Jakob Horvat
A sheep's cheese from Greece, firstly not from Greece and secondly no sheep's cheese. If you turn the packaging around and read it, you can see that it is cow's milk cheese from Germany in rapeseed oil. Everyone else sees the likeable shepherd, the olive oil, the Greek-sounding product name. And live with it in the romantic world, the marketing experts construct for them.
Katrin Mittl works at the Verein für Konsumenteninformation and oversees the website Lebensmittel-Check. A platform that exposes such and similar deceptions. Entries published via 450 can be found there. "Consumers report products that make them mislead, we publish them and contact the manufacturer. We can only put such a product on the platform twice a week - our resources do not allow more. If we had them, we could publish several cases a day. "
Man is a cognitive miser
The companies call it wise marketing, successful advertising. As a deliberate deception the consumer advocates. And in between Anna Winkler strolls through the supermarket, overwhelmed by the many decisions that are demanded of her here. Mrs. Winkler has her ten-year-old daughter with her when she goes shopping. Since she does not have the time to deal with each product in detail, to turn over the colorful packaging and read about what the contents are and where they come from. Anna Winkler is grateful for decision support. She is an invented person in this case - but people like her can be found in front of each refrigerated shelf, looking for orientation and usually following automated decision-making processes.
"Man is a cognitive miser. We are lazy in thinking and rely on mental rules of thumb, we follow the intuition and thus save valuable capacity. These principles are deliberately made use of in advertising. "
Julia Pitters, business psychologist and trend researcher
"The human is a cognitive miser," explains the economic psychologist and trend researcher Julia Pitters: "We are lazy in thinking and rely on mental rules of thumb, we follow the intuition and thus save valuable capacity. These principles are deliberately made use of advertising. It can control our perception so we can see what we should see. "
These mental rules of thumb include social norms - the more you buy, the sooner I'll buy it. For example: Nine out of ten women feel better with this sanitary napkin. If that's really true, nobody can verify. But it sounds good. Or: people in white doctors smocks are perceived as authorities: one believes them, what they say.
"Consumers are exposed to incredible sensory overload and markets are oversaturated. [...] You need an additional benefit that reaches the motivational position of the consumer. And if that does not exist, you're looking for one. "
Floortje Schilling, advertising psychologist
"Vitamins and snacking"
That many companies do not take it so seriously with the truth, show many examples. A yoghurt that is supposed to reduce a bloated stomach. Fruit gums that are virtually healthy because of "vitamins and snacking". Freiland on the packaging suggests "Bio" in the content, but does not match the facts.
Floortje Schilling is an advertising psychologist and sees in all of these strategies the often desperate attempts of companies to somehow assert themselves on the saturated markets: "Consumers are exposed to incredible sensory overload and the markets are oversaturated. It is up to the company to be noticed at all. If there are already fifty yoghurts that all taste similar, how is one to argue the fifty-first? One needs an added benefit that reaches the motivational position of the consumer. And if that does not exist, you're looking for one. "
The limit is reached for Floortje Schilling, where is actually lied: "If you provide a cow's milk cheese with a Greek sheep's milk idyll and the tastes good and no harm to anyone, then you can perhaps classify this under the term of product romance. , Vitamins and snacking 'I find it much more problematic. What is suggested is simply not true. Every seller of a used car will idealize its goods and not point out weaknesses first and foremost. That is legitimate. He must not lie. "
"The shorter the list of ingredients, the better. If I can not pronounce half of the content, then I would not buy the product. "
Katrin Mittl, Association for Consumer Information
For consumers like Anna Winkler, at least, this world is hard to see through. Although she describes herself as a mature consumer who buys with common sense. But she regularly states that a product that she has been using for a long time and again does not have the promised advantage. Or even worse: a serious disadvantage has hidden behind questionable content. Heinz Schöffl from the consumer protection department of the Chamber of Labor recommends to look closely at the fine print. Anything big and conspicuous should be questioned from the point of view of marketing. "If an additive sounds good, it's called by name. If it sounds scary, you hide it behind an e-name. Or you take out preservatives, for example, and praise them big - but the product is then flavored or colored, which of course is not there. "Katrin Mittl of the Association for Consumer Information advises:" The shorter the list of ingredients, the better. If I can not pronounce half of the content, then I would not buy the product. "
How much truth can be endured?
