Tip Off Shoppers Before Manipulation

A vendor might offer you a cash incentive to push the selling of certain items. When accepting “push money” or “spiffs,” you might consider it proper to notify shoppers of the arrangement. If so, results from studies at University of Colorado-Boulder, Colorado State University, and University of Amsterdam indicate advantages in giving your notification early on.
     The studies had to do with product placements in media seen by consumers. The placements were sufficiently subtle for the people to often not notice them. Yet brand attitude was about 25% more positive with the product placement.
     In another set of studies, consumers were exposed to the media with product placement, but also told about the effort to manipulate their attitudes. When this disclosure was made afterwards, the brand attitude was about 16% less positive, while when the disclosure was made beforehand, the drop was 1%.
     Actually, even a drop of 16% could seem small when considering that the people were being told, “We’ll try to change your attitude.” It might seem that a reactance against influence would be triggered.
     Maybe the reason the resistance was minimal had to do with another effect: According to findings from research at Yale University and Carnegie Mellon University, in a transaction between a buyer and a seller, when the seller feels they’re being honest with the buyer about one aspect of the transaction, they’ll tend to give themselves permission to be dishonest with the buyer about other aspects of the transaction.
     Let’s assume a vendor says to you, “I recommend you try out a different brand. The cost to you will be the same as for what you’ve been carrying in the past, but my figures indicate you’ll sell more units more quickly.”
     With you being a retailer, you’ll be aware of the seller’s motivation that is shared by you and your vendors: In a transaction, the more money you spend with the vendors, the more money they make. Since you’re a smart retailer, you’ll aim to correct for that bias as you decide whether to start carrying the new brand.
     But the research indicates that if the vendor says before the pitch, “I’m recommending the changeover because my commission will be higher,” the vendor’s estimate of unit sales is likely to be much more inflated.
     With both your vendors and your shoppers, be aware of both the advantages and the distortions from early disclosures.

Click below for more: 
Sell to Fit Story Product Placement 
React When Faced with Reactance
Correct for Corruption from Candor 
Disclose Ethically