Tease Out Sales by Teasing Consumers

Consumers relate better to brands which kid around. Gentle humor stimulates connection. But what about humor which consists of teasing the consumer? Researchers at Duke University and HEC Montreal find that the consequence depends on whether the teasing plays with the consumer’s identity or disparages the consumer’s identity.
     In one of the studies, participants were exposed to an ad for a Pizza Hut 2-for-1 Valentine’s Day Special. For some participants, the ad copy read, A CHEAP DATE THAT’S ALMOST AS CHEESY AS YOU ARE.” This was intended to be a playful tease. A second group received what was intended to be a disparaging tease: “A CHEESY DATE THAT’S ALMOST AS CHEAP AS YOU ARE.” And, for comparison, a third group of participants received what was intended to be just humor, without a tease: “MAKE YOUR PLANS NOW FOR A CHEAP AND CHEESY VALENTINE’S DATE.”
     Those participants receiving the playful tease reported greater psychological connection to the Pizza Hut brand than did those receiving either of the other two versions. In another of the studies, lower connections with the advertised brand were reported by participants viewing a tease intended to be disparaging—“YOU’RE FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE…BUT YOU STILL DESERVE TO RETIRE COMFORTABLY”—than by participants viewing a comparable tease intended to be playful—“COLLEGE YOU WAS FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE…BUT YOU STILL DESERVE TO RETIRE COMFORTABLY.”
     The researchers explain the results of these and companion studies in terms of anthropomorphism—the attribution of human characteristics to a non-human entity. When a brand teases, it seems more like a person, since we’re accustomed to a tease coming from a person. We feel closer relationships to other people than to non-humans, particularly inanimate brands.
     For the consumer’s relationship with the brand to be positive, the tease must be more playful than disparaging. Signals of playful intention include obvious exaggeration. The blend of playing around with the consumer and provoking the consumer is a matter of degree.
     I’ll supplement that explanation with this one: To hit home with a consumer, a tease needs to be personalized to one or more characteristics of the consumer. When you feel a person knows something distinctive about you, your relationship with that person strengthens, as long as that person doesn’t use the knowledge to disparage you. Similarly, when you feel a brand knows something distinctive about you and doesn’t misuse that knowledge, your relationship with that brand strengthens.

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Joke Around to Facilitate the Sale 

Drive Personalization by Fostering Narcissism

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Size Up Value in Showing Body Size Diversity

Past consumer behavior studies have concluded that women are motivated to purchase items modeled by people who are somewhat thinner than they themselves are, but not dramatically thinner. This is consistent with consumers’ attraction to what they aspire to be—aspirations that may get more adventurous in this Ozempic era.
     Still, researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Bath argue for showing models of various body sizes in online ads for clothing as well as on websites displaying the catalog of items, and for men’s fashions as well as women’s. This helps a shopper purchase a product which will fit them well while also serving the socially positive objective of enhancing acceptance of diversity in body builds, including self-acceptance of not being thin.
     The researchers consider three schemes used on fashion retailer websites: Showing only thin models, as Zara has done; showing models of various sizes mixed across items, as Lululemon has done; and prompting the website viewer to choose the model’s body size for viewing items, as Good American has done.
     The overall finding from the set of studies was that showing only thin models dissuades shoppers who aren’t thin from purchasing online. Along with this, the likelihood of product returns increases. The researchers point out that poor fit is a major reason for returns of clothing purchases and that product returns are costly for retailers and for the environment.
     One of the studies found that, compared to portrayal of body-size diversity in ads, portrayal of body-size diversity on product pages had a stronger positive effect on a shopper’s interest in continuing to shop with the retailer. The researchers explain this difference in terms of how a consumer’s mindset differs depending on whether they’re browsing products or gathering information about a brand.
     Another of the studies supported the common-sense conclusion that the overall body-size of a model counts more for a woman when purchasing a dress than when purchasing shoes. However, another study hints that body size is still a consideration for marketers with items where the shopper’s body size would seem unimportant: Researchers at Villanova University, Baruch College, St. John's University, Hofstra University, and University of Alberta found that salespeople more frequently recommend round- rather than angular-shaped lamps and perfume bottles to shoppers with a larger body size. The researcher’s explanation is that good salespeople look at similarities between characteristics of the shopper and the merchandise.

