Lessen Emphasis on Less Bad Sometimes

When Coca-Cola announced, “Our Bonaqua lightweight mineral water bottles are specially engineered to use 34% less plastic,” you might expect the purchase likelihood of the product would grow. But studies at City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong indicate that the opposite can happen. Consumers could respond, “Gee, I wasn’t even thinking about how my mineral water comes entombed in a slug of plastic. I’ll stop buying bottled mineral water.”
     To avoid this negative response, the researchers discovered, persuade shoppers to pay more attention to the decrease in the bad than to the presence of the bad. Accomplish this by discussing the upsides of change generally. When presented with a benefit claim of reduction in a negative attribute, accompanying it with “We understand that customers always change over the course of their lives,” resulted in greater product attractiveness than did, “We understand that customers are always committed to consistency over the course of their lives.”
     It also worked to briefly describe the advantages of even small decreases in the negative characteristic. Again, the objective was to portray the characteristic as occurring in degrees of intensity rather than as a binary “there or not there.”
     Studies at Indiana University and University of Pittsburg cover another approach on this issue: Consumers distinguish between resolvable and irresolvable attributes. Resolvable attributes are those which can be corrected or repaired. Irresolvable product attributes are those for which correction requires purchase of a replacement item. Whether an attribute is resolvable or irresolvable comes from how the customer thinks about it. To reduce the possible damage from claims about a decrease in the negative, present it as resolvable. “To deliver mineral water to you, we need to have a container, but the nature of that container can be improved.”
     Still, because of the risk of it doing damage, you might choose not to highlight the decrease in a negative attribute. If you’re doing well enough, it can be best to leave well enough alone.
     Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania researchers compiled a list of thousands of the retailer’s customers who could lower their monthly fee by changing their monthly plan. Of those contacted about the available decrease in cost, about 10% cancelled their service within three months. Of those not contacted, about 6% cancelled. Being told they could have been saving money led to subscriber disquiet.

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Resolve to Investigate by Attribute Type  

Leave Well Enough Alone if Well Enough