How To Identify Manipulative Advertising & Marketing

it is not manipulative. But we are going to dive into articles written for marketers so that you know what they're doing and the reasons, the psychological reasons why they're doing it, so you can decide for yourself whether you want that marketing to work on you. Yeah, well said. I think it's important to be armed and ready with an understanding of how people try and sell things to us, so that we can decide whether or not we actually want to buy and not just fall victim. Yeah, definitely.

But first, our sponsors the Modern Frugal Living e Book. We have published an e book with over two hundred ways to save money that includes checklists and resources so you can take action on the highest impact strategies quickly. The first way you can save is by getting the e book for free to get your copy. Had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash e book to get your free copy, and you'll also get two weeks of

accountability emails to help you take action. So I had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash e book and start getting those quick winds that will snowball your momentum to financial freedom. Yes, and this episode is also brought to you by Facebook Ads, not Facebook. People love saying something in real life and immediately seeing an ad for it on Facebook. It's the best. They know you love it.

The ads want you to know that while they can't be as accurate anymore, they will still track where you are and show you ads based on the interests of the people you're around. Two So they're sorry. They know you love them being super accurate, but they're still going to track as much of your data as possible, as well as the data of people around you. Facebook ads just trying to get you to buy stuff. It is. It is so creepy. Everyone commenting on how creepy it is.

But creepy they mean they love it. They love it. Um. I I take refuge and solace and the fact that I'm pretty sure Facebook knows nothing about me because what they try and advertise to me is all over the map, all over the map. I don't know what they think they're hearing from me, but it ranges from golf gear to baby products. So I mean, yeah, maybe because you're around people who play golf and or have babies it maybe maybe. I don't know. Well, we are talking about

obviously advertising marketing. So if you want to cue up some good follow up episodes, we've got episode one fifty six how to avoid impulse spending. I think we also talked about some of the same tactics in that one, and then episode one psychological tricks to stick to your budget. So today we're really diving into some marketing psychology so you can understand why you think the way you think ink when you see things available to buy. So this

first article we're going to get into. Both of these are written for marketers, they're not written for consumers. So the first one is from crowd Spring. It is called Marketing Psychology. Five Powerful Principles of Human Behavior. What did you think of this one with your social work background? Yes, Oh, it's so clearly written to people, written from the perspective and written to those with a perspective of wanting to

make money. So it's definitely a unique experience for me to read an article about our minds, the way we think in process, how we make decisions, not from the perspective of helping people, but from the perspective of getting them to buy things. So they're not necessarily wrong about the things they're describing. It just is in a little bit more of a cold way that they're talking about it almost this here's what we've dissected about humanity and

how we can then utilize this to make money. So there's a part of it just for my own sake, it does feel a little slimy, although some of it can be good. Like I don't as you said, Jen, I don't want to say marketing in and of itself is bad. I've got many friends in marketing on the Frugal Friends podcast utilize some marketing strategies in order to keep bringing content and ultimately helping people with the podcast.

But yeah, we also need to support families. So all that said, from my perspective, it was unique to read it in that way, and I'm hoping to still even as we go through this article. Look at it in a holistic way, recognizing this article was written to those

who want to know how to make more money. We're gonna look at it from a perspective of how can you take this knowledge, arm yourself, allow marketing to work on you, and be a little bit more averse to the marketing that you don't need to work on you, like, not just evolve victim or prey to it, Recognizing that marketers are getting smart and utilizing psychology to get in there, so we don't we don't need to be dumb about it. Yeah, they've used this for decades and marketing has actually gotten

more ethical as time has gone on. This is not mad men. People are not just trying to sell you something without thinking of you, and so marketing I mean Facebook ads, for as creepy as they are, are really trying to stop you from seeing things that you are uncomfortable with, ads that you would be offended by or not like at all, and show you things that really would help you, that would be of most benefit to you. So the intention is quite neutral. I wouldn't say it's

negative or positive. It's it's a you know, it's an exchange. People are still trying to make money, and it has gotten more ethical. So most marketing is quite beneficial if you know what your values are and you have a budget and you have a plan, and you we're looking to spend money on that or didn't know that it was a possibility to spend money on something to solve that problem, and you can think, give it time to reflect and not and still buy it, but not impulse

by it. And so we do love marketing when it's done ethically. And so let's start and go through these five principles so that you can start to see the strategies that these marketers are using so that you do not feel gotten by them. Yeah, exactly. So the first one that they list out related to kind of how we work is this concept of prime ing. So it is the process, as they describe, of presenting someone with a word or an image or sentence that prepares them

