Surprisingly, many consumers are. If you've been following the presidential election, Hillary Clinton has gotten the backing of high wattage celebrities including Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, and Lebron James. And you've likely lost count of the many advertisements you've come across -- whether on TV or in magazines -- where a celebrity promotes a brand of lipstick, shampoo, or jeans as if it were the best thing since sliced bread. But are such endorsements effective? That, of course, depends on the person. If you're a hardcore Paty Perry fan, for example, you'd probably be more likely to buy a product she endorses or vote for Hillary Clinton. Since I'm not a big fan of any of the high-profile celebrities endorsing Clinton, it didn't make me any more inclined to vote for her. Celebrities don't hold much sway over my purchasing decisions unless they're people I genuinely admire and respect. For inst...

According to a study published this month in the Journal of Consumer Research , consumers shouldn't be so quick to let online user ratings guide their purchase decisions. Indeed, the study suggests that the belief that online user ratings, which virtually all retails provide on their websites, are good markers of product quality is largely an illusion. For the study, researchers investigated user ratings for over 1,200 products across 120 product categories, from blood pressure monitors and bike helmets to air filters. Their analyses reveal a very low correlation between average user ratings of items on Amazon.com and product ratings, based on objective tests, found in consumer reports. Further, the likelihood that an item with a higher user rating performs objectively better than an item with a lower user rating is only 57 percent, which casts some doubt on the validity of user ratings. The study also examined what information consumers rely on when judging the quality of ...

Do you think you'd be more inclined to buy a product priced at $3.99 than one that sells for $4? I can picture many of you shaking your heads. According to various studies in consumer behavior, people are far more likely to buy a product when the price ends in .99. But why? For one, consumers tend to read from left to right, which means our attention becomes fixated on the first number as opposed to the ones that follow. Even though you're hardly getting a greater bargain by opting for something priced a cent cheaper (especially since taxes come into play), your indifference to reading the whole way across actually fools you into thinking you are snagging a deal. It's as though we're comparing something priced at $3 to something that costs $4. It doesn't make much logical sense, but most consumers will do anything to expend the least amount of brainpower possible, especially when pressed for time. In addition, shoppers tend to deem prices ending in cents...

Consumers generally try to expend as little brain power as necessary before and while shopping. For example, most of us would easily be swayed into buying a particular product after seeing the word "Sale" slapped on the price tag. But did you know that retailers generally mark up the price so much to begin that you're not getting much of a deal at all? Thanks to advertising, we've come to associate words like "sale" and "discount" with must-have products. Unfortunately, very few of us actually take the time to tally everything up en route to the cash register and determine whether we're truly scoring a bargain. Marketers know that unless they can lead you to think you're getting a deal, they'll likely have a hard time getting you to open that wallet. Marketing is all about psychology. More specifically, marketing is all about perception. You don't need to be getting a spectacular deal -- you just need to think you are. Even...