Trick Me Once, I’m Outta Here

Suppose you run a restaurant. A public relations agency for a food company client says: “We’d like to rent your place for five nights to play a trick. We’ll tell invitees we’re treating them to a fine-dining meal, but will instead serve them items prepared from a Marie Callender’s frozen food line. We’ll secretly record their reactions, with the intention to use the praise in advertising and social media campaigns. We will, of course, reveal the whole truth to the diners after the meal is completed.”
     Would you accept the offer? Before deciding, consider what happened, as described by The New York Times: Many of the diners were outraged. And since the invitations had specifically been issued to popular bloggers, the bad feelings overflowed across the internet.
     The old saying is, “Trick me once, shame on you. Trick me twice, shame on me.” With retailing, the customer might not even return to your store after the first trick. However, other tricks can lend positive excitement to the shopping experience. What makes the difference?

• Degree of deception. The restaurant hoax was elaborate. The dinner was preceded with a presentation by celebrity chef George Duran, who the guests were told was responsible for preparing their meal. You are more likely to be forgiven for brief, simple tricks.
• Degree of respect. The NYT article reports that some of the bloggers said they’d revealed before the meal their allergies to food coloring and desire to avoid high-calorie foods. But the items that were served had artificial ingredients and were high in sodium.
• Degree of contrition. After the outrage became clear and the last of the scheduled dinners was cancelled, the director of corporate communications at the public relations agency said, “(T)here were people who were disappointed and we’re sorry. We apologize that they felt that way.” On its own, this indicates little regret. Closer to the mark would have been, “We’re sorry for what we did which resulted in some of the diners being deeply disappointed. We apologize and now understand fully why a number of the diners felt that way.”

     More than 60% of the tricked diners reported having a favorable impression of Marie Callender’s, so might choose to buy the items in the future. But consumer psychology research findings suggest that, if you collaborated in such a trick, those fooled would become more likely to shop for the merchandise somewhere else.

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Intrigue, But Don’t Mislead