to be receptive to a particular point of view. So it's not a diving into the thing immediately. There's a priming process that happens that can help to influence somebody. So this is usually a little bit more subtle. And how can marketing be utilized for getting someone ready for the next message. So there's a variety of ways that

companies might do this. It could be on social media like asking people to share comments, or by reading a blog post first, or attending a free seminar, downloading and e book like getting people engaged without yet spending money and preparing them for a certain message. That would be the concept of priming. And so when it comes to yeah, the marketing world, it is a let's pull them in, let's draw them in, let's get them curious, let's get them ready, so then we can say, all right, now

give us your money. And and this is true. It really in anything like what are the things that get us prepared, primed, ready for whatever is coming next. This would be like, oh, warm up in an exercise routine, like you start with stretching and you start with some high knees before you get ready to run further. So that idea works in a variety of ways. I will say the positive thing about priming is it is it

is also a form of building a relationship. Essentially, so you are putting in the effort to get your name in front of somebody, to get them thinking about your product or brand. And I will say, the purchases I regret most are the ones I impulse bought after not being extremely familiar with the product or brand. It's not the ones where I've been following them for a while and then bought the product. And so priming is essentially they want to build a relationship with you, get that

foot in the door sort of thing. So this is a good if you look below the surface is good, but you also have to know what people are doing. When they ask you to follow them on social media, sign up for the email, all of that stuff, it's so that they can prime you UM. And so if this is not if it's something that you don't really need um or only need once, stop putting this product or brand in front of you, because you will inevitably typically end up purchasing from them again after the priming,

and sometimes again. If it is something you actually need you think it might solve a problem, then great engage in the priming part of it, because a lot of times the priming does add value. Right, anytime someone's offering a free webinar, sure you might go into that knowing they're probably going to try and sell me something during this free webinar, But is the content of the free webinar something that is actually helpful and useful for me. You can make your own decision from there with what

you want to do after that. We don't have to be afraid of any of these techniques, but choosy on how we engage when we even do see that this technique is happening. Mm hmm. The second is reciprocity, So this is a bit, this is a big one. So it's essentially we feel when we've received something from somebody,

we feel almost obligated to give them something back. So if we've received something free, um, like a free trial or a free gift or I don't know, a free e book with two d ways to save money, we

feel some reciprocity to give back in some way. And so some people are just asking you to listen to their podcast and take what you need that's helpful and leave what you don't, while others will be, you know, selling products and services, and again you have to decide the products and services that really add value to your life or not. Absolutely. The next is social proof, So they describe this simply put, we want to know what

others are watching, buying, wearing, experiencing. Sometimes we as people can find ourselves in situations where we have this natural thought that other people know more than we do, and so we take our cues from others. It is somewhat related to that concept of group think, like we think somebody else is going to step in and do something, or we kind of take on the mentality of the

majority whatever. We think that what is happening in the majority, and so marketers might use this idea of social proof that we want to do what others are doing. We want to do what the majority are doing by putting a message in front of us that would communicate that, like here's what others in your age group and similar to life circumstance are doing and loving and kind of hoping that you will get on that bandwagon believing that

this is what the majority are doing. Yeah, I mean, who hasn't bought something that they've seen somebody else wearing or using on TikTok or Instagram. That's social proof. It's why brands spend so much money getting their products into the hands of influencers. And there's other things like reviews, like I don't buy anything without first checking the Amazon or going to a place before checking the Yelp, reviews.

Reviews are super important. Reviews can be gamed for sure, so we definitely take I think higher stock in the social proof from people we know, which is why I think Instagram is such a and Facebook are potent for impulse purchases because there are people we know, or we feel like we know or want to be like, are going to these places, are using these things. So when you're scrolling, just know that even if a brand didn't pay to be there, that this social proof is is

very much an illusion. It is it can be gamed. But I mean, I've I've bought some things because I've seen it on Instagram that I'm very happy with, but I know that other people have. I've heard We've heard many stories of people buying things because they saw it on social media that they later regret. And so this is that is per time um example of social proof. I think that this is the one that we all

are probably most aware of. We may not have called it by this name, but it's why we hear so many people saying I gotta get off social media, whether or not it's a brand getting themselves in front of you or other people making their lives look so amazing and so our contentment levels decrease. I think we're pretty aware of this phenomenon in the way that it works in our lives, we may be last equipped to know exactly how to handle it. Yeah. Some of it could

