Crowdfunding Campaign Launches To Educate Consumers

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia – A new Kickstarter campaign is seeking to fund a book about the ways in which marketers exercise influence and control over consumers and what consumers can do to resist.

The book, “The Zombie Consumer: How Marketers Decide what you Buy,” written by Dr. Peter Steidl and designed by Marion Schaberl, is the centerpiece of what Steidl calls the “Zombie Consumer Movement,” which educates people about the tactics marketers use along with how—and when—to avoid them. The campaign is seeking to raise $3,576 by March 17.

In the book, Steidl, an expert on neuromarketing, explains the two different circuits the human brain has, what he calls the Thinking Mind and the Doing Mind. The Thinking Mind is capable of making carefully considered, rational decisions, while the Doing Mind wants to conserve cognitive energy for more important tasks and so seeks shortcuts to help with decision making. He gives an overview of how the human mind functions while shopping, as well as a look at the techniques marketers use to get consumers to make decisions with their Doing Mind. The book finishes with ways to deal with those techniques, depending on how much time and effort someone wants to spend.

Steidl offers a middle-ground solution in the book, which is packed with examples of marketing techniques that influence people in ways that they might not realize. He suggest becoming a “part-time Zombie,” that is, allowing the marketing tricks to work in less important circumstances, but knowing the ticks to get around them for important purchases.

“The simple truth is, it can pay to be a Zombie Consumer when you’re making decisions that aren’t important or interesting to you,” Steidl said, “as long as you know that’s what you are doing, and can break out of Zombie mode when it’s in your best interests to do so.”

The campaign is offering several Zombie Consumer-themed rewards for backers. At the $11 level, backers can get four round Zombie Consumer stickers, while a $20 pledge gets backers a copy of the book. At the $31 level, backers can get a Zombie Consumer poster, and at the $70 level, they get a copy of the book, a Zombie Consumer shopping bag and a Zombie Consumer shopping list, which they can use to remind themselves when to be a Zombie Consumer and when not to be one.

More information about the Kickstarter campaign is available at www.kickstarter.com/projects/984955220/zombie-consumer-how-marketers-decide-what-you-buy

CONTACT:
Peter Steidl
TEL: +61400053184
EMAIL: [email protected]