Welcome the Stigmatized

When you chase away shoppers your current customers don’t want to associate with, purchase commitment from many of those current customers increases. People shopping in luxury outlets prefer not to rub shoulders with the shabbily dressed. Consumers who strongly oppose homosexuality like to count on not seeing same-sex couples in retail establishments they patronize. Physically ugly shoppers put off the physically beautiful ones.
     That’s the truth. But it’s clear this truth can itself turn ugly. Researchers at Rutgers University address the case for the opposite approach to business profitability: Expand your sales by signaling to the stigmatized how you welcome them spending their money and time with you. The effects of doing this go beyond increasing business from the specific target. The researchers point to studies showing that when it’s clear one stigmatized group is welcomed, others come to feel they’re welcomed, too. 
     Please recognize the exceptions to this when a stigmatized group itself stigmatizes. If your store signals that they’d love to have the shopping aisles filled with white supremacists—a group which is quite rightfully stigmatized—I’m thinking that disenfranchised racial minorities would read this as being stepped on rather than as a welcome mat. But the general rule still generally holds. Moreover, other studies describe how the broad audience of the non-stigmatized are attracted to retailers who eschew discrimination.
     The Rutgers researchers also note that a brand image which projected danger toward one or more stigmatized groups led to boycotts of the brand. If you’re subject to a boycott by a community action group, determine the group’s objectives before deciding on actions. In my experience, community action groups initiating a boycott are usually less interested in doing economic damage to the offender than in forcing changes to the behavior of all businesses engaging in the offensive action. If you find this is indeed the objective of an organized boycott of your retail business, publicize all the ways in which you share common ground with the group.
     The Rutgers researchers conclude that the essential element in welcoming the stigmatized is deeper than carrying items which likely appeal to the target population, such as the hijab-wearing Black Muslim Barbie from Mattel, or in the décor, such as advertising showing women who are full-figured. The essential element is a message of safety as the consumer reinforces their identity during their shopping.

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

Click below for more: 
Go Over the Rainbow for LGBT Retailing
Look Out for Ugly Shoppers!
State That Status Shouldn’t Affect Service
Buoy Your Business Against Boycotts