Heat Up Sales Revenues

A Harvard University inquiry came up with examples of how an induced sensation of heat could affect what people end up buying at your store:

• Higher temperatures when shopping—as long as they’re not too high to be pleasant—lead to consumers being more likely to purchase what others in the vicinity are buying. 
• Because the fragrance of cinnamon suggests warmth, pairing that fragrance with the offering of a heating pad will lead to more positive evaluations of the heating pad’s effectiveness. 
• Olay Regenerist facial products are formulated to generate heat when applied as a cue to users that the product is working, thereby increasing the odds of repurchase. 

     These findings support what is referred to by consumer psychologists as “embedded cognition”—how bodily sensations influence purchasing behavior below the level of conscious awareness.
     Use heat to the advantage of your business. Still, stay aware that heat doesn’t always help. “Dog days,” the hottest time of the year wherever in the world, get their name from the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star, just before dawn during summer months in the Northern Hemisphere. As to how Sirius got the name “Dog Star,” that’s a whole different story, since most dogs I know are far from serious in disposition once they get to know you.
     The name “dog days” also refers to a time of sluggish activity and lazy thinking. Shoppers during hot summer months prefer mental shortcuts to detailed analysis in making purchase decisions.

• When the weather is temperate, people would prefer to get their necessary shopping done with so they can move on to leisure activities. 
• Pleasant heat after a time of less pleasant cold raises people’s spirits, and happier people get more interested in shopping. 
• Prolonged high heat wearies shoppers’ muscles, thereby making them less alert and less resistant to spotting weak reasons for buying or not buying. 

     During the dog days, present succinct arguments for buying.
     A University of California-San Diego researcher explored contrasts in heat as he analyzed the enrollment decisions of 1,284 college prospects at a campus known for its academic strengths and recreational gaps. If the day of the college prospect’s exploratory visit to the campus was especially cloudy, the odds that the prospect would choose to apply to that campus increased markedly. It seems that when the dog days are missing and perhaps missed, consumers are more interested in getting serious.

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

Click below for more: 
Use Synesthesia to Reinforce Store Image
Dog Decision Rigor During Dog Days
Cool Summertime Shoppers