be getting off of social media. Some of it could be, like you just said, Jen, making sure that the things that we purchase our primarily by some of the word of mouth from the trusted individuals. Uh you know, Okay, I want to pair of shoes, let me see what are my friends wearing. What's their reviews on it? Or a mattress, what are they saying about the mattresses that they're using, whatever it might be, I love that as a first step in choosing what kind of products going

to consume, not just what is the Internet pushing on me? Yeah, and I think the best strategy you can take if you want to know the difference between am I falling prey to good advertising or do I really want this, is to just wait, wait thirty days, you can put it in your Amazon cart. Honestly, I wouldn't even put it in my Amazon cart because that could remind you in thirty days and be like, oh, yeah I do want that. No, just for just if you if it stays in your mind for thirty days, like if it

is important, it will then you can get it. Just make a little mark on your calendar and you know, you can say, hey, I thought about the tevas, these shoes, these shoes I literally thought about for months and did not want to pull the trigger on getting and I did, and I'm so glad that I did. But I didn't save those anywhere. So yeah, waiting, patience and you will save yourself from So I mean, that could be the end of the episode. But I think market are primarily

like banking on impulsivity. Of course, there's so many other things that we're talking about in this article that that is helpful and being equipped, but at the end of the day, it's how impulsive are we making purchase decisions? M hmm. Yeah. And that that brings us to our next one, which is scarcity, which completely praise on impulsivity, and it's actually something that we are moving away from. So with the Financial Freedom Mentorship, we have launched it

several times, but you can't just buy it. You can't just become a member whenever you want. We do launches and those essentially it becomes a time scarcity, so you can only get it doesn't matter if you're not ready right now, it is you only have this many days to buy in. And so starting next month, we are going to make sure that the mentorship is available year round.

There will be you know, sales here, and they're just related to things that we're doing, because that when people get on the fence, they want to make life change. Sometimes they need an extra push and that's where some scarcity marketing can be helpful. But we want to get

away from that. The things that are timed that create false scarcity is we are pushing back on that too, so like we're not we're always learning how to market the show and market our products and our mentorship better more ethically, while still obviously getting people to join and listen.

But yeah, scarcity, I mean people, I mean the best way you can see it is in sales, Like sales are scarcity, but know that products especially I'll have sales cycles, and so I think those are kind of the biggest things. Like we just have to know that if you don't

need it right now, the sale will happen again. And if you really need it, you should be doing well enough with your finances and other spaces that you can afford to buy it at full price and do not feel guilty when you buy it at full price if you really do need it immediately. That's why we are so responsible in the other areas of our spending. Sometimes things really are running out and there really will not be any more of it, and so yeah, then then

that's a true scarcity. But then sometimes in marketing you've got this feigned scarcity making us feel as though there will never be another opportunity. And yeah, what we're saying is we don't want to make that unnecessary stress. If there will be another opportunity, you can join in when it makes more sense to you. Of course, price could be high. Two last words on scarcity beanie babies. Beanie

babies everyone knows. Don't. Yeah, don't, don't live in Just just tell yourself when there is scarcy, just be like beanie babies. Beanie babies, beanie babies. There you go. And then the last concept here that marketers can use is anchoring. This is this is where the article doesn't give the greatest picture of humanity. They say people frequently act illogically, making their behavior difficult to predict. This is not a strength space social worker perspective on human behavior. I wouldn't

call it illogical. It's just that we have there's a scarcity of a literal scarcity of time, and sometimes we can't like do all the math needed to figure out something. So it just feels like a detached way of describing humans, where they also go on to say they rarely take the time to learn the full facts before taking action. Now, listen, it's two. I'm not going to argue with that. I've seen the way people are behaving on social media. There's

there's a lot more to it, for sure. But when marketers get ahold of this, what they hear is all right, people are gonna latch onto the first fact that they hear, and they may base their decision on that first fact, whether or not it's true. And again, this is back to that impulsivity. Certainly this has happened to me before.

