Monday, September 7, 2015

Succeed over Sad with Elderly Shoppers

The emotional context in which you’re selling an item influences the consumer’s ratings of both the item and the sales presentation. Establishing a positive mood leads shoppers to be more flexible in their thinking and persistent in their actions. Those help you make the sale. People prefer to avoid sad thoughts when shopping. Researchers at University of Rennes and University of Paris-Est find that the attitude toward an advertisement is less favorable when it follows a sad television program rather than a happy one.
     However, there is an important exception to this overall finding. For the older study participants, witnessing sadness didn’t arouse as much sadness as it did in the younger participants, and the attitudes toward the ad weren’t much different between the conditions of happy and sad programming. The elderly consumers did not turn away. In fact, emotional appeals, including sadness-based ones, usually help senior shoppers remember details about sources of sales messages more accurately, according to researchers at Trinity College, College of Charleston, and University of Toronto.
     Talk to elderly consumers about achieving positive emotions, such as comfort, contentment, and joy. However, combining this with an arousal of sadness can be powerful if the target emotion is appropriate and the technique is not used always. Point out how what you’re selling helps avoid the negative. Then segue into talking about achieving the positive. All emotions—positive and negative—arouse interest among older consumers, and as people age, they get better at turning negatives into positives.
     A major reason for this is that elderly consumers realize their time on earth is limited. They don’t want to waste a portion of that being sad. You can turn this to advantage by supercharging the emotional appeal with reminders of time limits: “This offer is good for just the next three days.” “Why wait to start enjoying the benefits?”
     Other research indicates you can facilitate the sadness-to-happiness alchemy by giving elderly shoppers an opportunity to contribute to a charity to assist the less fortunate as part of making the purchase. Seniors generally prefer to give their business to retailers who are compassionate, and they like to view themselves as generous. One dynamic behind this is a desire to leave behind a legacy of love when they’ve passed on. Maybe behind this, in turn, is a calculation of what will be required on the lifetime résumé to be submitted at the Pearly Gates.

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

Click below for more: 
Profit from Shoppers’ Positive Moods
Emphasize Emotions with Older Consumers
Help Older Customers to Help Others

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