Researchers at University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota showed ads for athletic shoes and then asked the viewers to describe people who would own these shoes. The shoes in all versions of the ad were absolutely indistinguishable. But for some participants, the shoes were identified as coming from Kmart. For the other participants, the ad identified the shoes as available at Nike stores.
The eight-year-old participants gave similar descriptions of the shoe owners. Shoes are shoes. With children only four years older, however, the Kmart shoppers were less likely to be described as smart or popular than were the shoppers who had made their purchase at a Nike retailer.
But even eight-year-old consumers make contextual assumptions. Researchers at University of Utah showed children pairs of pictures of houses and cars. One of each pair had a substantially higher market value than the other. For example, one of the cars was a large family car and the other was a small economy car. Each child was asked to pick the car or house that would be owned by a certain type of person—for instance, “a doctor” or “a grandfather.” Doctors and grandfathers go for bigger cars and houses, said children ages eight and above.
Create prestige for items you sell by displaying to your shoppers the contextual cues for the values your shoppers hold. Show the clothing worn, the other products used, and the sorts of physical locations that consumers associate with the people your shoppers want to be like. Do this in advertising, store displays, e-commerce pages, and to the extent you can, even in what your salespeople wear and the type of language they use.
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