If something is if it's gonna strike an acute emotion, like if it's gonna make me angry, or it's gonna make me really excited, that that I think those are the times when I'm gonna latch on or we as people might just latch onto the first thing. So that's

called anchoring. And of course this could work positively or negatively for a market or there the first fact that is before a person could give a really bad taste in their mouth and they walk away and they don't we don't purchase, or the first thing that we latch onto could be the thing that causes us to say, yes, I'm going to purchase. And so again this is indifferent, it's neither good nor bad, but recognizing that whatever they put out first could be the deal breaker and whether

or not someone purchases. So for us as consumers and frugal people, I think the important takeaway here is to be curious and to pay attention to our first impressions. What am I believing about this product? What is it making me feel or think? What's my first impression? What's that first impression causing me to want to do? I think for me and maybe a lot of people within my friend groups, something that I hear a lot I

think related to this is aesthetics. Like if if a product is being marketed and the immediate aesthetics look like that's how I want my house to be, the first impression is it's gonna make my house look cleaner, it's going to make my house look more beautiful, or it's gonna like make me feel really like cool and instagram

worthy every morning. That could be just the whether or not the product actually works, whether or not I actually need it, Like I've now anchored myself to the reality that I would love to see that sitting out on my kitchen counter. Anchoring. Yeah, this also comes in uh

like the form of so pricing. Yes, this is sometimes why you'll see the larger number first, and then they'll slash the price through it and show you the smaller number, so that way, when they keep reiterating the sale price, you're reminded how good of a deal it was because you first saw the larger price. And then also, they can do this with sizes, so you'll often see a

small medium in a large. Most companies will base their projections off of most people buying a medium, but they will show you the small and the large because they'll just make the large maybe a little more than the medium, or they'll make everything just a little bit little bit more expensive than the last, so you think, oh, I'm getting, uh, so much more, I'm getting Like this one uses coke as a twenty ounce coke for one seventy nine or thirty two ounce coke for one nine nine, and they're

saying for just twenty cents more, you can get almost twice as much coke. So then you get the larger size. And so Starbucks they have their drinks position to where the medium the Grande is just a little bit more than the tall, but it's so much more, so barely anybody buys at all. And then so sometimes this can backfires frugal people. I am more drawn to purchasing annual subscriptions than I am monthly because it shows me I save.

But what if I don't know, If I don't know that I like the product and I want to keep it for a year, then I end up I actually end up losing money because I wouldn't have paid for a full year. And I have done that several times more times than I'm comfortable admitting, several times in the past few years, to where I'm just now realizing I actually need to pay more and sign up for monthly before I dropped for the annual, like that is just something that I need to do. And so that's why

we offer annual and monthly plans. And in the mentorship. So yeah, that's another way anchoring kind of shows up. So to be aware pricing happens for a reason. Things are not arbitrary, really priced, and they're the way the prices are shown are not oberitrary either. So that is this last one. Anything else to say. There's a little bit more on anchoring down here, but it's no, that's good. I think those are good, good tools for our tool belt to understand and be armed with to say, what

is happening here? Again, just those pauses, whether in whatever way we can latch onto, whether it's marketing or understanding our own selves, being curious, creating the pause, whether you that causes you to look internally of what's happening inside of me, do I really want this? Or more externally, what's happening outside of me? What are they trying to get me to do before making the purchase? Wherever we can create the pause, and so hopefully this knowledge helps

us to create that pause. Yeah. So our next article is from entrepreneur dot com and this one's a pretty famous article in marketing. It's the five emotions that drive customer loyalty and these are I thought kind of good ways to see if the brands and products you are engaging in are worth you staying around, because very basic companies will do these things. But also for you to see that when these things come that it's not they want you to feel special, but it's not because you're special.

I mean you are special, we love you, but they are trying to get you to buy from them again so that it is much cheaper. In business, we say it's much cheaper to hold on to a customer and get them to buy from you again than it is to acquire a new customer. So customer loyalty is super important. So we want to go through these five so that

you can identify those techniques as well. So the first one is surprise, that this is an important emotion for creating loyalty in the consumer creator relationship out wanting us as consumers to feel a degree of surprise. Yeah, I mean it's with like getting little gifts in your box when you order something. We just ordered, Um, no, we didn't order. We got a gift for Christmas for Kai.

