Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me

Wait a bit before you ask purchasers’ opinions. For consumer researchers, the term “sleeper effect” refers to a phenomenon first noted in political campaigning: When the arguments for a candidate were convincing and the person selling the arguments was irritating, the consumer would at first not be at all convinced, but after a period of time would forgot about the source and be persuaded by the message.
     Subsequent studies found that the sleeper effect works in a range of selling situations. What a shopper thinks about your store or about their purchases depends in part on when you ask for their opinions.
     Researchers at Seattle University and University of San Diego explored the intersection of sleeper effects and another classic finding, called the “framing effect.” People rate the same merchandise more positively when a description is framed positively than when framed negatively. For example, consumers are more likely to say they’ll buy a cut of beef described as 75% lean rather than 25% fat, even though both descriptions are referring to the same slab.
     The Seattle/San Diego researchers used a piece of gum in place of a slab of beef. Some of their study participants were told the gum had “more than 95% natural flavors,” while the others were told it had “less than 5% artificial flavors.” Then some in each group were asked their opinion of the gum immediately after consumption, while the others were asked after a delay of 10 to 50 minutes.
     For those who were asked immediately, no evidence of a framing effect appeared. These consumers depended on their personal experiences rather than taking the description into account. But there was a “sleeper framing effect” with those asked even that brief time afterwards. Those told the gum had more than 95% natural flavors gave higher ratings than those told it had less than 5% artificial flavors.
     Yet there was an exception to this, too. In another part of their study, the researchers used telephone ring tones as the item to be judged. One of the ring tones consisted of bees buzzing, selected as something the consumers would find to be highly unpleasant. That experience was so negative that even those given a positively-framed description and asked about the ring tone a while afterwards showed no sleeper framing effect.
     If you’re offering extremely irritating ring tones, chewing gum, or salespeople, the shoppers won’t sleep that off.

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

Click below for more: 
Sleep Away from Customer Irritation
Stress the Impact of Spreading Impressions
Frame with Phrasing