Game Seniors to Manipulate Engagement

There are video games which have been validated as effective at slowing or even reversing deterioration in elderly adults’ motor skills and reasoning abilities. But fast-paced games don’t suit seniors well, and any improvements are limited to the specific skill required for the particular video game.
     What about the general idea of gamification with seniors—introducing characteristics of games into products and services in order to increase interest? After reviewing twelve studies of this idea, researchers at Finland’s Tampere University and Aalto University saw the advantages and suggested best practices to use those advantages. The mean age of the participants in the studies was 71 years.
     The term “gamification” may be relatively new, but the appeal of games in the life of the consumer certainly isn’t. Customers have always loved to play games used as sales promotions. Scratch-off discounts. Sweepstakes. “Design our new logo” or “Name our new service” or “Tell us in 25 words or less why you shop at our store.”
     In the twelve studies reviewed by the researchers, what differed from those gamification examples was the use of digital technologies and the payoff being personal improvement rather than an award from a retailer. Effectiveness was shown for games which improved diabetes control, reduced elderly depression, and increased feelings of empowerment. Other studies have seen success with games designed to convince seniors to exercise regularly and to avoid dangers, such as the danger of falling in the home, then show the seniors how.
     The gamification characteristics which seem important for such success include clear goals, levels of difficulty based on the player’s progress, indicators of progress such as points, and ways for the player to socialize. This last one could be achieved by having multiple game play via the internet. An alternative might be the ability of the player to compare their scores with what others have achieved.
     Moving beyond the twelve studies of digital gamification, board games for seniors encourage socialization. Marketing of such games can be challenging. Some years ago, Richard Gottlieb, respected authority on the business of play, spoke about working with a client who wanted to bring to market games designed for senior citizens. Both the game pieces and the print fonts were extra large. But Ghent University and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School research indicated, ironically, that people think gigantic game pieces and super-large print are for young children, not mature elders.

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Game On with Consumer Competition
Enliven Senior Sales with Lifelong Learning
Remember Effective Senior Memory Training
Manage Risks for Seniors Who Gamble
Assume Multiple Personalities to Merchandise

Churn Better to Whip Up Sales

A principle of good business is to keep customers coming back for more. Yet there are businesses providing services in which success is defined by high churn. Current customers leave, and the business continually solicits new customers to take their place. Effective weight loss and smoking cessation programs aim to cure bad habits for the long-term. Reputable attorneys, surgeons, psychotherapists, and chiropractors discharge the client when the presenting problems are resolved.
     These situations qualify as positive churn. The satisfied customers serve as a resource for referring the next prospective group of clients. In contrast, negative churn occurs when the reasons people don’t consider returning is that they were dissatisfied. Then they’re likely to criticize the business to others, depressing engagement with new prospects even further.
     To be sure, the major cause of negative churn is insufficient service effectiveness. Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Kühne Logistics University find this is often due to inaccurate expectations about what the client is to contribute. Services businesses require varying degrees of client effort.
     The context in which the researchers explored this was on-line dating. The effort expected of the client was sending messages and compliments to prospective matches who has posted profiles. In the data analysis, it was found that clients of the service who sent out many more messages than they received were less likely to show positive churn and more likely to show negative churn. However, those who received many more messages and compliments than they sent out were neither more nor less likely to show either positive or negative churn. There also was no evidence that a client’s self-rated attractiveness influenced the results.
     The implications for online dating services are to encourage clients to send out many messages, train clients how to improve the odds of receiving responses to messages, and set realistic expectations for response rates. The implications for high-churn services businesses in general are to be clear about what will be required to get the best from the service and to provide ways to make participation as easy as possible.
     Then consider better ways to transform positive churn into repeat business. Job search customers could be encouraged to continue their subscriptions to stay current on what’s available as they plan their next career move. Matchmaking services might appeal to shoppers looking for a succession of dating companions rather than settling into a search for the one best marriage partner.

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Observe Risks of Your Obsolescence
Empower Indirectly Using Co-creation