I think my mom or mother in law got it and there was this little bathsticker in it, like for free, and they're like, leave us a review, and we'll send you, you know, six more bathstickers for free. So they're they're trying to get social proof and they're also surprising you with a free gift. So I don't know how many more like bath toys we're going to need to order, but I so that's kind of like a example of surprise. This happened with a lender, like the lender for when

we purchased our home. One year later, we got a box in the mail from them, like happy one year anniversary in your home, and it was a candle and a succulent like a plant, a succulent plan and hand sanitizer. How fitting, this whole box of really good gifts. And I was surprised, But I was also like, I don't know, I really only need a lender like once, maybe I'll

need a lender again in fifteen years. It seemed like an interesting I knew that it was a marketing tactic to like bring them front of mind again to maybe produce loyalty, but I'm like, I don't I don't know that I'm gonna Maybe it's so that if I if a friend is asking for a lender, I might tell them about them. But it it. Definitely, it was surprising, and then it was wow, this was a lot of effort and I don't know that I will ever use

them again, but thanks for the succulent. Well. Yeah, one of the things is erect to give recommendations to other people buying homes. Another is when you go to refinance, they probably offer refinancing, and so if you feel loyal to the lender, then you can seek out your refinancing through them as well. Yeah, they're all in on the surprise. They were all in building that loyal I mean a

succulent I don't. I don't know any bank that or lender that does that, so I might be loyal to that lender to everyone's going to now start reaching out to me. Who was the one who said you was succulent? Right? Um? So the second one is familiarity. So if you want a customer to be loyal to your brand, you need to establish a sense of familiarity. And so that means making your brand approachable like a friend or relative. They already have that. They actually like personalizing it so it's unique.

And essentially, if your brand is for everyone, you are for no one. And so if you feel like a connection to a brand that is marketing. Branding is marketing. So it's not all about like, oh, I really like these people, I like their brand. I'm sure they're good people and they deserve my business. Not necessarily, they just could have hired a good branding agency. So so I've seen so many crap products branded extremely well and so many good products branded extremely crappily. So it's and the

and then also this comes with email marketing as well. Uh, they want to be top of mind, so you will get emails every week from you know, like your favor frugality podcast, You'll get emails so that you remember to tune in and listen to the episode every week. And so we're just building familiarity and getting into the routines that you already have, getting becoming part of those routines. I don't know how much familiarity is an actual emotion

as much as it speaks to proximity relatability. Like I wouldn't say familiarity is something we emote, but it is a tool used to build loyalty. That's the only thing I'd pushed back on with this article. If you can feel like like a brand, like people have said, like oh, if you feel like our best my best friends like like, I'm just hanging out with my girlfriends. So hanging out with your girlfriends is a familiar feeling that we essentially, you know, kind of replicate for better for worse, and

so that's a familiar feeling. Or if somebody is color theory, you can use color theory in branding to make people like if you want people to think of your brand as calming, and you want people who are familiar with that feeling or want to be familiar with that feeling, then you use kind of more blues and greens in your branding. Yeah, again it may be semantics, but just from a mental health perspective, familiar is not an emotional word.

Yeah you could, you could, You could feel calm, feel connected, You can feel those things, which then leads to this statement about proximity of familiarity. But it's not an emotion. But that's all right. They're writing from a marketing perspective, so we'll we'll, we'll allow it. The next one on here is relief. So giving a sense of relief to customers can build loyalty, is what they're saying from this marketing perspective, And so it's almost allowing room for mistakes

within a business. They're encouraging business owners that it's okay, you're not going to hit the brass ring every single time. You might miss a deadline, a shipment could go wrong, could have a wrong order, somehow create it creates an

unpleasant experience for customers. They're not saying to intentionally create an unpleasant experience, but when it inevitably happens to create an experience that would bring about a sense of relief, relaxation that customer royalty really isn't about having a perfect record, but how will the company react and respond and bring

about some semblance of closure to that experience. So whether it's a personal phone call or an apologetic email, or a percentage of a refund or something a free thing as a result of the inconvenience, those types of things. Knowing that when a company doesn't do something well, are going to make up for it, that's going to build loyalty. I've never heard of this one as a marketing tactic,

but it is true. Like I've experienced it. I'm like, oh, this went wrong, but they handled it, so I'll be back very very different if they don't handle it, I will not be back absolutely, and so this is great. We want this, we want more of this, we want to see this. But remember, even though they've made up for it, if you still need something as a customer,

then you should get it. So, whether you're requesting a full refund or something else, just because they were nice to you doesn't mean it's okay, you just let it slide and they can have my money. That's kind of where that's I do that. I am like, oh, it was my fault or you couldn't be helped, and Travis is like, no, we're going to ask for our money back and we're going to get it. Obviously, don't be

a jerk about it. But if you're entitled to it, don't just let it slide because of something like this. The message of being free, you're not obligated to them. They're still selling you something, right, Exactly Number four is gratitude. So customer brand relationships are founded on a principle of logical exchange. Customers continue paying you money because they expect an equal value in return, whether that value comes in the form of a product or service, or some other thing.

