Verify Suspicious Recollections

Researchers at Southern Methodist University and College of William and Mary showed some study participants ads for Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Fresh microwave popcorn. The ads included vivid language designed to stimulate the imagination. About a week later, the participants were asked their attitudes toward Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Fresh microwave popcorn. They also were asked if they’d eaten the stuff.
     Those who had seen the ads, but had never actually eaten it, were as likely to say they did eat it as were people who, instead of seeing the ads, were given a popcorn to eat identified as Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Fresh microwave popcorn.
     How do I know that the ad-only group hadn’t ever eaten it? Because there never was any such product. They might have eaten an Orville Redenbacher product, but it wasn’t that one. The ad-only group misremembered.
     Some of your shoppers may fully believe they’ve had experiences they’ve never truly had. They might recall seeing a price on TV or hearing about a price from a friend, but that memory is mistaken. They might have a negative opinion of a product or brand they only believe they’d tried out.
     The Southern Methodist/William and Mary research and other findings identify certain factors which make this sort of misremembering more likely:

• Vividness. Does an ad use phrases which evoke imagery or include colorful, dramatic images? A group in the study that read a less vivid ad were less likely to say they’d eaten the popcorn.
• Plausibility. The Orville Redenbacher name is familiar, and the phrase “Gourmet Fresh” sounds like a good name for popcorn, so thinking you’ve eaten it is plausible. Participants in the study who were shown vivid ads for Pop Joy’s Gourmet Fresh were not, one week later, anywhere as likely to say they’d eaten it than those who had been told one week earlier that the popcorn they were eating was Pop Joy’s Gourmet Fresh.
• Motivation. It’s reported that in a Market Strategies International survey of consumers, about 14% of the respondents said they had used a Segway Personal Transporter. Considering that there are only about 80,000 Segways are in use worldwide, and most of those are owned by police forces, it looked like many people only wanted to believe they’d used one.

     Or the purported Segway users were intentionally lying.
     In any case, do verify shopper recollections you suspect to be mistaken.

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