Phrase Discounts to Encourage Visualizing Use

When shoppers visualize receiving benefits from use of a product or service, they become more likely to purchase that item. This fact is particularly important to marketers who want to tempt consumers to consider items which are potentially of interest, but not currently top-of-mind. Offering a promotional discount aids in this. Announcing the promotion in a way which enhances visualizing the benefits of the purchase helps further.
     Researchers at University of Michigan and Koç University suggest providing specifics. In their studies, “Matching shirt 50% off with purchase of jeans” produced better consumption visions and perception of an attractive deal than did “Any second item 50% off with purchase of jeans.” And “Matching shirt 50% off with purchase of jeans” worked even better than “Second pair of jeans 50% off with purchase of first pair.” It’s easier for the consumer to imagine wearing a shirt and jeans together than imagine wearing two pairs of jeans together.
     If the shopper is distracted, difference in phrasing makes less difference. That’s because imagining requires mental energy. So why not make it easier on the consumer by showing a photo, video, or drawing of usage? Other research provides the answer: When asking a shopper to imagine product or service usage, having them fill in the blanks helps make the sale. Give the shopper the minimum amount of information necessary to set up the imagining. Then be ready to provide more details if the shopper asks. The power of imagining is greater when a person fills in their own blanks.
     University of Bamberg studies indicate an exception to this. Showing an image of use might facilitate the sale when the benefits of item use are complicated to explain so shoppers will perceive themselves as having limited knowledge about it. In such cases, they won’t know what to visualize.
     Whether or not you’re offering a promotional discount or including an image such as a photo, using sensory words in the marketing text stimulates visualizing. University of Michigan researchers presented one of two chewing gum ads to consumers. The first version read “Stimulate your senses.” The other ad mentioned only taste, reading “Long-lasting flavor.” All the study participants then sampled the gum.
     Those people reading the multiple-sensory version before the sampling gave higher ratings to the flavor of the gum. The researchers found parallel results for the multiple-sensory versus taste-only advertising/sampling with potato chips and with popcorn.

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Use Synesthesia to Reinforce Store Image
Fill In Blanks Positively With Consumers
Dream Consumption Visions of the Past
Relax Caution About Comparative Imagining

Go Bold or Au Naturel for Packaging Healthy

A shopper’s decision whether to purchase an item is different from deciding how much to pay for the item. This can be seen in a pair of studies about effects of package colors on buying healthful foods. Put together, the findings indicate that bold package colors persuade people to consider making the purchase, but those who are seeking healthy foods are willing to pay more when the package colors are bland.
     Much past research concluded that consumers consider healthfulness and tastiness to be incompatible. This was especially true for children. If an item is really healthy, it is bound to taste really bad. Researchers at University of Vienna think they’ve found a way around this. They showed groups of consumers photos of packaging of snack products, smoothies, and juices. Some of the items were likely to be familiar to the consumers, while others were fictitious items created for the studies. Some of the photos of the packaging were in bold colors, others less bold, and the remainder in grayscale with all color removed.
     People generally evaluated the items portrayed as having boldly colored packaging to be both heathier and tastier. The researchers’ experimental design allowed them to spot an explanation for this: Bolder colors signal greater freshness. A bright red apple is more appealing to us than is an old brown one.
     That’s how evolution has designed our brains. Manufacturing and marketing have distorted the relationship such as by adding artificial sweeteners and synthetic colors to items. The research studies did not prove that foods in boldly colored packaging are healthier or tastier. They only verified that the bright colors will give that impression. It is still the manufacturer’s responsibility to deliver on the promise.
     But for shoppers seeking healthy foods, willingness to pay is linked to use on packaging of colors which are “au naturel.” This is the descriptor coined by University of London, University of Messina, and University of Calabria researchers for colors like cream, sandy beiges, and mellow browns. These evoke associations with the earth, which causes shoppers to agree to pay higher amounts for the items because the items seem to be more authentically healthy. Importantly, this willingness-to-pay effect does not hold for items the shopper considers to be unhealthy. But for the healthy items, au naturel colors work better than even green, which has previously been associated with organic production.

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Unchain for Health
Saturate Hungry Shoppers with Vibrant Colors
Color Appetites with Fitting Hues
Portray Freshness in CPGs

Calibrate Store Congestion & Clutter

Store crowding interacting with store messiness brews shopper confusion. Confused shoppers buy less. Those findings from studies at University of Illinois-Springfield and Istanbul Technical University do have important exceptions, though. Know how to keep a balance in the brew.
     The researchers defined shopper confusion as consisting of irritation, inefficiency, and feelings of helplessness. Store crowding with other shoppers caused increases in all three of these somewhat, but store messiness increased the three significantly more. The hit to spending was greater for recreational than for task-oriented shopping. It can take the form of postponing or abandoning purchase decisions, failure to notice in-store discounts and impulse buys, and not wanting to shop at the store again.
     The clear implication is to minimize store congestion and clutter. Yet a busy store is itself more profitable, and heavy foot traffic can crowd the aisles and at least temporarily mess up the merchandise. In addition, other research finds upsides. When shoppers expect crowding, such as during holiday shopping and landmark product introductions, the congestion adds excitement to both task-oriented and recreational shopping.
     Researchers at Lehigh University and Drexel University pointed out that the impact of crowding depends on the prior experiences of the consumer shopping in crowds, the expectations of the consumer about the degree of crowding they’ll encounter, and the personality structure of the consumer. Those studies were conducted before the COVID-19 epidemic, which adds another layer of complexity to the effects of potentially contagion-filled crowding and contamination-filled clutter.
     Messiness in a mass merchandise outlet or popup store projects the impression of great price breaks. Added to this, although shoppers as a general rule seek simplicity, a certain amount of complexity is needed in order to maintain shopper interest. Introduce enough incongruity, enough surprise, so that the shopper slows down for a moment to appreciate the sales message. If the layout is overly sterile, the viewer processes it all immediately and then moves on—beyond the range of a possible add-on or upgrade.
     Calibrate to fit your situation. But in all cases, head off the confusion. Have good signage and accessible salespeople. Maintain variety within product categories. According to studies at Columbia University and University of British Columbia, when shoppers from Western cultures are in tight spaces, they want greater variety. If they have fewer choices, they'll become less comfortable. But arrange product selections horizontally rather than vertically, since this eases shopper scanning.