When you give users more than they're expecting, or something that outweighs their perception of equal value exchange. They feel gratitude. This is something. This is like the reciprocity we were talking about in the last article. More gratitude they feel, the more they want to stick with you. And I do agree, this is great. This is what we try to do because it's just nice. It's the it's it's a good thing to do for people who have committed

to you and said they are loyal to you. But in the end, if you do not need the product or service just because they are giving you more than what you are paying for or you perceive they're giving more, don't let that value keep you paying for something you don't need. Yes, I can't stress this enough. I think this is one of the things that we can all very easily fall victim to, this feeling of indebtedness because something good has happened, and that is great. I love

getting free gifts. I love it when companies do above and beyond over the top. I think it can really benefit. But the danger comes in when we then feel indebted and like we can't then say that the product doesn't fulfill all of the needs that we thought that it would or that we can't ever return the product do you name it? We can't ever leave because now we're grateful when we're indebted. So just being aware of take

what they're offering, especially if it's needed. But again, this is your message if you need it that if you feel indebted to something that's not actually bringing value to you, it is okay to leave that membership, return that product not purchased again from that company, it's okay. H Or if you're like on a memberships here that no longer exists and you're like, oh, but it's such a good deal, like they're charging so much more. Now if I get off, I'll lose this price. If you don't, if it's not

bringing you value, just leave. It's fine, it's fine. Yeah. And finally, the last emotion that builds loyalty is belonging. What we all want this, this is we we we've talked about foundation about our business. Yeah, we've talked about this a ton on the podcast and just life in general. I think we see this need and humanity to feel

a sense of belonging. There's nothing wrong with this. It is a part of the core of of our beings that we need to find community we need to have some environments where we feel safe and secure, where we can find other like minded people. It helps us. So companies know this too, and where they can create senses of belonging in you, then they can also create loyalty.

You purchasing products over and over again again. Sometimes this is fantastic if you really like a product and you feel a part of the community that they've created, and they keep putting out good products that you want that solve problems that you have. Fantastic If you're only purchasing over and over again because you don't want to lose

your community. That's that's where the issue can arou eyes and were unnecessary spending interns unless you're actually buying the community, like that's what you're purchasing, which is it's different because there's infrastructure that you need to create communities and that's

a whole different thing. But you should know what you're buying to that extent, like sororities and fraternities, you're buying friends and that's good for something, and the network for once you graduate college, you know exactly there's a given to buying a network, not not it's not a bad thing, but you just have to know what you're buying for and being you know what you're paying for and be able to justify it in your budget. You know what's

always justifiable in my budget. I love budgeting for this. I never got to pay for it. Yeah, the the week, that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Tough bills, buffalo bills, bill clean This is the bill of the week. Hey, ladies, it's Olivia to Heart from Tennessee, and I am calling with my

bill of the week. Really, it's like my bill of every three weeks, but it is my dry cleaning bill. And I know that might sound a little bit excessive, a little bougie, but um, I found a really affordable place that's close to my office. And what it does for me is it actually makes me spend less on work clothes because when I get them back from the dry cleaner, it fills brand new, and so like I've spent no money in the last several months on work clothes.

I've not won a new work close because you know, nothing's wearing out. I get it back and it's like I'm unwrapping it for the first time. And it's just really nice to have nice clothes and just get to hang onto those clothes for years and years because I'm taking care of them. So that is my bill of

the week. Wow, that's awesome. That is something I don't think about because I work from home, but it is really cool to hear how people are protecting the clothes that and and we always talked about prolonging the life of good quality items. So that's awesome. That's what you're doing. Yeah, Like a lesser talked about tip of how dry cleaning can help you to spend less, is more sustainable, and then how it's building contentment that it's keeping you from

needing to purchase new clothes even desiring that. So it might be cost slightly more, but in the long run, it sounds like for yourself you're identifying long term savings. That's really amazing dry cleaning. Yeah, again, I don't like you, Jenna, and I work from home, so I don't dry clean things. I dry clean my wedding dress, I think. Yeah, but Olivia, you must have some nice clothes. Good job, prolonging contentment.

