Kick the Sale with Curiosity

Curiosity is the gap between what a person knows and what they want to know. Gently kick prospective customers toward purchasing impulsively by prolonging their curiosity, advise researchers at University of Arizona and University of Washington. In one of their studies, they aroused curiosity by showing participants blurred images and assessed impulsive consumption by offering a quantity of chocolate candies and noting how many the person ate. When curiosity was aroused and a rewarding resolution was not provided, more chocolate candies were consumed.
     Another technique used to arouse curiosity was asking study participants to write about questions for which they wanted answers and had not yet obtained the answers. The influence of curiosity without closure was seen not only in the choices made by the study participants, but also in their brain activity. People with unresolved curiosity showed elevations in blood oxygenation of the insula, a brain area associated with the desire for rewards when there is no surety of receiving the rewards. Getting answers about issues we’re wondering about is rewarding, and when we’re frustrated about not getting those answers, our brain can kick us toward impulsively consuming other sorts of rewards.
     What distinguishes this set of studies are the findings that unsatisfied curiosity motivates impulsive buying. A long train of prior research has shown how arousing curiosity in consumers and then satisfying the curiosity increases the potential of a sale. Research findings from Indiana University and University of Colorado-Boulder show the value of a mystery ad format, in which you wait until the end to announce the retailer’s name. Start off with an unusual story or absurd humor which dramatizes the category of retailer and hooks the ad’s viewer or listener into thinking “Who’s this commercial for, anyway?”
     Mystery ads were significantly more effective than traditional ads in strengthening the name-category link. If you use mystery ads, people who afterwards start to yearn for categories the ads say your store carries will think about your store as the place to get those categories.
     Marketers and salespeople can arouse curiosity and prolong the inquisitiveness. The result will be a move toward impulsive purchasing of all sorts of items, not just items subject to the tease. That boosts profits. At the same time, recognize how impulsive purchasing might be bad. If there’s a risk of health damage, debt, or addiction, serve your shoppers and society by resolving the mystery.

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