Prepare for Pickiness to Pale

People who consider themselves socially advantaged are more picky consumers than are people who consider themselves socially disadvantaged. The University of Iowa researchers who conducted the studies supporting this finding defined pickiness as a willingness to acquire a product only if the product is at or close to ideal.
     Are those study findings telling you something you didn’t know already? My guess is no, the findings do not.
     Okay, since the findings appear to be common sense, is there anything to be learned to assist in improving your marketing profitability? My argument is yes, the findings can, but only if you dig deeper than the what to ask about the why.
     Based on their hypotheses and study results, the researchers say the effect of social advantage on pickiness cannot be completely explained as being due only to the advantaged having greater resources with which to access and possess items. Entitlement also matters. Even when the other factors are accounted for, the socially advantaged feel more entitled to be picky than do the socially disadvantaged. Entitlement is the feeling that you are more important and more deserving than inferior others.
     This sense of entitlement is related to what the researchers refer to as Social Dominance Orientation. In my email exchange with Prof. Bryce Pyrah, the primary researcher, he writes, “People who endorse inequalities (those high in SDO) demonstrate the differences that those who are advantaged are pickier than those who are disadvantaged because of entitlement. Those who challenge existing inequalities do not show these differences on entitlement or subsequent pickiness.
     “This sense of entitlement arises due to people's general motivation to justify the current hierarchy and their place in it. That is why those who are advantaged tend to feel more entitled, as they believe that their standing in their hierarchy is justified, and thus feel like they deserve more. And so, those who are low in SDO (or those who challenge the hierarchy) don't show this pattern.”
     I contend that your understanding of this why will be helpful by giving you a heads-up to prepare for pickiness to fade somewhat in the future. At present, there are deeply-entrenched wealth, racial, and ethnic inequalities in society. However, rumblings of a drive to moderate these inequalities can be seen in public polling. I anticipate reductions in entitlement deriving from our culture’s Social Dominance Orientation in the foreseeable future.

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Offer Poor Items to Low Self-Esteem Shoppers 

Box In Gift Shoppers for the Picky 

Hover Within the Shopper’s Power Level 

Insulate Perfectionists from Unwise Risk

Hew to Humility when Highly Handsome

Abundant attractiveness in a persuasion agent can alienate consumers. Shoppers who perceive themselves as being less attractive might respond negatively. For instance, women browsing through cosmetics in a store compare themselves to how others in the store look. If the comparison comes across with the shopper thinking they end up on the short end, the chance of a sale drops.
     Researchers at University of Dayton, University of Oregon, and TEKsystems saw this beauty backfire effect with fitfluencers—social media content creators specializing in workout, nutrition, and lifestyle guidance. This is a realm where we’d expect physical attractiveness to be appealing, but, at the same time, expect physical attractiveness to jeopardize relatability and produce unpleasant self-other comparisons. In the study, those expectations were met. Fitfluencers rated as highly attractive received lower consumer engagement than did those rated as moderately attractive.
     But the researchers then found a way around the effect: Show humility. For some participants in that study, the caption below a photo of the influencer read, “Just so you know… I haven't always looked like this. It's taken a lot of hard work, but true greatness takes time,” while for the other participants, the caption read, “Just so you know… I've always looked like this. I work harder than the rest, and true greatness is reserved for champions.”
     When the photo was of a moderately attractive fitfluencer, there were no differences in the participants’ ratings of relatability based on the humble versus proud caption. But with the highly attractive fitfluencer, the first caption produced greater participant ratings of relatability than did the second one. Further analyses showed that this greater relatability resulted in greater viewer engagement.
     Curbing the negative responses allows fitfluencers and the many other sorts of persuasion agents to realize documented gains from handsomeness. People are generally more likely to be persuaded when the face-to-face influence agent is good-looking. Pretty solicitors for charitable contributions collect more money. Beautiful store salespeople produce bigger market basket totals. Political candidates whose facial features are symmetrical are more likely to garner votes for themselves and for their causes.
     Humility helps in other retailing areas, too. A decade ago, Starbucks was said to be bragging too much about their ability to be an authentic coffee experience. Customers gave up on Starbucks and aimed for other shops which showed humility. Brands perceived as arrogant might attract through exclusivity, but often repel via intimidation.