Thank you. If you all listening. Have a bill, whether it's a bill, you don't mind paying a bill you didn't have to pay a person named Bill, you know the drill, Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill. Leave us your bill, we'll get to it. We'll get to it eventually. And now it's time for so in today's vulnerability segment, uh, we are going to talk about how we have been negatively and positively affected by marketing. So tell us, Jill. You can give your negative or

your positive first. Okay, Um, I'll give a positive. First. Thing that comes to mind is so two things. The things that come to me in the mail, I guess I don't really I I delete emails that look like spam. And I don't know social media. Again, they don't they don't know me. So nothing works for me on social media. But the things that come to me in the mail

have actually been decent. So I there's plenty of junk mail that I throw away, but sometimes the marketing that happens related to maybe a credit card offer or even insurance has been helpful and it might not even be. So this is how I spin it in my favor.

I might not go with the company that's trying to advertise to me, but it can get me remembering that, oh, I should be shopping for some a new insurance plan for my car, I should be negotiating, so that the marketing of putting it in front of me often trying to build that recognition that's been helpful for me to recognize, Oh yeah, am I still happy with my internet provider?

Am I still happy with my car insurance? Doesn't mean I need to go with the person who sent me the mail, but it's I utilize it like a reminder of what is my car insurance right now? Could I get a better rate? That's how I allow that marketing to work on me. That is a really great trick. That is kind of how we remember to negotiate some of our bills as well. Based on the sales from

advertisers in the mail. And because I would never sign up for an insurance company or phone plans like emails, so the only way I'm gonna see it is in the mail. Is that ambiguous advertising? What about you, jen, what's positive or negative? I actually have bought some pretty good things based on Facebook as um they've been business related. I've also bought some crappy things too, And I'll say

again the times that I get burnt. I mean, sometimes I make out good with someone I don't know, like buying something from somebody I don't know, but more often than not, it's those things where like I've been following someone for a while and I'm just I'm not pulling the trigger because the prices is quote unquote too high, And then I find something cheaper from someone I don't know, and I spend money on that, And that's that's what I'm getting disappointed, is when I find something for cheaper

and I don't know, I love the person teaching it or creating the product, when I should have just bit the bullet and paid the money for the thing from the person I trusted. And so that is I think advertising. When I know somebody and they're just advertising to me to keep me coming back, to keep me remembering them, that's when I've been really pleased with my purchases, when I've impulse purchased. And this is all I'm all talking about.

Like Facebook ads, old Facebook ads when you used to be able to target really finitely, but then the impulse ones I have been more disappointed with. Yeah, where marketing has done me dirty or I've allowed it to write. I am ultimately responsible for my decisions, so there is a personal responsibility at play here. It helps to understand what's happening externally, but we got no one to blame but ourselves for given our credit card information or handing

over those dalla dalla bills. The thing that works most for me is when there is a relationship built, gratitude and reciprocity is at play, Like, oh, that's I can fall victim to that it did just happen. I'm going to talk about this pretty vaguely because if anyone were to ever listen to this, I don't want them to

feel bad because it was my decision. But I went somewhere, Jen, you'll probably be able to guess, uh, this past weekend and having a good time and talking with the person at this establishment, and they ended up giving us some free samples of the product that they were selling, and so and then we were chatting and forming relationship, and then they went on to talk about this product that they had made themselves, and like they're not trying to

sell it. That's what they said. But then they're like, oh, I would give it to you if you want. Then I was like no, no, no, like I'll pay you. And then by the end of it, it came out what the person really wanted to be paid for this product and it was not worth it. But I felt already drawn into the circumstance where there had been relationship built in reciprocity, and I bought in the grand scheme

of things. I'm not going to go into the poorhouse for having done this, but I did learn, all right, I don't need to give in to the fact that there's um enjoyable conversation happening. It doesn't mean that I have to give over money for something. And to recognize for myself where to be more most on guard is when it feels as though maybe I might be indebted to somebody for something. Yeah, and there are ways that you can have grace and kindness and turn someone down.

