Figure How Figurative Language Bubbles

How purchasers use a product influences what they tell others about the purchase. This extends beyond whether or not they praise the item. Researchers at Michigan State University and Tel Aviv University asked a group of consumers to use liquid soap to blow bubbles and an equivalent group to use the soap to wash a dirty dish. Those asked to blow the bubbles were more likely to go on to bloviate poetic as well, using more figurative language and metaphors.
     Correspondingly, figurative language, such as, “As you enter your room, you’ll be tempted to take off your shoes immediately so your feet can sink into the plush carpeting,” has greater power in convincing others when it comes to hedonic—pleasure-oriented—items than with utilitarian—highly practical items. This also applies to hedonic uses over utilitarian uses. For example, playing on the pleasurable sensations from assurance those plush carpets are really clean, the line, “Deep down, you want a Hoover,” sold lots of vacuums.
     Among the most effective devices for introducing ideas and items to consumers are metaphors and similes. “This new item will be a jet pack for your success” is a metaphor. “This new item will be like a jet pack for your success” is a simile. Because of the stronger thrust of the metaphor wording, it’s usually more persuasive.
     As long as the meaning is clear to consumers, a visual metaphor—a picture or photo that symbolizes the retailer’s points—is more persuasive yet. Images are remembered better than words. Keep adding incidental details to verbal descriptions and soon some of the important elements are forgotten. Keep adding incidental details to images, and those extras actually enhance memory for the important elements.
     A second reason visual metaphors are more persuasive than verbal metaphors is that visual information usually enters the consumer’s brain below the level of conscious awareness, avoiding mobilization of the consumer’s resistances.
     Metaphors allow the new idea or item to feel like an old friend. Consumers seek novelty and variety. Still, most consumers also find a special comfort in being with the familiar.
     Shoppers tend to have more favorable attitudes toward something they’ve seen before. Southern Methodist University researchers lied to study participants in telling them the participants had seen brands previously. The people who were convinced they had seen the brands before showed the same sorts of favorable attitudes as if they actually had.

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

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