The source article I used for this post was later withdrawn by the researchers because they found flaws in their data. I'm not removing the post because links to it might be stored in my readers' systems, and I don't want my readers to reach a "Page Can't Be Found" message. Please see my Comment to this post for more information.
Researchers at University of Toronto, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and China’s Sun Yat-sen University say you can do a better job of it by determining why the consumer thinks they were successful. If they think it was more because of their special abilities than because of their hard work, suggest a distinctive product or experience. In the experiments, people who said, “I truly felt that I am superior to others,” or, “I felt my success is due to something born to me,” were more likely to choose a distinctive looking shirt or a less popular luxury coffee maker than were people who said, “I felt my success is due to my hard work,” or, “I truly felt that if other people devote the same amount of effort, they can be as successful as me.” In an example of their point, the researchers predict that when pride in the accomplishment comes from a belief in superior abilities, celebration at a restaurant will include limited-edition hand-crafted microbrews rather than doses of the signature best-selling cocktail.
When a group, such as gathering of graduating seniors, is celebrating together, other psychological forces drive the purchase decisions. Whether a shopper is a variety seeker or conformist depends in part on the degree of conformity of others in the group. Again using the restaurant experience as an example, consider the findings of an observational study conducted with diners at Flam's in Paris by researchers from Sorbonne-Assas in France and University of Adelaide in Australia.
The researchers found that when about 30% to 80% of a group had ordered the same choice, people placing their orders next tended to go along with ordering this choice for themselves. But once the conformity exceeded 80%, subsequent orders were much more likely to show variety seeking.
If you're selling fancy bracelets or briefcases instead of brioche, or if you're doing business in Paris, Texas, instead of Paris, France, the percentages will probably be different. But in any case, do your merchandising and selling with the expectation you'll be having both conformists and variety seekers as celebrant shoppers. Welcome all, and remember to extend your sincere congratulations!
For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers
Click below for more:
Expect Shopper Conformity & Variety Seeking
Navigate Shoppers Toward Distinctiveness
Offer Variations to Ease Fear of Conformity
Distinguish Activity from Accomplishment
The research article on which I based this post was later withdrawn. I've left the post, rather than delete it, because I refer to it in posts I wrote later, and I don't want readers like you to reach a dead source.
ReplyDeleteHere is the notice published 11/22/2019:
Proud to Belong or Proudly Different? Lay Theories Determine Contrasting Effects of Incidental Pride on Uniqueness Seeking.
Xun (Irene) Huang, Ping Dong, Anirban Mukhopadhyay
In 2014, the Journal of Consumer Research published the article.
The first and third authors wish to retract the above-referenced article due to data and analysis anomalies they recently discovered across the studies underpinning the research. The editors of the Journal of Consumer Research have been unable to obtain a response from the second author. The editors agree that these anomalies make the findings reported in this article unreliable. The two co-authors and the editors apologize for any problems that the publication of this article may have caused.