Dance Seniors Away from Falls

Almost any physical activity improves the welfare of almost any exerciser. But dancing is especially helpful for older adults, according to an analysis at University of Zurich and Harvard University.
     Not all dancing. The activity in the 29 studies analyzed had the seniors move while standing, with their movements choreographed to fit a rhythm such as music or the dancer’s own breathing. This includes ballroom dancing, folk dancing, aerobic dance, and tai chi. It did not include yoga that was confined to static body postures.
     The distinctive advantage for older adults of such activities is that they were found to reduce the risk of falls by nearly 40%. The researchers note how each year, about a third of community-dwelling adults who are at least 65 years old experience a fall, and about a third of those falls result in medical attention. A serious fracture in a senior often begins a progression toward death.
     In the studies analyzed, greater benefits were achieved from programs that met at least three times per week and lasted at least twelve weeks. Because these dance activities are choreographed, they require mental attention, which helps maintain cognitive acuity in the senior brain. Because the activities are generally conducted with a group, or at least a dance partner, they ease loneliness in the older adult. Both these provide a means and motivation to go on living in the event of a fracture from a fall.
     The schedule of meetings, feelings of mental sharpness, and opportunities for socializing also help persuade participation. Fewer than 20% of older adults participate in a level of physical activity sufficient,  to protect against unnecessary disability. The World Health Organization has declared increasing that percentage to be a public health priority.
     A Ghent University study probed why seniors who are fully capable of moving around do no more than sit around instead. A total of fifteen studies about that topic were reviewed, covering seniors ranging in age from 63 years to 79 years in the United Kingdom, Canada, the U.S., and Belgium.
     The first overall finding was that seniors often fail to realize how much of their time they’re sitting around. Beyond this, many of the seniors said they’d slipped into the habit of being sedentary after having taken a spill. They feared another fall. Which brings us back, then, to tempting them with the fall-prevention advantages dancing offers.

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Poke Sedentary Seniors’ Assets

Criticize Women Strongly

Shameful! We’re lying to our women employees. The Cornell University researchers found female supervisors do it, not just the males, and the consequences stunt the professional growth of these women being lied to.
     The lies are about the quality of employee performance. In the studies, supervisors pulled punches when providing feedback to women. This happened much less often with male employees. We might think the reason is that supervisors believe women are less competent than men, so we set the standards lower. However, the research found no clear evidence of this.
     Instead, the explanation was that people believe women are less confident than men about their job performance. Supervisors want to encourage women to do well by overaccentuating the positives. Building confidence, not questioning competence.
     The problem is that the white lies deprive women employees of the constructive criticism they need in order to most quickly become superb performers. Our assumption that women have less confidence on the job than do men is probably justified on the whole.
     Gender bias and outright discrimination cause this. It also could be true that the current system feeds on itself. Since women are accustomed to punches being pulled with performance feedback, maybe they’ll have a more destructive response than will men to strongly negative reviews.
     The best remedy, though, is to be honest. Give ongoing feedback rather than save it for just an annual review. It’s easier to handle negatives and leverage positives when they come in small doses.
     The way you reference the positives and negatives also makes a difference. Here’s the formula I recommend for feedback to all employees: 

• Situation. In what situation did the good or deficient behavior occur? Placing it in context makes your review more credible and digestible. 
• Behavior. What did the employee do or fail to do? Avoid talk of attitudes or intentions. Stick to the observable behavior. 
• Consequences. In what ways was this behavior in this situation of benefit or detriment to the organizational mission? This part is too often overlooked by supervisors, who assume the employee knows why you’re pointing out this behavior. 
• Your emotional reaction. This is the optional part. Research indicates women are more likely to respond to “That thrills me” or “That concerns me” than are men. 
• Facilitators & constraints. Acknowledge that circumstances in the particular situation may have challenged or assisted the employee. This helps them plan for excellent performance.

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Shape Staff Behavior with Self-Queries 

