It's hard to believe today is the day after Thanksgiving! I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday replete with delicious food, big smiles, and countless laughs. Now that Turkey Day is behind us, it can only mean a couple of things. For one, we can expect a myriad of families to put up their holiday decorations today. Secondly, there's no denying that, arguably until after New Year's, retailers from Macy's to Victoria's Secret will be barraging us with holiday ads, whether on TV, in the newspaper, or online. It's really a shame that the holidays have become so highly commercialized. My coworkers and I were fretting the other day over the fact that many stores now sell Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff alongside their Halloween items. That means you can stock up on Christmas decorations as early as October. While doing so may save one money in the long run, coupling all three occasions does little to build anticipation for the latter holidays...

Many of us complain of being strapped for cash, forcing us to put off vacations and even milestone events like graduation, marriage and having kids. But we don't realize that our poor spending habits are likely to blame. Whether you're living on credit or spending significant sums on stuff you may not even use, such practices add up over time, resulting in in a mountain of debt, depleted savings, and other unfavorable consequences that can wreak havoc on your life. Look in your closet or drawers. Do you have various items that still have price tags on them? That probably means that you bought them to jump on a sale, not because you really wanted them in the first place. I caution people against buying things simply because they'll get something free or a second item half off, for example. It induces us to buy things we otherwise wouldn't buy if they weren't on sale. So, what happens? These things are left collecting dust at home while your bank account...

On Thursday, Los Angeles prosecutors sued four national retailers for deceiving shoppers into believing they got bigger discounts than they actually did. The separate lawsuits alleging deceptive advertising were filed against Sears, Macy's, Kohl's, and J.C. Penney. The retailers falsely advertised higher regular prices for merchandise so customers, leading customers to think they were getting bigger bargains. California law bars retailers from promoting a higher original price unless the product was sold at that very price within three months of the ad. The lawsuits seek civil penalties up to $2,500 for each violation and injunctions to cease false reference pricing to bolster sales. As it turns out, thousands of "sale" items were advertised at false reference prices. One of the lawsuits asserted that J.C. Penney was selling a maternity bathing suit top online for $31.99 earlier in the year, down from the original price of $46. The top was later marked dow...

How many times have you gone into a store and seen signs that say something along these lines: "Supplies running fast!" "Buy them before they're gone!" "Only 5 left!" "Sale ends soon!" Now, be honest: How many times did you go through with the purchase because you believed what the signage said to be true? Yep, even I've fallen for it myself, and I actually majored in marketing and minored in psychology! In marketing and consumer psychology, it's what we call the scarcity principle : Consumers attach more value to things that are few in quantity and thus feel more compelled to purchase such items. But this isn't limited to brick-and-mortar stores -- companies also use this marketing tactic online. Take Amazon.com. At some point, you're bound to come across an item whose description includes "Only 3 left in stock. Order soon." Companies seldom run out of inventory, unless we're talking about much...

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...

Have you noticed that we tend to derive more pleasure from pursuing a product than actually using it? It's very much like dating and relationships. Some people feel that chasing after a love interest is more exhilarating than actually locking in and dating the person. I majored in marketing and minored in psychology, so I know full well that emotions play a pivotal role in consumer behavior. Emotions, stirred up in part by the advertisements that assail us on a daily basis, are what drive us to buy stuff -- and that includes products that we may neither need or use. Whether it's the sense of accomplishment that comes over us when we take advantage of a "buy one, get one free" sale or the prospect of buying something that can help us shed weight, look younger, or land more dates, purchasing things gives us an emotional high not unlike that experienced when kissing someone for the first time or receiving your first paycheck. But once you have the object of your de...

Judging from the purchase behavior of some of my friends, family members, and coworkers, it's apparent that some people are heavily influenced by advertising. I've lost track of the many times in recent weeks that people around me have admitted to being swayed by an ad in a newspaper or magazine, a banner ad on a website, or ubiquitous TV commercials. And it's not as if they feel compelled to purchase things they really need; usually, they already have heaps of whatever it is they're looking to buy stocked in their drawers or closets -- be it cologne, shirts, or shoes. This is precisely why I studied marketing and psychology -- so that I can be impervious to the advertisements we're assailed by daily and immune to the underhanded tactics that salespeople at mobile phone stores, car dealerships, and other places attempt to employ. I recommend that people only let their guard down when it comes to advertisements for products they really need -- the kinds of produc...