points for my petrol, haha!

  5. I go supermarket shopping with a short list of perishable wants and an open mind for the rest, so I’m very happy to BOGOF and take advantage of discounts, and spend £90 one trip, £40 the next. I get more variety, better quality, and as I rarely waste food, everything I buy is used. I always start with the “Its Going Off” shelves, lots of lovely stuff at 8pm.

    Its in the Garden Centre or Hardware shed that you need to beware cheap offers, as they can sucker you into gadgets you never use.

  6. I always get a kick out of family members who go out shopping for the so called great sales and then brag about how much they saved. I just laugh because in reality they did not save a thing they just spent.

  7. Reminds me of a famous ( to those of a certain age) sketch from Monty Pythons.

    “Piston engine, piston engine, why did you buy a piston engine?”

    “Bargain”

    “Oh, that’s all right then”

  8. Nice article, I can relate to this so much. These days, as soon as I see “£– off” I look for the huge price I have to pay to even gain the discount. £60 in a single shop? Not going to happen!

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