Redirect with Evil Envy

For any retailer who thinks about dollar bills, green is great. So how about getting green with envy? Make some money from jealousy! Research findings from Tilburg University in the Netherlands indicate that when a consumer shopping for a product envies someone who owns that product, they’re willing to spend more money on their purchase.
     In some cases, it’s more money on the product owned by the other person. In other cases, it’s more money on a competing product. Understanding how this works gives you one more tool to redirect shoppers toward products that best serve both their needs and your profitability.
     When a shopper believes the other person earned the right to the advantages of owning the product, that shopper is willing to pay a premium for owning the product themselves. The extra money is like a tribute to the respected person. In the research, people who had this benign envy of someone owning an iPhone, for instance, were willing to pay an average of €80 extra for their own iPhone.
     What about the shopper who believes the other person doesn’t deserve the good fortune? There is then a desire to show that what the other person has isn’t so great, after all. In the research study, people with this malicious envy were also willing to spend more money, but on a competing product, like a BlackBerry instead of an iPhone.
     Consumer psychologists talk about aspirational groups, to which a shopper wants to belong, and dissociative groups, from which a shopper wants to distance themselves. Direct your shoppers toward the right choices with references that stimulate aspirational envy, and redirect them from other choices by referring to celebrity endorsers or others whose names will activate evil envy.

• Stay aware of how a repeat shopper’s aspirational group might change over time. Newly minted MBAs may aspire to become part of a business professionals’ culture. Hispanic youth attending a U.S. university might aspire to view themselves as mainstream American college kids, but only for the first year. Similarly, changes occur regarding dissociative groups.
• Whether a product endorser arouses respect or evil envy also can change over time. Marketing agency Zeta Interactive found that positive buzz on the Internet about bicyclist Lance Armstrong dropped dramatically from early July into early August 2010. Zeta Interactive attributed the drop to suspicions Mr. Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs during races.

Click below for more:
Notice Customers’ Cultural Aspirations
Select Celebrity Endorsers Who Have Credibility
Make Your Sales Staff Celebrity Endorsers