Motivate Shoppers Using Their Time Benchmarks

When it comes to money, researchers at Colorado State University and Washington State University confirm that a price of $3.99 seems noticeably less to a shopper than does a price of $4.00. There’s a motivational dividing point between $3.99 and $4.00.
     When it comes to time, there are also important dividing points. Researchers at University of South Carolina offered a movie pass to theatre patrons one summer. For about half of the patrons, getting the movie pass required completing a survey, which took about seven minutes. So that the researchers could compare time with money, a matching set of patrons were offered the movie pass for $3—no survey completion required.
     Now another wrinkle in the experimental design: About half the tickets in each group were marked for use later that summer. The others were marked for use the following fall.
     What difference did this make? For those who spent the $3, the percentage of fall ticket usage was the same as that for the summer tickets. People put out the money, and they were going to get their money’s worth. But among the patrons who earned their ticket by spending seven minutes of time, the season of usage made a big difference. People were significantly more likely to end up using the ticket if marked for the summer than if marked for the fall.
     It appears that when it comes to time, benchmarks like a change in the season go into defining benefits and value. Money spent in the summer can be redeemed for a reward in the fall, but time spent in the summer tends to lose value as the calendar rolls over to the next season.
     If checking on product or service availability, you’ll need to find out the actual date the customer wants the item. But whenever motivating the shopper by describing product or service benefits, determine whether they define that date as soon or as the future.
     Consumers pay attention to different features depending upon when they plan to start using the purchase. If usage is planned for soon, ease of use is especially important. If usage is planned for the future, distinctive features are especially important. The difference between soon and the future is defined by the consumer’s particular time benchmarks.

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