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Beautify Persuasion Transactions 

Stay Humble When It Comes to Handcrafted 

Look Out for Where They’re Gazing

Understand Abortion Stand as Insurance Strand

“A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.”
     This epigram reflects evidence of how life experiences can uncoil even deeply-wound political orientations. A finding by Yale University and University of Southern California researchers expresses the spirit of the saying from a different time perspective. Also, the researchers’ evidence indicates the complete explanation for the finding is different from what easily comes to mind.
     The research finding is that opposition to abortion among U.S. political conservatives and practicing Christians, both men and women, grows significantly stronger, overall, among those individuals who have had a child. Absence of a particular life experience—having had a child—uncoils a deeply-held conviction—opposition to abortion.
     The easy explanation for the finding is that having a child strengthens appreciation for the preciousness of human life. The researchers’ complete explanation differs in that it encompasses insurance: Political conservatives and practicing Christians are more likely than others to oppose abortion consistent with their moral and religious beliefs. But this opposition is tempered among those without children because accessible abortion offers insurance against an unplanned pregnancy. Once these individuals have a child, their fear of childbearing eases. Now antiabortion convictions can comfortably harden.
     Yes, every additional child is an additional burden, but the one-time cost of adjustment to parenthood has been paid. The researchers point out how this train of reasoning is supported by their analysis of Guttmacher Institute statistics showing non-mothers across the political spectrum are more likely to terminate a pregnancy than are women who have had a first child. The statistic that most women who receive abortions are mothers simply reflects the fact that most pregnant people are already mothers. The effect of parenthood on abortion policy preferences is concentrated among unmarried respondents, who would be especially sensitive to the disruptive effects of a pregnancy.
     Abortion access is among topics about which voters often hold strong views. Valuable for the political longevity of elected officials is the ability to assess their voters’ sentiments about issues important to the voters. This research shows how what determines these views might not be what we’d expect and that information about those determinants might be relatively easy to ascertain. These insights provide tools not just for tracking, but also for influencing voters’ views. Regarding opinions of abortion access, initiatives to ease burdens of parenting could have an effect.

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Deep Canvass to Uncoil Voters’ Rigidity 

Verbalize Victimization to Reduce Censorship 

Augment Political Projection with Introjection

Multichannel Middle-Tier Shoppers Moderately

Marketers have launched multiple channels shoppers can use to buy items. Added to brick-and-mortar stores, paper catalogs, and telephone sales have been websites, mobile apps, social media, and online video platforms. Around a decade ago, studies of people’s purchasing habits began questioning a commonsense notion that retailers should always encourage shoppers to make use of as many of those channels as possible.
     Early advice included encouraging shoppers to prioritize coming into the store. It is there shoppers can touch items, and touching an item usually increases the urge to buy the item. In-store shoppers often enter a flow state in which they make impulse purchases. And when in-store, shoppers are less likely than when using other channels to do price comparisons with other retailers.
     Still, each of the other channels does have its advantages and fans. Now researchers at Maastricht University, NHL Stenden University of Applied Science, University of Groningen, and Boston College refine the advice about multichannel marketing. An overall finding is that middle-tier brands generally do benefit from encouraging shoppers to use a range of channels. Low- and high-tier brands experience flat or even negative effects on revenue.
     The researchers distinguished among the three tiers based on the customer’s primary motivation for purchase. With the high-tier, it is to signal status, wealth, and exclusivity. With middle-tier, it’s to attain maximum value for money spent. With low-tier, it’s to have adequate quality for minimum expenditure.
     The researchers’ explanation for the effects of tier is: 

• High-tier brand shoppers are concerned that multichannel availability could dilute the exclusivity of the item. In addition, these shoppers consider how traditional sales channels allow for higher-quality transactions. 
• For low-tier brand shoppers, price is most important, and there seems little advantage to exploring different channels for the same items in order to ascertain price. 
• Middle-tier brand shoppers are seeking the optimal combination of quality, price, and service. Different channels often offer a range of blends of these, so there’s an incentive for making use of multiple channels.

     Long-term brand reputation and how a marketer presents a brand will influence which tier the brand falls into. In addition, reputation of the retailer might exert an influence.
     Another finding from the studies is that moderate levels of multichannel usage generate higher revenues, while low and high levels reduce profitability. Based on this, the researchers caution firms that encouraging high levels of multichannel use will tend to have negative repercussions on revenue.

