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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