Prefer Rating Scales to Preference Polls

Telling shoppers that 82% of people similar to them prefer your offering compared to a parallel offering from another supplier does not tell the shoppers by how much more the similar others prefer yours. Researchers at National University of Singapore, Universitat Ramon Llull, and Università Bocconi say this limitation can be used by marketers to accentuate the appeal of their items.
     Unlike data from rating scales, in which people assess items on a continuum from 1 to 10 for instance, data from polls are simpler for respondents to provide and simpler for marketers to present. Further, it makes intuitive sense that if 90% of consumers prefer Pepsi to Coke, for example, the difference which would be shown on a rating scale is likely to be larger than if 60% of consumers prefer Pepsi to Coke. Using the size of polled preference as a measure of the underlying rating scale preference is a good way to save time and mental effort.
     However, problems arise in circumstances where consumers overestimate the difference in preferences. People frequently misinterpret the results of polls. The researchers found this happens even with consumers who have expertise about the item category and when the consumers are knowledgeable about data analytics.
     Small differences in preferences between two items are more likely than are large differences. This is true when considering only a statistical analysis, independent of how consumers make decisions. In my email exchange about the study with Prof. Graham N. Overton, the primary researcher, he adds, “Our real-world data also suggests this is often true even when one does consider how consumers make decisions. I believe our datasets on votes, beers, movies, and jokes demonstrate smaller differences are often more likely than larger ones.”
     This finding also makes intuitive sense: We compare a liking for Pepsi with that for Coke because both have been considered promising candidates to satisfy a desire. We’re not interested in reading a poll that says whether consumers prefer to drink Pepsi rather than drink vinegar.
     The researchers also found that this overestimation is greatly reduced after the consumer sees a graph of the frequency of various differences in liking which can lead to an overall poll average of a 50% preference. But since marketers are unlikely to conduct this demonstration, a more practical implication from the findings is for ethical marketers to report rating scale results.

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Request Attribute Ratings of the Subpar 

Pile Plenty of Political Polls on People

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Expect That Fantasizing Use Might Hurt

Expectations are judgments of how likely events are to occur. Ad copy reading “Expect the great taste and health benefits of Naturela juice” would stimulate the reader to pursue goals in terms of expectations. Fantasies consist of compelling images of future events without regard to how likely the events are to occur. Ad copy reading “Imagine the great taste and health benefits of Naturela juice” would stimulate the reader to pursue goals in terms of fantasies.
     Some consumer researchers call such fantasies consumption visions—mental images vivid and specific enough to let a shopper vicariously experience the benefits and difficulties of item usage.
     Those prompts are for positively-toned expectations and fantasies. Ad copy could also stimulate negatively-toned counterparts: “Expect missing out on the great taste and health benefits of Naturela juice” and “Imagine missing out on the great taste and health benefits of Naturela juice.”
     Ad copy of those four sorts was presented by Lehigh University researchers to study participants. Each participant group read one of the four message types. Each individual participant was then asked to evaluate the Naturela brand and to indicate their likelihood of trying the juice.
     Compared to participants prompted to imagine positive outcomes, participants prompted to expect positive outcomes rated the Naturela brand more favorably and indicated a greater likelihood of trying the juice. However, with the negative outcome prompts, the comparison was reversed: Compared to participants prompted to imagine negative outcomes, participants prompted to expect negative outcomes rated the Naturela brand less favorably and indicated a lower likelihood of trying the juice.
     The researchers explain the pattern of findings in the context of developing and implementing a course of action: When the consumer fantasizes about positive outcomes of product use, this fulfills some of the consumer’s need to actually use the product, so the likelihood of use decreases and the brand attraction lessens. But an expectation of positive outcomes, without going on to imagine usage, increases interest in the brand and in use.
     On the other hand, when expecting or imagining negative outcomes, apprehension about use flips the comparison around.
     These findings can guide your development of ad copy. Another of the studies in the researchers’ set provides additional advice: If you have a shopper detail how they’d make a purchase decision, subsequently asking them to expect a negative outcome or imagine a positive outcome may not depress their likelihood of trying the item.