You can't. You have the right to change your mind at any time, and you can always use the you know what, I actually, it's not my budget right now. I'm so sorry. I you know, you can blame the budget. You can always blame the budget. And they in the budget. The sudget will be your scapegoat because that's that's who he is and he's there for you. Um, if he had a social media profile, you could tag him in the giveaways. You know. That's the kind of that's the

kind of thing budget is. So it's okay to let somebody down and you can do it kindly. I see this a lot in network marketing, and we actually had this conversation in our Financial Freedom mentorship group about friends and selling you things and yeah, they really believe in the product. But what if it's not something you need and you've already identified that, how do you now it's a relationship thing. It's not just an exchange, it's it's

how do we navigate the relationship as well? And so there are there are ways to do that, like you know, blaming the budget or just being very apologetic and saying it's not you, it's me, Like I, you know, I thought I needed this, but I really can't this month. I'm so so sorry, And that's good enough. You don't need more than that. M we're not going to the parties. If you know that, you're going to feel a way

too obligated to pay money that's a whole other conversation. Definitely. Yeah, recognizing which marketing tactic you fall most victim to, how to arm yourself, how to make wise decisions, how to put the pause in, and we're here for you. We're here to help you intentionally values space spend. Thank you, Thank you all for listening and for your kind reviews which don't cost anything but do help us. We so appreciate it because, yeah, this helps people proof find us.

If it's going to work for them, yeah, yeah, that's social peace. If it's going to help them, they can find us. If it's not going to help them, then they know that they can move on. And so thank you for your kind of reviews. This one comes from cast zim. It is five stars titled Amazing Relatable Podcasts. I love, love, love this podcast. Look forward to every new episode released. It brings me a sense of relief that I can tackle my financial health and that I

am not alone. I've been learning so much through the podcast and have been binging past episodes. We're so glad we're helping you solve a problem. It's actually giving you something that you need. Like reading this now from the marketing perspective, like we're providing relief. Oh no, but the podcast doesn't cost you anything stuff it's not The marketing isn't bad if the product or service is serving you and you and it is bringing value to your life.

And sometimes we don't even know the questions to ask. We don't even know the programs are the products we need until we are marketed to and then you take time to reflect and learn and make an informed decision on whether the product or service will help you. And that is the key takeaway from today's episode is just know what's happening and so that you can stop and pause before you impulse by and just say, I'm gonna give myself some time. I'm going to think about it.

And if it's if there's scarcity, maybe you think about it a little bit more than you normally would upfront so that you don't miss that scarcity, and then also think about like, oh, can I just wait until the next time this is available, And most of the times the answer is yes. Don't put it off for so long that you just never get the help you need or the product that could serve you just because you're putting it off and off and off like that. As

frugal people. We fall more prey to than actually than like impulse buying. You know, we we put off buying the things we need and impulse by the things we don't. So if something is sticking with you, think about that, think about why it's sticking with you. Two, And also keep leaving us those reviews. And for every five tags and reviews we get each month on social media, we are giving away fifty dollars for you to spend in

the Frugal Friends shop. Keep leaving us reviews wherever you listen to podcasts, send the screenshot to reviews at Frugal Friends podcast dot com. Keep tagging us on social media. That also enters you into that drawing. And that's that. Thank you. We'll see you next week. Hy Frugal Friends is produced by Eric sirianni oh Man. Anything to say, Jill, I I feel well armed and equipped to keep my money um lockdown. I mean, that's that's not totally the takeaway.

Definitely very aware of how people are targeting that. I think the thing for me and this is how oh this is funny. Okay, here's an example. And not to throw Eric under the bus, he's definitely yeah, I mean he he is a researcher. He is patient when it comes to purchasing, and I think he really does keep keep his own uh wallet on on lockdown and really only purchases things when he needs them. However, he needs a lot more than I do because he's got a

lot more interest. But here's where it crossed over. We recently we're in a hotel room and so we were like, we just flick flicked on the TV because we don't have cable. It's not something that we pay for or value. And then with cable comes your regular old commercials, which none of us have seen in ages. It was like a blast from past slash a new experience. And Eric just got fully targeted by a Skittles ad apparently yep soak that in. Apparently there's these new Skittles that I

would have had no idea about. He would have had no idea about if it were not for cable television and commercials. And it worked. He was like, those skittles look so good. I've got to look for them. And I kid you not. It has been a week. We have been to three different types of stores, like including office Max. Like we're just an Office Max uh, the grocery store and a gas station. And he has been on the lookout for these new skittles that he just has to try because this ad has stuck with him.

He's not yet purchased them. We did see them at the at the grocery store. They or two places didn't have it so out of the grocery store. But I gotta hand it to him, the bag was too big. I don't I just want to try it. I don't want to spend five dollars on a whole bag because I don't know if I'm gonna like it. I just want to try it. So, I mean, he's creating the pause. He's patient about it, but he did get targeted and

and because of that marketing ad. Someday he will try this new skittle product if he can find it in a small bag. B