Dream Consumption Visions of the Past

Consumer researchers use the term “consumption vision” to describe a shopper’s mental image which is vivid and specific enough to let a shopper vicariously experience the benefits they would personally enjoy in using the product or service. Consumption visions increase purchase likelihood.
     But what if the shopper isn’t familiar with what it’s like to use the item? Researchers at University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and Vanderbilt University found that it doesn’t work nearly as well to have people visualize use in the future as to visualize repeating use experienced with the item in the past. That’s harder with highly innovative items.
     The researchers asked consumers to evaluate a tablet PC, a heart rate monitor, a vacation trip the consumer hadn’t taken before, and Google Glass. Of this set, the tablet PC would probably be most familiar to people and, at the time of the study, the Google Glass wearable eyeglass-format computer would probably be least familiar to them.
     Sure enough, this degree of familiarity affected product evaluation because it determined the consumption vision quality. Runners were better able to imagine using the heart monitor than were non-runners because the runners were more familiar with the idea of a heart monitor. Those who said they knew something about the vacation destination, even though they’d never been there, had stronger consumption visions, based on using memories from their past of similar experiences.
     With innovative products and services, make the unfamiliar familiar before asking the shopper to imagine using the item. Work in phrasing like, “Using this is like using that item you’re accustomed to,” and “Once you do this a few times, it will be as second nature to you as what you’ve been doing up to now.” In the Toronto/British Columbia/Vanderbilt studies, when a more detailed description of Google Glass was provided, imagining use was easier because there was more for the consumer to find familiar.
     Still, the researchers caution against giving volumes of information when requesting consumption visions of innovative items. The risk is that the shopper ends up stuck in the past. Other research supports using vivid language to stimulate the senses, but giving the shopper the minimum amount of technical information necessary to set up the imagining. Then be ready to provide more details if the shopper asks. The power of consumption visions is greater when a person fills in some of their own blanks.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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