Ascertain Certainty to Assess Offer Variety

The ways in which you best present purchase alternatives to a shopper are determined in part by the degree of confidence the shopper has in choosing among those alternatives. This conclusion from a team of Northeastern University, University of Pennsylvania, and Arizona State University researchers follows their study of item reviews from almost 100,000 consumers spanning nearly 30 years. Product categories used in the studies included wines, beers, and cosmetics.
     Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that for shoppers who express notable uncertainty, frame your subsequent purchase suggestions as quite different from what they just tried, such as by highlighting distinguishing item characteristics. Correspondingly, if you’ve evidence that the shopper has high confidence, frame your next best offer as similar to what the shopper just selected.
     A challenge with taking this advice is correctly detecting the shopper’s degree of confidence. If you’ve access to a history of item reviews from the shopper, use the same method the researchers did: Analyze recent reviews with attention to tones of certainty and doubt. You could also do the same sort of thing by conversing with the shopper. For the researchers, phrasing such as “Beyond any doubt” indicated high confidence and “I really don’t know” indicated low confidence.
     The researchers’ findings highlight the value of an additional tool: Consider the degree of experience of the particular shopper with the particular item category. This can work because, in general, as a consumer gains more experience, their confidence regarding decisions for that item category will initially decrease as the consumer becomes acutely aware there’s much more to learn than they initially assumed. But as the consumer masters this learning and accumulates their own direct experience, confidence rebounds and grows.
     I’ll add my thought that if you can observe the shopper, maybe you should also notice how tightly they’re crossing their fingers while making the choice, signaling degree of hope good luck shines down to supplement low confidence.
     Research at University of Cincinnati, University of Florida, and University of Mississippi provides another perspective on the interplay of expertise with novelty. When the researchers offered choices of music samples to study participants, those who considered themselves music novices accepted a few new songs in a multitude of genres. The experts accepted a greater number of songs solely from one or a limited number of genres in which they considered themselves to have expertise. Certainty builds selectivity.

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Make Your Next Best Offer 

Present High-Level Benefits to the Confident 

Scope New Horizons as Expanding Expertise

Make It Right Without Government Orders

Political conservatives are irritated when told by the government they should be tested for sexually transmitted infections. The guidance is better received if coming from a nongovernment source.
     Liberals also could take umbrage at being told out of the blue they might have an STI. But this stigma is the reason conservatives tend to be more irritated than liberals at any recommendations, regardless of the source, about sexual and reproductive health practices. A politically conservative ideology is associated with stronger aversion to stigma. In a set of studies, researchers at University of Bologna and University of Leeds found evidence of this with recommendations to self-test for sexually transmitted infections, be vaccinated to protect from the Human Papillomavirus Virus, and use condoms, contraceptive pills, and menstrual cups.
     An additional study considered whether the source of the health recommendation might make a difference. Along with completing an inventory to assess political orientation, a group of U.S. participants was offered a choice between a box of toothpaste and a box of condoms. The offer was identified as being sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control; by Durex condoms and Oral-B toothbrushes; or by a collaboration between the government agency and private companies.
     For liberals, the group told the sponsor was the CDC was most likely to choose the condoms over the toothpaste. For conservatives, the nature of the sponsor had no discernable effect on the choice. This suggests that government agencies should clearly identify themselves as the sponsors of health recommendations. It will help persuade liberals and have negligible effect on conservatives.
     However, results from a study at University of Miami, Utah Valley University, and University of Notre Dame indicates that a government warning makes adherence by conservatives less likely. After consumers were told there were laws that restrict mobile phone use, purchase of junk foods, and smoking e-cigarettes, the political conservatives, compared to the liberals, indicated greater intentions to use their mobile phones, purchase unhealthy foods, and smoke e-cigarettes. This rebellion reflects the many research findings that conservatives tend to view governmental directives as inspired by liberal propaganda.
     The implication of this is that public health campaigns will be more effective if the source of recommendations or mandates includes non-governmental entities. Other research advises to soften mandates by adding appreciation and apologies using messages like, “Thank you for your cooperation. We appreciate it,” and, “Sorry for any inconvenience. Our apologies.”

