Add Risk Notices to Dilute Risk Opinion

Many consultants advise retailers to arouse enough fear to scare people into action, but not so much that people tune out the retailer. In my opinion, a better guideline is to raise enough fear of a real danger to win the customer's attention, but only to the degree that you've a guaranteed way to substantially reduce the risk. It’s unwise to oversell.
     However, you might be wise to overtell. Tell more risks than you need to, that is. Paradoxically, when you notify the shopper of more risks, this can reduce the shopper’s opinion of the total possibility of harm.
     Researchers at University of Miami and Boston University saw this effect using as an example the dangers of a new drug to treat hypertension. A group of study participants was told the drug could increase the likelihood of seizures. Another group was told the drug could increase the likelihood of seizures, congestion, and fatigue. Then, when all the participants were asked to state how threatening they judged the drug to be, the participants told there were three side effects gave lower threat ratings.
     This “more is less” is also seen on the positive side. The researchers note the finding that consumers were willing to pay more for ten high-value baseball cards than for the same cards plus three cards of modest value. But it’s not true that more of the more is always less. When the researchers told a third group of study participants about five possible side effects of the hypertension medication, the judgment of danger was about the same as with the group told there were three possible side effects.
     Laws, standards of professional practice, business insurance underwriters, and commitment to retailing ethics might all require you to provide customers warning about the risks in using certain products you sell. Beyond this, researchers at European University Viadrina found that when a salesperson volunteers negative information about a product that’s being considered by the shopper, the shopper becomes more likely to trust everything the salesperson says.
     Yet, when shoppers hear possible adverse consequences of using a product, they’ll overestimate the likelihood of the consequences. If the label says “it happens rarely,” they’ll be thinking, “it happens often enough to make a difference.” To dilute the perception of overall danger, start off informing consumers about the most serious risk, then add at least a few of the less serious risks.

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

Click below for more: 
Scare Customers into Buying
Cultivate Positive Moods for Risk Assessment
Bundle Expensive & Cheap Synergistically 
Disclose Product Cautions
Pace Disclaimers to Build Faster Acceptance