Let Your Shoppers Enjoy Being Influenced

Mary Hunt suspects you of being a deceitful rascal, retailer. Here are instructions from the multi-book consumer advocate to people who come into your store:

• Don’t browse. If you linger, the retailer’s music and lighting will seduce you into buying unneeded items.
• Carefully notice the predominant colors in the store. They’re there to direct your shopping speed. If you concentrate on resisting, you’ll take back control.
• When you come to store carpeting, avoid walking on it, since the carpeting is set up to pull you through the store as the retailer wishes.
• Never touch an item—even to look at the price tag—unless you’re sure you want to buy it.
• Ask a salesperson for assistance only if really necessary. Retailers know that the more shopper-employee contact, the greater the average sale.

     Those are from Ms. Hunt’s article in the August 2010 issue of Woman’s Day. She introduces her list by writing, “…I’m no fool,” implying that the rest of us may very well be fools unless we take her advice.
     In his 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard detailed the consumer psychology tactics being used to sell people what they wouldn’t buy otherwise. An outcome of Mr. Packard’s book was that he made lots of money. Over one million copies have been sold. Another outcome was that psychologist Ernest Dichter—whose techniques were a major focus in the book—gained abundant fame and an abundance of consulting gigs. And a third result was that people had great fun trying to figure out how their unconscious motives were getting tickled. Everybody gained.
     Mary Hunt might be overlooking the ways in which ethical retailers aim to provide full value to consumers. But the suspicions she expresses are common enough that ethical retailers need to acknowledge them.
     I’ll bet readers of Ms. Hunt’s article are going to have fun figuring out how they’re being influenced by the shopkeepers whose stores they enter. And as decades of consumer psychology research confirms, when customers pay attention while shopping, the retailers profit.
     Let your shoppers get a kick out of being influenced. There’s a part of all of us which enjoys dealing with a bit of a rascal. That’s because there’s a part of all of us which is at least a bit of a rascal.

Click below for more:
Analyze the Role the Customer Expects
Consider Publicizing Your Rascal Image
Exercise Cultural Sensitivity in Color
Encourage Customers to Touch the Products