The truth is to be expected of man - but always desired is not. For in addition to the simplification of a complex world, there are a number of psychological reasons why the truth and nothing but the truth would overwhelm the human being. Business psychologist Julia Pitters explains this thesis as follows: "People strive to behave well and sustainably. At least he likes this self-image better than its opposite. When he does something that goes against it, there is a gap between self-image and action, a cognitive dissonance. This is something very uncomfortable. Then he either has to change his consumer behavior - that would be the exhausting way - or he adjusts his perception and focuses on those stimuli that fit into his concept. The advertising is playing well in his hands. "Anna Winkler is reluctant to buy sweets for her daughter because she is unhealthy. The little girl still wants to have fruit gums. The advertising slogan "Vitamins and snacking" makes Mrs. Winkler's life a little easier. He reduces her cognitive dissonance.
Deception: The truth can overwhelm
Advertising psychology has researched why the warnings on cigarette packs are not particularly effective. "Smoking can be fatal" is simply too abstract: "This is so far away for the smoker, he can hide it, because he can not classify it. On the other hand, standing on the pack, smoking makes bad breath 'or, smoking makes ugly', then he would have to deal with it, because it affects him directly, "Julia Pitters describes this phenomenon. She believes that man can tolerate the truth as long as he can satisfy his need for control. If the whole truth were on every product, he would be overwhelmed. "If I see anything problematic in every product - even if it's just the plastic packaging - then my desire for an ecological diet is no longer achievable. I lose control and do not bother with it because I can not achieve my goal anyway. The whole truth will be too hard to digest. When it seems so complicated to behave correctly, you slip into helplessness, into lethargy, into indifference, "says Pitters.
"The skinny models always say that advertising is to blame. But in truth, it's about social values, about beauty, about self-control, and about the permanent portrayal of role models, reinforced and sharpened by advertising. "
Floortje Schilling, advertising psychologist
In other words, not only do we want to be deceived in some way in order to preserve our self-image, but also because otherwise it would overwhelm our cognitive capacities.
What advertising does to us is always what we allow. Thus, advertising - even if it is done so well - people very difficult to manipulate. It can reinforce tendencies and interests that are given anyway. But it can not usually get people to buy or do things that do not suit them at all. Thus, the advertising psychologist Floortje Schilling sees advertising in general as a magnifying glass of social trends and as a mirror of the zeitgeist: "In lean models, it is always, advertising is to blame. But in truth, it's about social values, about beauty, about self-control, and about the permanent portrayal of role models, reinforced and sharpened by advertising. "
Marketing or deception?
When our sample consumer Anna Winkler strolls past the fridge once again, she finds innumerable product names, information and packaging that do not tell her the truth. The "mushroom carver" for example - the "fine classic" as it stands on the packaging - gives her the impression that it is a grown piece of meat. So, according to the food code, that must be the same thing when you call something "schnitzel". The definition of "Schnitzerl" with the unsuspected "r", however, is nowhere regulated. In fact, it is a form of meat, a meat made up of small pieces of pork. This is not harmful to health - but if you eat molded meat, you should know that too. Other shelf, similar situation: The non-alcoholic beer is usually not alcohol-free, but has an alcohol content below 0,5 percent. Although this is not relevant for the body, alcohol-free is of course something else.
Deception: legal situation and progress
Legally, this is relatively easy regulated and the gray area is maxed out by the advertising industry. Consumers have long been demanding more precise regulations on product packaging, Heinz Schöffl of the Chamber of Labor explains: "There should be uniform rules in Europe for packaging design and content. Currently, the individual case must always be checked for 'unfair competition'. This is far too costly and brings the consumer little. If there are three apples on the packaging, but the product contains only apple flavor, then this must be on the packaging. And not just very small. "
From 2016 nutritional information for food is mandatory - for Heinz Schöffl an important step: "So far, this only had to specify those products that have for example made great on low fat or low calories, so have made nutrition claims elsewhere." Nutritional information The front of the product, another demand for adequate truth-clarification, which has failed in the resistance of corporations, Schöffl said: "In the end, we were alone with this requirement. A product does not sell so well any more, even if it is clear from the front that it has a high fat content. "
The Association for Consumer Information advocates a mix of three main points: more fairness on the part of companies, stricter laws for the protection of consumers. And last but not least: Less naivety and more critical questioning of the consumers themselves. Then the supermarket would be quite a ver truthsträchtigerer place. And if man can not stand the whole truth - he should at least know where he finds it.
Photo / Video: Shutterstock.