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Discuss Disgust Conservatively & Liberally 

Embody Right-Left in Body Selling 

Mandate Masks with Appreciation

Limit Layering in Makeup Marketing

The financial success of e.l.f. Beauty and The Body Shop—vendors that offer only vegan cosmetics and skincare products—is evidence of consumer interest in makeup free of animal products, byproducts, and derivatives. Other companies such as Ulta Beauty offer a selection of vegan items along with conventionally formulated items.
     Researchers at Sungkyunkwan University and COSMAX BTI Inc. employed the full portfolio of Ulta to explore what product attributes are associated with the most positive user reactions and how this differs between vegan and conventional products. The dataset comprised 255,023 user reviews collected from the Ulta Beauty website.
     The researchers’ inquiry was guided by past studies showing how consumers are attracted to vegan beauty products via perceptions of them containing fewer harmful chemicals, being manufactured with less environmental harm, and being unlikely to have been tested on animals.
     One finding from the current study relates to sustainability labels. While conventional products can benefit from highlighting sustainability claims such as safety or environmental friendliness, doing so provides little additional benefit for vegan products. Sustainability cues are already common in vegan marketing, so repeating them does little to further differentiate the product. Such repetition carries the sort of risk associated with a consumer putting on too many makeup layers. Instead, brands may benefit from emphasizing other product features and benefits.
     The study also found that vegan skincare products tend to receive slightly higher ratings than conventional ones. An explanation is expectations—many consumers believe vegan products are healthier, safer, or more ethical, and these beliefs can influence how satisfied they feel after using them.
     This pattern was especially clear for moisturizers and creams. These products mainly provide hydration, and consumers can usually feel the results quickly. As a result, positive expectations about vegan products often translate into higher ratings.
     Serums, however, showed the opposite pattern. Conventional serums received higher ratings than vegan ones. Because serums promise long-term benefits such as anti-aging or wrinkle reduction, their effectiveness is harder to judge immediately. When expectations are very high but visible results take time to appear, consumers may feel disappointed.
     For mists and oils, there were no meaningful rating differences, likely because these products are judged mainly by immediate sensory experiences such as texture and absorption.
     Overall, the findings suggest that evaluating consumer satisfaction across a product line can be complex because evidence of effectiveness emerges at different speeds and with different levels of certainty.

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Visualize Beyond Three Claims 

Post Dramatic Tales for Post-Experience Goods 

Beware Open Sell 

Earn Trust by Supporting Sustainability

Compound Interest in Financial Self-Confidence

Among heterosexual couples, the woman is twenty-five times more likely to leave the pair’s financial management to the man than is the man to leave it to the woman.
     This difference might be largely attributed to gender norms regarding abilities and control. Financial self-confidence also matters. Many women avoid situations like car shopping, financial planning, and tax preparation because the women fear salespeople will try to cheat them under the assumption that the women have limited money skills.
     Sharing duties of daily life makes sense. Yet it becomes problematic when the one managing the finances is impaired. Women with dementia were generally agreeable to their husband’s assumption of the household financial decision-making, while men with dementia generally resisted relinquishing their financial authority.
     Researchers at University of Edinburgh and University of Central Florida note the prior research characterizing females as exhibiting lower financial self-confidence than their male counterparts. Based on such findings, the researchers propose that increasing the financial self-confidence of high school girls will serve them well throughout their lives. The researchers’ study provides evidence that a promising technique for increasing this self-confidence is financial education by teachers who themselves have solid financial self-confidence.
     The one-day training program for teachers responsible for providing financial education was designed by Young Money in the United Kingdom. The training was geared to teaching 16–18-year-olds about financial planning and budgeting; financial implications of work; seeking financial advice; choosing financial products; and fraud and identity theft. Students received their training from these teachers over the duration of a school term.
     Enhancing teachers’ financial self-confidence narrowed the financial self-confidence gap between the female and male students. The additional financial self-confidence was associated with economically meaningful actions by the students, such as increased savings of available funds.
     The researchers interpret the findings in the context of social learning: Teacher self-confidence has previously been shown to shape teaching practice and improve student engagement, especially for female students. When a teacher gains self-confidence, not only is the course content likely to be better, but the students also gain self-confidence from imitation of the solid financial self-confidence of their teachers.
     In presenting this interpretation, the researchers say a common concern expressed by financial literacy educators is that they feel unprepared to competently teach the material. I’d say this implies parents—who constitute another major resource for mentoring financial literacy—would benefit from building their self-confidence in the task.

