Check Back for Complementary Add-Ons

An ad in the California Milk Processor Board’s highly successful “Got Milk?” campaign featured the protagonist eating a chocolate chip cookie and then afterwards yearning for some milk to go with it. Studies at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Italy’s Bocconi University verify that the delay built into the sequence makes sense: Our yearning for a complementary item grows after consumption of the partner item. Our thirst for milk is greater after eating the chocolate chip cookie than if the milk has been sitting there from the start.
     Is this only because the cookie is dry and sticky? No, the study results indicate. It’s because we associate the two items in our minds. Cookies go with milk, pizza goes with cola, crackers go with cheese. The partnering is to specific items. That this is true was shown in the studies when participants were asked to imagine consuming one of the items rather than actually consuming it. The imagining was enough to whet targeted appetite for a partner item. Other evidence was that, in this multinational study, the effect was found only for items considered to be partners in that consumer’s culture.
     So let’s use our own imagination to see ways to make use of these study findings. Imagine that a restaurant patron has ordered an item, but not the partner item. It could work well for the server to check back after the patron has started to consume the ordered item and suggest adding the partner item. The whetting effect would have increased interest in the second item.
     This works for a restaurant, where checking back with the diners is common. What about in a food truck, where the customer disappears after the order is delivered? In this situation, mobilize the customer’s imagination by suggesting a partner item at the time of order, using the format, “As you think about chomping down that pizza you just ordered, do you imagine you’ll want some cola to go with it?”
     The general principle of checking back for a partner item after a delay also applies to nonfood retailing. When there are optional add-ons to an item intended for imminent use, begin with the basic model and then build by suggesting the options, asking the shopper to think about the outcomes of using the purchase. And check in with customers after purchases to propose ways to enhance usage pleasure.

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

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