Let Lonely Consumers Know They Belong

Even with the current abundance of internet-based social media, and perhaps because of internet-based social media, more American consumers say they’re socially isolated than the percentage of consumers saying this twenty years ago.
     That’s the report from researchers at University of Iowa, Stanford University, and University of British Columbia. Their research also provides guidance for selling to the lonely: These shoppers are drawn to products which, like the shopper, are yearning to belong. More specifically, consumers who are lonely are highly interested in products endorsed by a vocal minority of other consumers. At the start of the purchase process, they’ll want to look at the product choice praised by 20% of consumers before looking at the choice praised by 80% of consumers.
     Certain shopper populations are particularly likely to be feeling lonely. Senior citizens, for instance. In selling to any consumer you sense is feeling lonely, start out by talking about a product or service a discerning minority has found appealing. This will create a motivation to buy.
     However, once the shopper has expressed interest in the class of product you’re selling, switch to inviting that shopper to consider the majority-endorsed product. The Iowa/Stanford/British Columbia researchers found that when lonely customers went public with their own choices, such as would happen in telling the salesperson what they decided to buy, they wanted to be seen as considering the popular alternative. This is true even if they end up selecting the lonely minority-endorsed item.
     In other studies, consumer behavior experts from Arizona State University and Erasmus University in the Netherlands conclude that when people are feeling lonely, they become interested in items which remind them of their personal history in years gone by. This included preferences regarding automobiles, food brands, TV shows, movies, and even shower soap.
     At another point in the research, people who had been dropped from a game were offered a cookie carrying a brand name popular in the person’s past. Those who ate the treat ended up complaining less of loneliness than they did before.
     Of course, talking with a lonely person is a straightforward way of helping them know they belong—in your store shopping. Arizona State University and Texas Christian University researchers identified a passion evidenced by lonely consumers to visit stores where staff greet shoppers by name. We love to hear others say our name, as long as it’s said to welcome us.

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