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Crowd Humanized Brands Cautiously
Manage Store Clutter Strategically
Prop Up Frenzy with Pop-Up Servicescapes?
Sidle Eyeballs for Variety Purchasing
Anticipate Aesthetics Avoidance
Use Signage to Categorize Items

Bet on “Better Than Average” in Your Staff

The results of an admittedly nonscientific poll published by the New York Times in June 2016 were that 16% of respondents had replied, “I’m Average,” 1% with, “I’m Below Average,” and a robust 83% with “I’m Above Average.” A succession of scientific polls over the years substantiates that about 80% of us do think we’re above average compared to others in our reference group.
     There have been exceptions. A survey of college professors found that 94% thought they were above average in carrying out the responsibilities of being a college professor. In a 2015 survey of high school students, about 70% said they were above the average level for math skills in high school students. I’m thinking maybe that last one is about 70% instead of about 80% because loads of high school students are bad at both percentages and estimating.
     A June 2020 survey report from Texas Christian University and UCLA documents this “Better Than Average” effect in a different way: Responding to questions about nine trait and skill areas by a set of 84 U.S. adults ages 20 to 25, the highest average ratings were about 7 on a 10-point scale for “Honesty” and “Capacity for hard work.” None of the nine self-ratings was below 5. The prompt was, “How would you say your [trait or skill strength] compares with other people your age?”
     Now at this point, please pause to realize how what these people have been and are saying presents a mathematical impossibility. Reality precludes more than 50% of people being above average in a trait or skill among their reference group. My purpose in pointing this out to you is this: When you meet with a staff member you supervise in order to deliver an objective appraisal of their job performance, odds are that they will think they’re doing better than you think they are.
     In performance appraisal, minimize surprises for yourself and for the person receiving your critique. Here are two tips I give to participants in the “Performance Management” course I’ve been teaching at University of Nevada-Reno for more than two decades:

• Make performance feedback a process rather than an event. Give it regularly, not only at annual reviews. 
• Prior to each performance appraisal meeting, ask the employee to write you how they’d rate themselves on the skill areas. This alerts you to where you’ll want to have extra examples to give. 

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Sell Optimism
Position Your Team a Little Bit Behind
Let Go of Grudges

Convert Shoppers with Lucky Discounts

For a special sale, you could advertise a 20% discount good on any one item. But a set of University of Colorado, University of Connecticut, and Virginia Tech studies suggest you should instead offer a game of chance in which the shopper might get a 20% discount, a larger discount, or a smaller one. You’re more likely to make the sale and, for most of the game participants, produce feelings of good luck which stimulate further purchases.
     As you’d guess, the larger the discount the customer ends up winning, the greater the feelings of luck and positive store attitude. But even a small resultant discount shows the effect. In the study, those winning a 10% discount spent more money than an equivalent group who were just offered a 10% discount without needing to play the game.
     The effect does seem stronger for hedonic than for utilitarian items. For all items, the promotional game increases the number of customers who will subsequently make purchases. There is less influence on how much each customer spends.
     What about those who don’t win any discount? It turns out that they are no less likely to spend money than for an equivalent group to whom a discount in any form was not even mentioned. There appears to be no downside to using the game of chance beyond the costs of producing and managing it.
     For almost all shoppers, this type of game of chance adds fun to what could otherwise be a routine transaction. Studies at The Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University indicate customers who believe they’ve gone above and beyond to patronize your store will be especially attracted to the game-of-chance discount. They already feel luckier when shopping with you. A shopper’s belief they’ve made an extra effort can arise in a variety of ways:

• High frequency shopping with you 
• Driving a longer distance to shop with you 
• Selecting an item with plans to use it in the future rather than now 
• Choosing an item for use by somebody else 
• Shopping with children in tow 

     However, the widespread attractiveness of such a game of chance doesn’t hold with loyalty program rewards. People with an Asian mindset prefer large loyalty rewards earned with an element of fate. They’ll like the sweepstakes tickets. But people with a Western mindset want more certainty. Small rewards for fewer points, big rewards for those who save up points.

