Feather Your Shoppers with Light Thoughts

Researchers at National University of Singapore have been studying the effects of a shopper’s physical tension on purchase behavior. In collaboration with University of Chicago researchers, they found that clenching one’s fists at the moment of temptation strengthens resistance to making a buy.
     Timing counts here. If the shopper bunches up his fists, extends his fingers, contracts his calf muscles, or stiffen his biceps too far in advance of facing the temptation, he will fatigue himself, with the result that he’s actually more likely to end up succumbing.
     This suggests that when your prospective customer is tense at the moment of the sale, it will be more difficult for you to overcome objections. I guess you could keep the tension high for a while, fatiguing the prospect into submission. Better yet, though, is to relax the shopper a bit.
     That idea is central to a later set of studies, this time in a collaboration of researchers at National University of Singapore and Chinese University of Hong Kong. First, it was confirmed that physical tension does lead to consumers taking relatively routine purchase decisions quite seriously. To produce tension, the participants were asked to hold shopping bags full of water bottles. Then another set of participants who had carried the heavy weight were instructed to think about feathers and balloons. It turned out that this was sufficient to lighten the mental load. These feather-weight participants were more open-minded when thinking about purchase evaluations.
     Lift the spirits of your shoppers. An abundance of research finds that if store staff exude a positive mood, it increases sales.
     It was in spring 2005 that Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops introduced customers to a special selection of new flavors. With names like Chocolate Therapy, Apple-y Ever After, and The Last Straw, these flavors were not, as it happens, designed to stimulate the romantic urges we associate with spring. No, the Ben & Jerry’s folks intended the new flavors to soothe rather than stimulate.
     Ben & Jerry’s had been receiving bundles of correspondence about what an entire sorority had named their “breakup ice cream brand of choice.” The ice cream shops were ready to lift the spirits of their recently-dumped customers.
     Context does matter, though. When life has tarred and feathered you, feathers may not lighten your thoughts. If your customer is feeling grumpy, she might not want a salesperson flaunting nonstop happiness.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more:
Clench Your Fists to Fight Temptation
Start Your Shoppers Feeling Yes
Lift the Spirits of Your Customers