For marketers to do their job and add physiological innovation to the products and services customers experience - we must have the use of placebos.

The only reason more expensive wine tastes better is because we believe it should.

So as marketers we put on shows and create games for customers to play.

It could be the game of buying an expensive wine or buying an expensive car.

It could be the thrill of finding a deal at a discount store or the joy of connecting with people who have the same clothes.

Either way the customer goes on a journey and in a lot of ways that is a game. 

There are rules. There are loop holes. There are certain things that customers can do to play that will create the by product of the placebo effect.