Brand People by Interpersonal Relationships

Sharp retailers recognize the interactions between people’s brand preferences and their self-image. Shoppers are more likely to select brands reflecting the image they’d like to have and believe they can achieve. And the brands people select influence the ways in which they view themselves.
     These mutually reinforcing links endure long enough to determine even decisions about how a user will ultimately dispose of branded items. Researchers at Boston University and University of Alberta explored the ways in which people decide whether to trash or recycle commodified items like paper cups and aluminum cans. They found that recycling was substantially more often the choice when the brand consumed from the cup or the can was one with which the person identified.
     Asking your customers how they dispose of products could yield useful information both about what brand personalities they seek and how to entice them to reduce environmental waste.
     The link of brand with self-image also has a role in how couples shop. Generally, when a married pair makes a purchase decision together, they are either developing or following rituals. By building on those rituals, you can guide the couple’s preferences.
     The newly married may have already set up housekeeping and therefore made many shopping decisions together already. However, shopping after the ceremony brings out different power dynamics. Both the man and the woman are each subconsciously influenced by how their respective mom and dad handled the decisions. The challenge for the retail salesperson is to track the ritual, which is still in a formative stage.
     The long-married couple has settled into their shopping-together rituals. Here, the challenge for the retail salesperson might come from the ritual being so automatic and quick for the couple that it is hard to discern. Moreover, once you’ve spotted it, the ritual often changes if one or the other member of the pair gets frustrated with the relationship. Researchers at University of New Hampshire and Duke University say it can come back to brand preferences.
     When a husband or wife feels low in relationship power and is irritated at the spouse, oppositional brand choice arises. A brand clearly different from the one selected by the spouse is preferred. It’s a temporary situation. When the relationship is mended, the underlying brand preference again shows itself. But accommodating the temporary situation helps you make the sale as well as resolving your puzzlement at what’s going on.

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

Click below for more: 
Close In on How Shoppers Close Out Use
Build on Couples’ Decision-Making Rituals
Manipulate the Shopper’s Sense of Power
Attend to Genetic Influences in Selling