Dog Decision Rigor During Dog Days

“Dog days,” the hottest time of the year wherever in the world, get their name from the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star, just before dawn during summer months in the Northern Hemisphere. As to how Sirius got the name “Dog Star,” that’s a whole different story, since most dogs I know are far from serious in disposition once they get to know you.
     With more scientific backing, “dog days” also refers to a time of sluggish activity and lazy thinking. A posting on The New Yorker blog references studies which show why shoppers during hot summer months prefer mental shortcuts to detailed analysis in making purchase decisions.

• When the weather is temperate, people would prefer to get their necessary shopping done with so they can move on to leisure activities. 
• Pleasant heat after a time of less pleasant cold raises people’s spirits, and happier people get more interested in shopping. 
• Prolonged high heat wearies shoppers’ muscles, thereby making them less alert and less resistant to spotting weak reasons for buying or not buying. 

     For the dog days in and around your store, be ready to present succinct arguments for buying, and have bullet-keen counterarguments to any flawed reasoning previously presented to your shoppers by other retailers.
     In some parts of the world summer days and at other times of the year up north, colder temperatures prevail. These also influence consumer decision making. In an article from a few years ago titled “Weather to Go to College,” business professor Uri Simonsohn of University of California-San Diego analyzed the enrollment decisions of 1,284 college prospects at a campus known for its academic strengths and recreational lacunae.
     It’s been known that people spend more time in serious pursuits during cloudy weather. Prof. Simonsohn’s study showed that the effects of this phenomenon can have broad consequences. If the day of the college prospect’s exploratory visit to the campus was especially cloudy, the odds that the prospect would choose to apply to that campus increased markedly. It seems that when the dog days are missing and perhaps missed, consumers are more interested in getting serious.
     Please notice that in these research studies, what makes the most difference is the change in the climate. Pleasant heat after a time of less pleasant cold raises our spirits. Degree of cloudiness higher than average affected college enrollment decisions.
     Dog how climate changes influence your shoppers’ decisions.

Click below for more: 
Profit from Shoppers’ Positive Moods 
Cool Summertime Shoppers