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Dream Consumption Visions of the Past 

Model Ads Around the Right Model Type

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Tease Out Sales by Teasing Consumers

Consumers relate better to brands which kid around. Gentle humor stimulates connection. But what about humor which consists of teasing the consumer? Researchers at Duke University and HEC Montreal find that the consequence depends on whether the teasing plays with the consumer’s identity or disparages the consumer’s identity.
     In one of the studies, participants were exposed to an ad for a Pizza Hut 2-for-1 Valentine’s Day Special. For some participants, the ad copy read, A CHEAP DATE THAT’S ALMOST AS CHEESY AS YOU ARE.” This was intended to be a playful tease. A second group received what was intended to be a disparaging tease: “A CHEESY DATE THAT’S ALMOST AS CHEAP AS YOU ARE.” And, for comparison, a third group of participants received what was intended to be just humor, without a tease: “MAKE YOUR PLANS NOW FOR A CHEAP AND CHEESY VALENTINE’S DATE.”
     Those participants receiving the playful tease reported greater psychological connection to the Pizza Hut brand than did those receiving either of the other two versions. In another of the studies, lower connections with the advertised brand were reported by participants viewing a tease intended to be disparaging—“YOU’RE FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE…BUT YOU STILL DESERVE TO RETIRE COMFORTABLY”—than by participants viewing a comparable tease intended to be playful—“COLLEGE YOU WAS FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE…BUT YOU STILL DESERVE TO RETIRE COMFORTABLY.”
     The researchers explain the results of these and companion studies in terms of anthropomorphism—the attribution of human characteristics to a non-human entity. When a brand teases, it seems more like a person, since we’re accustomed to a tease coming from a person. We feel closer relationships to other people than to non-humans, particularly inanimate brands.
     For the consumer’s relationship with the brand to be positive, the tease must be more playful than disparaging. Signals of playful intention include obvious exaggeration. The blend of playing around with the consumer and provoking the consumer is a matter of degree.
     I’ll supplement that explanation with this one: To hit home with a consumer, a tease needs to be personalized to one or more characteristics of the consumer. When you feel a person knows something distinctive about you, your relationship with that person strengthens, as long as that person doesn’t use the knowledge to disparage you. Similarly, when you feel a brand knows something distinctive about you and doesn’t misuse that knowledge, your relationship with that brand strengthens.

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Joke Around to Facilitate the Sale 

Drive Personalization by Fostering Narcissism

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Size Up Value in Showing Body Size Diversity

Past consumer behavior studies have concluded that women are motivated to purchase items modeled by people who are somewhat thinner than they themselves are, but not dramatically thinner. This is consistent with consumers’ attraction to what they aspire to be—aspirations that may get more adventurous in this Ozempic era.
     Still, researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Bath argue for showing models of various body sizes in online ads for clothing as well as on websites displaying the catalog of items, and for men’s fashions as well as women’s. This helps a shopper purchase a product which will fit them well while also serving the socially positive objective of enhancing acceptance of diversity in body builds, including self-acceptance of not being thin.
     The researchers consider three schemes used on fashion retailer websites: Showing only thin models, as Zara has done; showing models of various sizes mixed across items, as Lululemon has done; and prompting the website viewer to choose the model’s body size for viewing items, as Good American has done.
     The overall finding from the set of studies was that showing only thin models dissuades shoppers who aren’t thin from purchasing online. Along with this, the likelihood of product returns increases. The researchers point out that poor fit is a major reason for returns of clothing purchases and that product returns are costly for retailers and for the environment.
     One of the studies found that, compared to portrayal of body-size diversity in ads, portrayal of body-size diversity on product pages had a stronger positive effect on a shopper’s interest in continuing to shop with the retailer. The researchers explain this difference in terms of how a consumer’s mindset differs depending on whether they’re browsing products or gathering information about a brand.
     Another of the studies supported the common-sense conclusion that the overall body-size of a model counts more for a woman when purchasing a dress than when purchasing shoes. However, another study hints that body size is still a consideration for marketers with items where the shopper’s body size would seem unimportant: Researchers at Villanova University, Baruch College, St. John's University, Hofstra University, and University of Alberta found that salespeople more frequently recommend round- rather than angular-shaped lamps and perfume bottles to shoppers with a larger body size. The researcher’s explanation is that good salespeople look at similarities between characteristics of the shopper and the merchandise.

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Appeal to Pride of Distinctive Consumers 

Airbrush Away Shame in Your Shoppers

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