Sweeten Shoppers with Baby Talk

The way in which a brand name is pronounced influences the brand’s personality. In a study at University of Dundee and Nanyang Technological University, a toilet bowl cleaner given the name Goz was rated by study participants as stronger than one given the name Pas. A skin conditioner named Pota was rated as gentler than one named Vig.
     More generally, brand names containing solely consonant sounds produced with vocal cord vibration—b, d, g, v, or z—tend to be perceived as harsh, and those containing consonant sounds produced without vocal cord vibration—p, t, k, f, or s—tend to be perceived as mild. The finding holds true across languages and cultures, so is especially useful when marketers are choosing a name for a new product which will be sold internationally.
     Parallel findings hold true for how syllables in a brand name are pronounced. See if you can guess results from a related study, this one at The University of Tokyo, Chukyo University, and University of Dundee. The experimental question: For consumers seeking a sweet treat they’ve not heard about before, which brand name from each of these three pairs is more likely to be preferred and why? 

• Fipefipe or Fipeseti 
• Tepikipi or Tepitepi 
• Zopivuke or Zopizopi

     Want a hint? Look again at the title of this post and the image at the top.
     Ready to check which name from each pair was found to be more strongly associated with sweetness?
     Fipefipe, Tepitepi, and Zopizopi. Those are the alternatives in which the syllable sound repeats. The explanation was found to be that such repetition reminds consumers of baby talk, and consumers’ brains associate the cuteness of babies with sensations of sweetness. For example, across cultures internationally, some version of “I could just gobble you up” is often a response to something adorable.
     Two significant characteristics of these studies to notice as you think about applying the results: First, the brand names were not read aloud to participants, nor were participants instructed to read the names aloud. The effect depends on how the brand names are pronounced, but does not depend on consumers having heard the brand names pronounced, such as in a radio ad.
     Second, in all of the studies, the products were described as new to the marketplace. Existing products will have already established associations. Changing that name might have quite limited impact in selling more sweets.

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Cue Indulgence with Cute 

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Sweeten Treat Sales by Being a Sweet Thing

Align PWYW Cost Structure with Value

To broaden availability for financially constrained consumers of offerings like museum visits, dance workshops, and online courses, the provider could feature a “Pay What You Want” (PWYW) policy. Then to maintain financial viability of the offering, the provider would want purchasers to pay as much as they could. Findings by a set of researchers at University of Surrey, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, and University of Zurich point to a method for doing this.
     In presenting the method, the researchers distinguish between what they call alignable and non-alignable costs. A provider’s alignable costs are those which align with value to the consumer. With a museum, this might be the fees for mounting an exhibit of famous works. With an online course, it might be the fees paid to skilled teachers. On the other hand, a provider’s non-alignable costs are understood as necessary, but as not by themselves providing consumer value. Examples include advertising, rent, and utility bills.
     The researchers recommend describing alignable costs as part of a PWYW offer. This requires the provider to carefully determine what the consumer will value and to ensure that this is an integral part of what’s offered. To help the consumer decide on a fair price, the researchers recommend also including a reference price—how much is usually charged for the offering.
     A provider disclosing information about themselves, such as about their costs, establishes a sense of trust and fairness which can increase PWYW amounts. But the researchers recommend listing the types of costs, not the actual monetary numbers. The numbers can be hard to estimate because they depend on usage volume, and for an expensive offering of superb quality, the actual high money figure could alienate an economically challenged consumer rather than persuade them to maximize their voluntary toll.
     In one of the studies, participants were offered PWYW enrollment in a workshop by ImPulsTanz, Europe’s largest contemporary dance festival sponsor. Prospects given alignable cost structure information (“…pay the renowned workshop teachers from all over the world”) paid about 46% more than those not given cost structure information or those given only non-alignable cost structure information (“…renting the venue… as well as the costs for the workshop office and staff …”).
     In another of the studies, the alignable cost structure appeal proved especially effective with low-pay customers--those who would have paid less than half the reference price amount otherwise.

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Serve the Underserved 

Encourage Customers to Pay What’s Right 

Disclose Yourself to Radiate Authenticity

Pay Mind to Seniors’ Theory of Mind

When persuading others or when others are attempting to persuade you, a valuable skill is you accurately perceiving the beliefs, emotions, desires, and intentions of the others. Findings from researchers at University of Turin and University of Udine suggest that this skill—called Theory of Mind (TOM)—fades as we enter our senior years.
     In the studies, participants completed tasks such as reporting what one character in a story believes another character is thinking and inferring the emotions a person is experiencing based on seeing a photograph of their eyes. Accuracy was significantly lower among the participants age 65 years and above than among participants ages 20 to 40 years.
     These findings modify impressions from anecdotal evidence that older adults can lack performance speed, but bring greater wisdom than younger people do. In fact, seniors may be deficient in real-time social wisdom and emotional intelligence.
     From a marketing perspective, this means you could benefit seniors by verbalizing your intentions and emotional reactions while selling to them.
     From a public policy perspective, a concern is that seniors are especially susceptible to scams because of inabilities to accurately determine the intentions and truthfulness of salespeople. Advanced age brings with it an increased trust in people. The elderly may not realize they’re being cheated, instead attributing their losses to miscommunication or the good intentions of the marketer having gone wrong. Rigidity in thinking—which could be experienced as feeling that changing your mind shows weakness—contributes to the problem.
     From a preventive health perspective, techniques for improving TOM skills in seniors might head off the social isolation and increased dementia risk associated with another perceptual deficit—hearing loss. An additional study finding indicates what such techniques might be: Elderly study participants who reported a history of cognitively demanding occupations showed less deterioration in TOM abilities. Continuing engagement in complex social interactions and problem-solving tasks, whether through a job, volunteering, or structured activities, should be helpful.
     From still another perspective, beyond what happens to mindreading abilities as one ages, there’s the matter of how much the elderly really care about other people’s thinking. Older adults place less importance on accumulating power or demonstrating expertise than do their younger counterparts. We could say that seniors become relatively less sensitive to peer pressure. It’s probably most true for the oldest among us. When you’re 100 years old, let’s say, there aren’t so many peers around.

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Sandbag Senior Swindles 

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