Bet on “Better Than Average” in Your Staff 

Threaten Gently, Praise Vigorously

Project Responsibility for Missed Discounts

Although deep price discounts can attract shoppers, the tactic sometimes generates negative longer-term results, including judgments that the quality of the sale items is flawed and that regular prices charged by the store are excessive.
     After considering the evidence for these, business experts at Texas A&M University, University of Houston, Indiana University, and University of Delaware uncovered another downside: Shoppers who realize they’ve missed the big sale sometimes become less likely to purchase the item at a lower discount offered subsequently.
     The important word here is “sometimes.” We’d like to know how to avoid the negatives. Studies at University of Miami and University of Kentucky support use of “steadily decreasing discounting.” Before returning the item to its pre-promotion regular price, offer one or more additional discounts on the same merchandise, each discount at a progressively lower percentage than the deep discount.
     This pretty much eliminates customer disgruntlement. But how do we keep shoppers interested in buying the merchandise at the lower discount?
     The answer from this more recent research is to place responsibility for having missed the sale firmly on the shoulders of the shopper. Because this is usually how the shopper sees things, steadily decreasing discounts work most of the time. But there are circumstances when shoppers are likely to assign the fault to you for the missed opportunity. They may have come into the store to make the purchase and been told you’ve sold out. They might learn about the discount from a friend and blame you for not having brought it to their attention.
     The remedy for the first one is to offer a deep discount on an alternative. For the second, try a technique proven effective when a shopper has any sort of complaint. Conduct the conversation in an area where the shopper can see themselves in a mirror. This leads to the consumer subconsciously considering what part they played in the disappointing experience.
     Now please notice the other “sometimes” in the first paragraph. How do we keep a promotional sale from injuring shopper perceptions of item quality or store price image? How do we maintain the revenue stream from repeat purchases of consumables?
     The research-based tactics here are to keep most discounts modest and to reserve deep discounts for themed storewide sales held so infrequently that shoppers are unlikely to want to wait until the next blockbuster sale to buy more of the items.

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Follow Big Discounts with Smaller Discounts 

Offer New Customers 15%-35% Discounts 

Theme Your Storewide Sales Promotions 

Mirror Responsibility at Complaint Desks

Tell Some Complainers It Could Be Worse

In James Stevenson’s 1977 children’s book, each time little Grandson or little Granddaughter grumble, Grandpa’s reply is, “Could be worse,” which also constitutes the full title of the book. In more recent years, researchers at University of London, Cranfield University, and Neoma Business School documented how sharing a similar sentiment with a complaining customer might ease their dissatisfaction.
     This certainly seems to contradict the dogma of customer service, which dictates that we empathize, apologize, and promptly remedy the shortfall. But the study results don’t question the value of taking all those steps. In fact, they emphasize the importance. It is adding “could have been worse” phrasing in the right format which moves the customer more quickly beyond dwelling on the incident. And getting the best from the technique requires certain circumstances.
     The researchers point to earlier research which showed best results in easing anger when the customer with the complaint was likely to compare themselves to others. This would occur in purchase situations when social standing predominates, such as luxury purchases and consumption accompanied by others.
     The scenario used in these later studies involved delivery of a restaurant order that was delayed so long that the diners missed the first part of a movie they’d planned for. In the scenario, the waiter apologizes. With some of the study participants, the waiter is said to have added, “You know, things could have been even worse. The other night, I went out to eat at another restaurant in town and was not served until two hours after I arrived. I was with a friend and we also had tickets to go to the cinema after dinner, but we ended up missing the entire movie. As you can imagine, tickets are nonrefundable, so I lost all the money.” 
     Each study participant was asked to rate the degree of anger they’d feel in this situation. The additional story of the waiter’s own unpleasant experience proved successful in easing that anger. But only when accompanied by a strong apology from the waiter.
     In the study, “could be worse” took the form of a story about the frontline employee’s own disappointment. That would be expected to add to its effectiveness. In the Stevenson book, Grandson and Granddaughter are puzzled, not persuaded, by Grandpa’s curt reply. Only after he shares a tale of prevailing over his own progressively worsening adventures do the two kids feel better.

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Show Complainers Respect, Concern, & Empathy 

Sidestep Complaint Extortion 

Satisfy Desires for Luxury 

Involve the Shopper in Your Story

Expect Less Skepticism When Sellers Buy

What adjustments should you make when selling to people who themselves have thorough experience in selling at retail? This question could come up frequently. The retail industry employs a considerable percentage of our workforce, note the researchers at University of Manitoba, University of British Columbia, and Acadia University who aimed to find an answer.
     Their studies led them to conclude that this category of shoppers is noticeably less suspicious of persuasion techniques than other shoppers are. Whenever you know or discover that your prospective customer is a retail worker, adjust your techniques to assume greater amounts of trust in you. Because it takes time to build trust, the adjustment improves your efficiency.
     This didn’t necessarily mean the retail employee shopper spent less time with the salesperson. Actually, it worked in the opposite direction overall. Compared to shoppers without retail sales experience, these people were more willing to prolong transactions, allowing the salesperson greater opportunity to close the deal or increase the basket total. Further, this type of customer felt greater friendliness toward the salesperson and higher intentions for future interactions, in comparison.
     However, the studies also identified a crucial qualifier on these beneficial effects: They depend on the salesperson behaving in a transparently trustworthy way. After all, those with experience in retailing carry great familiarity with the tricks of the trade. They’re sensitized to manipulation and poor service which are against their best interests. Their own experiences both motivate them and allow them to better understand the perspective of their salesperson, with all the rapport and insight that brings.
     Another way to understand these effects is that suspiciousness is eased when dealing with conscientious people we believe to be like us. There’s a sisterhood and brotherhood among retail employees just as there generally is among other identities we take on. Our identities shift throughout the period of even one weekday. For instance, the same consumer might view themselves as a parent in morning, a lawyer while at the office, an athlete during the evening workout, and a marriage partner at the post-shower restaurant dinner.
     Not only that, but during the time we hold each of these identities, we welcome sharing perspectives verbally and conceptually with others having that identity. The lawyer aiming to persuade the lawyer will arouse less suspiciousness if doing it when that’s the aroused identity.

