Smoke Out Which Models Motivate Teens

When people yearn for something they can’t yet have, they often fantasize about having it. Featuring those fantasies in your store advertising can facilitate favorable impressions. But it could be favorable impressions of an item other than the one in the ad.
     How this operates in adolescents was explored by researchers at Western University in Canada, University of Chile, and University of California-Irvine. Teens are more responsive to clothing ads showing teen models than those showing young adult models. But it was different with age-restricted products. The researchers created mock magazines that included cigarette ads. For some study participants, the ads featured young adult models, for another group, teen models, and for a third group, middle-aged models. After perusing the magazine, each participant was asked a number of questions, including how likely they thought it was that they’d smoke in the future.
     The participants showing the highest intent to smoke were those viewing the young adult models. This differential effect was strongest for adolescents who also had expressed dissatisfaction with their current age.
     The researchers’ advice for marketers who want to protect adolescent health: In your ads for cigarettes, feature models who are 45 years old. Study participants seeing those models were the least likely of all to say they intended to smoke.
     Better yet, I propose, is not to advertise tobacco products at all. But the underlying point is that knowing an item is forbidden to them will result in an increase in attractiveness to teens, and this happens more strongly when the teens view use of the items by those they aspire to become.
     Once they get the items, however, the struggle might lead the teens to like the items less. In a Stanford University study, the average price people who failed to obtain an item they wanted said they’d pay was 43% higher than the average willingness to pay among those who got the item. But when the jilted group were given the item later as part of this perverse experiment, they were substantially less likely to want to keep the item than were those who had received the item at the start.
     Such ill feelings even generalize. Some people were told they might win Guess brand sunglasses, then later were told supplies had run out. These frustrated folks rated Guess watches lower and a competing watch brand higher than did an equivalent set of people never promised the possibility of getting Guess sunglasses.

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

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Notice How Teens Are Into Exclusive Resale
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