Emphasize Pride or Contentment in Customers

To maximize your opportunities for retailing profitability, keep current on the unending stream of consumer research findings. That’s why I encourage you to regularly check this RIMtailing blog. Even a few of the tactics in my newest book—Retailer’s Edge, due to be published next month—already could benefit from fine-tuning based on the latest consumer psychology research.
     One example is the tactic “Use advertising, signage, merchandising, and personal selling to develop positive attitudes in the shopper.” The overall research finding has been that happy shoppers are more likely to buy your products and services. One big reason for this is that shoppers who are feeling positive—for whatever reasons—generalize the positive tone to the products and services they’re considering, so they see what you’re selling as being valuable. They’re also willing to pay more for your products and services because part of the value is now the positive tone associated with your store.
     Researchers at Arizona State University and University of Minnesota call this the “rose-colored glasses effect,” and point out that research has usually assumed it applies equally to all sorts of products and services offered by the retailer. But their findings—due to be published next August in Journal of Consumer Research—say that the lenses in those glasses come in at least two different hues:

• When the shopper has been made to feel proud and ambitious, they’ve a greater interest in products they can show off to others, but their interest in functional products—such as appliances unlikely to be seen by friends or family—doesn’t increase nearly as much.
• When the shopper’s positive feelings consist of contentment and satisfaction with the ways things are now, their interest in functional products grows much more than does their interest in items with social esteem.