Chill Out Emotions to Look Cool

If your target audiences say they’re aiming for cool brands and stores, this might mean they want to conform with their social peers, they want to go beyond conforming with their social peers, or they just want the latest gadget. Among young people, “cool” might signify nothing more than a favorable evaluation.
     But what does it mean when consumers say they prefer to deal with salespeople who are cool? Researchers at University of Arizona, Texas A&M University, and University of Chile found retailers often think it means consumers want the salespeople to show minimal emotional expression. Such is in the tradition of fashion models who look as indifferent as possible and celebrities who earn coolness by masking any feelings.
     The researchers say this generalization is an oversimplification. When facilitating cooperation—as is true in most sales situations—you’re better off with a gentle smile than with a somber countenance. A smile facilitates interpersonal trust. Sure, excessive emotion easily appears to be insincere or as sales pressure. But in these circumstances, looking cold isn’t cool.
     On the other hand, in status-oriented or competitive situations centered around dominance, you do best to chill out your emotions, say the researchers. This is useful when selling to teens, who expend considerable energy dominating their adolescent insecurities and who consider effusive shows of emotion to be decidedly uncool. Or in any negotiations where establishing authority takes precedence over cultivating trust.
     Curbing emotions in order to look cool also is useful when selling luxury items to consumers who aspire to achieve higher status. In a study of female shoppers in an economically emerging Asian city, researchers at National Chengchi University and Shih Hsin University found evidence that interest in impulse purchases of luxury items increased if the salesperson was snobbish and the shopper was with a companion.
     From a different perspective, emotional coolness, even if not to the extreme of inattentive snobbishness, might serve to model valuable skills with overenthusiastic shoppers. For example, researchers from University of Zurich contend that what distinguishes consumers who live happily into their advanced years is a habit of being cool. Senior coolness, they say, is composure and poise which reduces problems of daily living to manageable levels. Plus we can help older adults evade fraud by encouraging them to enter the consumer situation calmly and maintain calmness during the transactions. That’s more likely when the salespeople are themselves cool.

For your success: Retailer’s Edge: Boost Profits Using Shopper Psychology

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