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Appeal to Pride of Distinctive Consumers 

Airbrush Away Shame in Your Shoppers

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Toss Rotten Tomatoes

How might it be that a few negative reviews of a movie on Rotten Tomatoes can hurt ticket sales, but a whole bunch of negative reviews could help?
     Researchers at The University of Adelaide and Edith Cowan University verified this effect via their analysis of 23,046 reviews of and sales revenues for 80 Hollywood movies which the researchers selected for having emotional scenes and memorable characters.
     The researchers’ explanation of this effect starts with acknowledging how past studies find that consumers are more likely to express positive than negative emotions in item reviews they post, but negative emotions expressed in reviews have a greater influence than positive emotions on the purchase decisions of review readers. Negative reviews tend to be more interesting to readers.
     When there’s a higher number of negative reviews, the review reader becomes more likely to carefully analyze the arguments of the reviews and therefore spot any flaws in the arguments. Further, any reader who has seen the movie and identifies with it will feel threatened by a large number of critical comments, leading to that reader wanting to post a positive review. Related to these explanations, bad publicity attracts attention, which can stimulate consumers’ interest in checking the movie for themselves.
     To make positives about a movie more interesting, researchers suggest that promotions incorporate emotional wording such as lovely story, beautiful scenery, and nonstop action. Emotion does sell, although I do predict that with the burgeoning use of AI shopping agents—in which the consumer delegates item choice to a set of algorithms—emotional appeals will be less successful in marketing.
     Another takeaway from this study is that you can safely toss away any overconcern about negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and other movie review sites when you’re marketing a flick, TripAdvisor and other lodging review sites when you’re marketing your hotel, and Yelp and other general review sites whatever you’re marketing. Beyond a certain quantity, negative reviews set off a balancing loop which ironically increases positive attitudes toward an offering. Along with this, respond selectively to negative reviews, attending just to those containing exclamation points, emoticons, or all caps.
     Actually, you might want to toss out into your audience of prospective purchasers a few rotten tomatoes of negative reviews, with your objective being to stimulate that audience to counter the negative via their own positive reviews or to try a sample for themselves.

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Respond Selectively to Negative Reviews 

Invite People to Ridicule for Themselves 

Convert Controversy to Retail Sales

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Stifle the Smile When Selling Status

Luxury appeal operates more through the exclusivity of item competence than through the approachability of interpersonal warmth. This leads to a hypothesis that the broad smile on faces of ad models which can help sell mass-market items would hurt sales of high-fashion apparel and accessories. In status-oriented or competitive situations centered around dominance, you do best to chill out your emotions.
     Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Sussex, and Central European University Vienna tested this hypothesis with ads for Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, and two fictitious brand names developed for the studies and referred to in the ads as exclusive collections. Study participants included consumers in the U.S. and China.
     Overall, a neutral facial expression on the ad model produced higher levels of ad engagement, positive attitudes, and shopper purchase intentions. The researchers’ explanation is that in luxury contexts, a neutral expression, as contrasted to a smile, portrays pride in one’s self and in the luxury quality of the item being advertised.
     The researchers found that the effect did not hold with a mass-market cosmetic brand—Covergirl, but did with a luxury brand—Prada, for the same product category—a two-foundation makeup. With consumers who looked at the Covergirl ads, there were no significant differences between measures for those who saw the model with a smile and those who saw the model with a neutral expression. This supports the explanation that the smile-versus-neutral effect has to do with the nature of luxury contexts.
     The effect was stronger when in the ad, the model is looking directly at the viewer rather than averting a direct gaze. This suggests that a neutral look is particularly useful in luxury ads when the model’s gaze is directly toward the viewer.
     A direct gaze by a model enhances the credibility which luxury represents. Researchers at University of Houston found that an ad for a product or service appealing to positive emotions works best when the model’s eyes are averted rather than looking straight at the shopper. In one of the experiments—using a Facebook ad for a woman’s sun hat—people were 30% more likely to buy when the model had an averted compared to a direct gaze.
     But there was a downside to the averted gaze. It lessened model credibility. When credibility is essential, as with ads dependent on a luxury appeal, use a direct gaze by the model, advise the Houston researchers.