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Shape Benefits As Hedonic or Utilitarian
Show Devoted Customers How to Get Lucky
Tailor Loyalty Programs to Customer Culture

Address Ancillary Fees as Personalizing

Your customers might not recognize what the marketing term “drip pricing” refers to. However, they sure know what it’s like. It’s when a seller announces additional fees after the customer makes the initial purchase decision. It could be that your customers first encountered drip pricing when booking air travel. Want to check another bag? The price of your ticket just went up. Want more leg room? Sure, that’s available, but it’ll cost you. Or it could be that your customers learned to avoid retailers who tempt them with an unrealistically low item price and then quote a succession of fees to make the item usable. Drip. Drip. Drip. This is the malevolent form of what’s called “partitioned pricing.”
     Avoid the trust-busting of drip pricing by announcing your menu of ancillary fees before asking the shopper to commit to the purchase. That’s the research-based advice from an international team at California State University-Long Beach, Macquarie University, Seoul National University, and Gachon University. The advice is accompanied by news of a way to develop appeal of the menu: Present it as a way for the shopper to personalize their purchase. Consumers like personalization.
     With this approach, the researchers found that the degree of acceptance was as high for multiple added fees as for a single added fee. It didn’t come across as drip, drip, drip. However, the cost of each surcharge does matter. Research findings from Adelphi University, University of Alabama-Huntsville, and University of Dayton indicate that each fee should not exceed 20% of the base item price.
     Still, this approach won’t work in all cases. Your customers may have had eyes opened up to drip pricing while settling up the hotel bill. What’s this resort fee, never mentioned when the room reservation was made? The fee is not an option.
     The answer here, say the researchers, is to foster in buyers an appreciation for the seller deserving fair compensation. This happens when buyers trust the seller. Provide an explanation for the fee and, if possible, the way in which the basis for the fee benefits the buyer. Researchers at University of Pennsylvania and University of Florida found that customer anger is most likely when a retailer's explanation for a surcharge is something like transportation or insurance. They concluded that the explanations most likely to head off customer anger center on the cost of goods to the retailer from the supplier.

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Corner Risks with Partitioned Pricing
Drive Personalization by Fostering Narcissism
Buttress Trust with Clarity
Gas What Your Shoppers Are Worried About!

Scan Shopper Use of Handheld Scanners

Having your customers scan their purchases as they shop, using handheld devices you provide or an app on their own phone, could save you money in store staffing and speed the checkout process. But what are the effects on customers’ buying behavior?, researchers at Babson College, University of Tennessee, and University of Bath wondered.
     In a set of studies, they found that, on average, use of a handheld scanner increases the basket total. This generally came from the user buying more items rather than buying higher-priced items. The additional items were largely those classified as impulse or healthy. My interpretation of this is that people justified to themselves buying an impulse item by also purchasing a healthy item.
     This increase in basket total might not be what you’d expect to happen. Using the scanner increases awareness of how many items you’re purchasing and the price of each item. You could think this would stifle spending. However, the effect was the opposite in most cases. The many shoppers who stay conscious of their budget relax a bit when they can delegate the tabulation to the scanner. In fact, the minority of people who said they shop without a budget spent less, on average, when using the device.
     Parallel findings resulted with use of another tracking device. Researchers affiliated with Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Groningen, Maastricht University, and Wageningen University conducted a study in a set of Atlanta grocery stores using shopping carts containing a panel displaying a running total of purchase costs. In this study, budget shoppers spent about 22% more than those without that smart cart, while non-budget shoppers spent about 19% less.
     Such self-service purchase technologies slow the shopper down and cause them to pay closer attention to items. The devices also can be programmed to issue answers to questions a shopper has about an item. Shopper involvement builds. Expect handheld scanners to give a more uniform sales lift than do smart carts, though. This is because research finds that scanner users subconsciously consider the device to be an extension of their body rather than separate from it. This puts the shopper psychologically closer to each item which is being evaluated. The closeness stimulates purchasing.
     In a retail era when minimum physical interaction with merchandise is preferred during purchase, shoppers might choose to keep their hands off scanners. Yet they could always wear gloves.

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Border Shoppers’ Uncertainty
Serve Yourself to SST Guarantees
Sense the Pleasure from Tactile Ordering
Balance Healthy and Indulgent in Merchandise