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Stem the Tide of Female Shopper Discomfort 

Sandbag Senior Swindles 

Include the Kids in Financial Literacy Talk 

Invest in Financial Literacy Overconfidence

Think Peanuts for Probabilistic Promotions

Shoppers are attracted by uncertainty about what they’ll pay for an item if the risk isn’t a big deal.
     That’s a description of findings from researchers now at University of California at Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania regarding what are called probabilistic price discounts—where shoppers are offered a specified percentage chance of getting a specified price reduction: “Present this coupon when buying the set and there’s a 25% chance you’ll get an additional 25% off on the purchase price.”
     Every smart shopper who can easily locate the coupon will present it. It makes no sense to pass up the offer. But a question more relevant to marketers is whether shoppers are more likely to buy when offered, let’s say, either a sure 20% discount on the one hand or, on the other hand, a 40% chance to get a 50% discount.
     The answer from the studies is that it depends on the amount of money involved. When the sure discount feels quite small to shoppers, they’ll tend to opt for the probabilistic deal. This pattern is related to what researchers call the peanuts effect. “The money amounts I’m considering are just peanuts” In one of the studies, consumers were more likely to select a probabilistic discount on a hotel stay when the price for the hotel stay was $48 than when it was $480.
     Other studies in the set verified how it is a feeling of relatively low size of the sure discount—not only an objectively low size—which matters. Presenting the same sure discount in the context of large discounts made the same sure discount feel smaller. Also, presenting the same sure discount in the form of a percentage rather than a dollar amount was found to make the sure discount seem smaller and to therefore increase the attractiveness of the probabilistic option.
     Prior studies concluded that compared to when the probability of winning the discount is low, when the probability of winning the discount is high, shoppers are more likely to prefer a sure discount. However, this current research indicates that the most important consideration is the shopper’s perceived size of the sure discount, not the size of the chance of receiving the discount or the perceived size of the discount with the probabilistic option. When the sure discount you’d be offering is likely to be perceived as just peanuts, offer a probabilistic discount.

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Relieve the Pain with Probabilistic Discounts 

Gambol with Gambled Price Discounts 

Convert Shoppers with Lucky Discounts

Summon Sisyphus Influence

After reviewing the large body of past research on how people choose which charities to contribute to, researchers at University of Leeds, Singapore Management University, University of British Columbia, and Virginia Tech report a criterion which at first glance is counterintuitive: Everything else being equal, donors prefer recipient charities to be less than fully capable of meeting the charity’s objectives.
     This charity capacity curse seems strange until you recognize how prospective donors perceive charities with abundant financial, human resources, and organizational capacity as needing less help. Most people depend on their perceptions of need in choosing among charities, even though this strategy often ends up compromising the effectiveness of their contributions.
     An implication of the finding is for charities to downplay their existing capabilities when appealing for help. But a danger in doing this is that people consulting online guides to develop their giving strategy will see how ratings of a charity are based largely on the quality of the charity’s capabilities.
     Results from follow-on studies by the researchers argue for using two other strategies to break the charity capacity curse’s effect on prospective donors when the charity is considered as having high capacities: 

• Make the current needs of the charity highly salient. In the studies, this was achieved by describing an unexpected natural disaster to which the charity is responding. 
• Shift the donors’ focus from the need of the charity to the impact of the decision to contribute. In the studies, this was achieved by using phrases like “help the most people,” “make a greater impact on the community,” and “create the most benefits.”

     Other research finds parallels to the charity capacity curse with charity recipients. Generally, the positive reaction to an attractive solicitor increases contributions. But a University of Alberta study found an exception to that rule. Researchers set up a set of fictitious websites on which visitors were asked to financially sponsor a child from a developing country.
     When the children were portrayed as having severe needs, facial attractiveness made no difference in the willingness to help. But when the level of need was not severe, people demonstrated less compassion for attractive than for unattractive children. The researchers attribute this effect to people assuming that attractive children would be better able to recruit help on their own.
     Similarly, showing typical child beneficiaries as a group makes them seem more powerful than showing them as solitary individuals.

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Donate Positive & Negative Right for Charity 

Collapse to Soles When Asking for Money