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Saturate Your Store with Sweet Smiles 

Chill Out Emotions to Look Cool 

Look Out for Where They’re Gazing

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Go for Oh’s to Reduce Restaurant No-Shows

OpenTable data show that in the U.S., about one out of every four restaurant reservations is not kept by the prospective diner. After citing that statistic, a team of Montclair State University, Mount Royal University, and Sejong University researchers detail the costs of no-shows, describe reasons for this behavior, and, through studies, develop suggestions for reducing the rate.
     The costs to restaurants include not only the lost revenue from those diners who didn’t appear, but also suboptimal inventory management of supplies and missed opportunities to seat walk-in guests at tables being held for those with reservations. The reasons for no-show behavior, as seen in prior studies, include some we might not expect, such as a customer booking at a number of restaurants and then forgetting to cancel the unwanted bookings.
     The chief strategy developed by the researchers for reducing no-show rates is to activate social pressure for reliability and punctuality by reminding consumers of the detrimental social effects of no-show behavior. Let’s get frequent diners in the habit of saying to themselves, “Oh, that’s why I should make only restaurant reservations I’m comfortable I can keep and conscientiously cancel any reservations I realize I won’t keep.”
     Based on results from their studies, the researchers conclude that this strategy works best when the cancellation policy is lenient. This is consistent with the idea that an optimal technique for reducing no-show rates won’t irritate prospective customers. Any penalties for cancellation should be perceived as fair and the cancellation procedure should not be perceived as burdensome.
     The researchers point out these techniques for curbing restaurant reservation no-shows might not work in other booking situations, such as with hotels. The average transaction amounts, length of advance planning, and visit frequencies are different. Still, I believe the strategy of increasing awareness among consumers about the costs of no-shows holds promise.
     Moreover, arousing a sense of obligation can nudge behavior toward the socially responsible in areas well beyond the no-show. The effects depend on you making the consumer’s behavior visible, or at least giving the impression of visibility. Although you can influence shopper behavior in the short-term by arousing shame, you’ll have better long-term results by aiming for a sense of obligation.
     With restaurants, feeling obligation should lead to higher diner tip amounts than would a feeling of shame, and in the areas well beyond, feeling obligation leads to more repeat business than does shame.

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Peer into Pressure from Obligation 

Prefer Obligation to Shame 

Tip Yourself Off with Tipping Tracking

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Use Color Codes Which Catch Shoppers’ Eyes

My thanks to Ernesto Cardamone, Gaetano “Nino” Miceli, and Maria Antonietta Raimondo from University of Calabria for this guest post.

Why do some products jump off the shelf while others blend into the background? The answer might be as simple—and complex—as color.
     We researchers identified what we call category color codes: the color patterns consumers associate with specific product categories. These codes shape what we expect to see in each aisle of the supermarket, and they influence how quickly we recognize and trust a product. For instance, in Italy, olive oil is often associated with yellow and green.
     But what happens when a brand wants to both fit in and stand out? This tension—between conformity and distinctiveness—is central to how products succeed or fail on the shelf. If a package looks too different, shoppers may not recognize it as belonging to the intended category. But if it looks too similar, it may never get noticed.
     In our study, we focused on the two most dominant colors on product packaging. Prior studies and an image mining analysis that we conducted on 10 product categories had shown that packages typically use two main colors—one covering around 49% of the surface, the other around 19%—with additional colors covering limited areas. So, we concentrated on how this main + secondary color combo affects shopper attention.
     We conducted a lab study, using mock two-colored packages in a controlled setting, and a field study in a supermarket. Using eye-tracking technology, we monitored how long shoppers looked at different product packages, as longer eye contact is a reliable indicator of attention.
     The most effective strategy we found? Choose one dominant color that aligns with category norms, and pair it with a second color that breaks those norms. Blend in just enough to be trusted, but stand out enough to be noticed.
     For manufacturers, these findings are important for setting the most effective color combination in packages. Moreover, for brands looking to piggyback on a category leader, the advice is clear: mimic the leader’s primary color, but use a contrasting secondary color to set yourself apart. For retailers, this insight can inform how products should be arranged on shelves to maximize attention.
     So next time you're walking the aisles, take a closer look—you might notice that what grabs your attention isn’t just a bright color, but a smart one.

© 2025 Ernesto Cardamone, Gaetano “Nino” Miceli, and Maria Antonietta Raimondo

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Saturate Hungry Shoppers with Vibrant Colors 

Go Bold or Au Naturel for Packaging Healthy 

Copycat Based on Leader Brand Proximity

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