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Utilize Multichannel with Hedonic Selling 

Swell Inspiration to Hike Multichannel Buying

Starve Gift Horse Feed Fears

A promising intervention for reducing food waste is to encourage people to donate their unused food to others. They could offer it to friends or to food banks.
     However, researchers at Wageningen University & Research, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Ghent University find a hesitancy to share food which is otherwise perfect to eat, but blemished, misshapen, in a torn or dented package, or near its expiration date. This hesitation is consistent with the prospective donors’ own turning away from such suboptimal offerings for themselves and is explained as the prospective donors fearing recipients will think ill of them for considering the offerings to be suitable contributions.
     The researchers go on to show how recipients actually respond to suboptimal food more positively than givers predict. After all, the food is free and fine to consume. If the recipient is a friend, there’s a bond of trust that the donor wouldn’t poison them. If the food is delivered through a food bank, the recipient is often hungry enough to relax expectations of perfect food presentation. In such circumstances, people are likely to take to heart and stomach John Heywood’s maxim from the year 1546 about gratitude and derived from checking a steed’s teeth to assess healthiness, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
     Based on results of their studies, the researchers also suggest two ways to address any hesitation that might remain about giving away suboptimal food: First, when circumstances allow, offer ready-to-eat meals prepared from the donated raw ingredients rather than the raw ingredients themselves. This hides any suboptimality.
     Second, ease concerns about being thought ill of by announcing thankfulness. In the study, participants read about a food bank campaign, “Every donation matters. More appreciated than you think. Food bank recipients value all donations. That ‘not a quite perfect’ donation? It made someone’s day.”
     A complementary intervention to reduce food waste is to persuade shoppers to purchase misshapen produce. Researchers at Dartmouth College, University of Pittsburgh, and The Ohio State University say the rejection has to do with social image and self-image: People tend to subconsciously assume that purchasing ugly produce in public and eating it each indicate a flawed aesthetic sensibility. A remedy is to buttress self-esteem. In the studies, willingness to purchase increased when signage by bins of misshapen items read “You are Fantastic! Pick Ugly Produce!” as compared with just “Pick Ugly Produce!”

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Waste Not with Misshapen Produce 

Abandon Discard of Damaged Packages 

Dread the Dead, Sell It First

Image at top of post based on photo by Ismael Paramo from Unsplash

Abstract the Importance of Luxury Buy Source

Where a shopper buys a used luxury brand item influences what impression the shopper will then have of the luxury brand and company.
     Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University, Oxford Brookes University, and Saitama University documented this with scenarios involving purchase of a second-hand Rolex watch. Some study participants were asked to imagine conducting the transaction at a prestigious department store specializing in authentic luxury watches and certified as an official Rolex reseller. For other study participants, the setting was instead described as a generic reseller of pre-owned timepieces, located within a jewelry and pawnbroker store. Compared to those in the first condition, those in the second condition subsequently reported more negative images of the Rolex brand and company.
     Although this finding might be expected and so add little to our understanding of consumer psychology, the researchers’ companion study revealed an insightful explanation with action recommendations for either type of retailer: Shoppers buying at an official luxury retailer are thinking at a more abstract desirability-related hedonic level, while those buying at a generic retailer are thinking at a more concrete feasibility-related utilitarian level. Examples of items on a questionnaire used to assess abstract versus concrete included: “Acquiring a reliable timepiece” versus “Buying a watch from a store”; “Understanding the watch’s quality” versus “Reading the watch’s specifications & features”; and “Maximizing value for my money” versus “Discussing price with the seller.”
     In addition to suggesting the retailer address these distinctions in the framing of the resale transaction, the researchers advise the prestigious certified luxury retailer to use abundant pleasurable adjectives (“This watch is beautiful on you”) and the generic retailer to emphasize practical customer actions (“This watch is ready to wear”).
     For the luxury brand company, an implication is to protect brand image by establishing a process for certifying resellers and then encourage shoppers to purchase from a certified dealer. Certification standards could involve maintaining high-end selling spaces, protecting against carrying counterfeit items, offering brand-underwritten warranties, and providing abundant after-sales customer support.
     An additional angle on the issue of reseller certification is suggested by a set of Yale University studies, which found that lower serial numbers in a limited-edition release of otherwise identical items hold greater value for purchasers. The explanation is that a lower number seems closer to the source. Similarly, the closer association of a certified versus generic reseller places the certified retailer closer to the brand source.

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Close the Sale Close to the Source 

Book Tours of Your Esteemed Merchandise 

Use Loneliness to Sell Used Merchandise

Cultivate Store Prestige with Context

Image at top of post based on photo by Robby McCullough from Unsplash