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Mimic Me, My Pretty 

Be Up Front with Quality Sales Pitches

Stock Shock Ad Ideas

Yes, the photo in the ad was of a woman sucking a banana. But, no, the description for the ad didn’t refer to the fruit. Instead, it referred to condoms. But, no, the true objective of showing the ad to the audience wasn’t to sell them condoms. Instead, it was to evaluate the effects of shock advertising—shockvertising.
     The University of Auckland researchers note the value of shock for having an ad stand out in a saturated media environment. At the same time, they recognize how a shocking ad might gain that notice by offending the consumer, making it less likely they’d be persuaded.
     Their study consisted of showing one of eight versions of the ad to different groups of people, most of them American males between ages 25 and 34 years. All versions included a photo of the one banana arranged vertically. For some participants, the banana was shown with a woman’s mouth enclosing the top of the fruit, considered to be the shocking version of the ad, while for other participants, it was just the banana. Some participants were told the ad was for bananas, while the others were told it was for condoms. Some participants were told the ad was for a familiar brand (Dole bananas or Durex condoms), while the others were told it was for a brand less familiar to them (Nature’s Gem bananas or Duo condoms).
     After viewing the ad, each participant was asked questions to indicate how offended, if at all, they were by the ad and how comfortable, if at all, they’d be in purchasing the advertised item.
     Having looked at the issue from all these angles, the results were that the shock made a difference only when the ad was for the familiar brand of bananas. People were more offended and less interested in buying with the version of the ad showing the woman. A follow-up study indicated that the reasons included incongruity and disgust. Your audiences expect more dignity from a better-known brand.
     Still, for those marketing circumstances in which shock would be acceptable, have in stock some ideas for using it, or using surprise, which is a cousin to shock. Studies at Bangor University, Glyndwr University, and Loughborough University provide insight as to why shock works. These images and descriptions trigger storytelling in the mind of the consumer. They spend more time thinking about what the ad’s selling.

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Shock Consumers, But Morally 

Arouse Curiosity for Special Effect 

Save Money with Contrasting Ad Context

Screen Your Service Face

Including on a store’s website photos of the store owner and of the bricks-and-mortar interior reduce feelings of psychological distance and increase interest in shopping through the store’s online channel. But much greater gains could come from featuring photos on the website of the people in your organization who solve post-purchase problems.
     Studies at KEDGE Business School in France, Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany, University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and Babson College in the U.S. show that photos of the customer service staff improve perceptions of service quality among shoppers who haven’t yet made a purchase and also among customers who are assessing from memory how good the service quality was. Seeing the photo of who provided you service makes you feel better about what the person in that photo did for you. Ratings of the employee’s competence and commitment also improve. It actually changes the memories.
     The researchers say this simple step of including the photos will provide a distinctive business advantage because it’s done so infrequently. They report that fewer than 15% of service firms in the S&P 500 listing use the technique.
     One mechanism of action is the humanization of the transaction. Providing information about the customer service representative might also do this. Another mechanism of action is accountability. Knowing their photo is on the website could lead to the service representative being more conscientious, and so delivering objectively better service. The customer might acknowledge this in their mind only when later being cued by looking at the photo.
     A third mechanism of action has to do with the presence of a photo in itself. Even when the theme of a photo is objectively irrelevant to the thrust of a message, influence builds. Researchers at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand presented study participants with declarative statements like, “Giraffes are the only mammals that cannot jump,” and, “Turtles are deaf.” These statements were chosen because most people are unsure of their truth. The purchase decision in the study was not for merchandise, but instead for a belief.
     Those participants shown a photo of a giraffe along with the statement were more likely to say it was true than were the participants shown only the statement. Similarly, a photo of a turtle injected credibility into the “Turtles are deaf” statement.
     In all these cases, photos probably work better than drawings because of the additional realism.

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Show Online What’s in Store 

Give Shoppers Reason to Believe 

Solicit Photos from Satisfied Customers

Tiptoe Around Pandemic Atypicality

Businesses at points along the production, marketing, and selling pipeline have varying time horizons when predicting consumer preferences. Changes in buying behavior attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic led to the general question, What are the long-term consequences of widespread fear of disease on how shoppers make choices?
     To answer, researchers at University of Iowa, Northwestern University, and Stanford University began with finding that such fear results in consumers selecting less adventurous products over more adventurous ones. In the studies, preferences shifted toward Campbell canned soup and away from house brands. Toward traditional OREOs and away from newer OREO variations. The reason is that fear of disease brings uncertainty, so a desire for the stability of the traditional develops.
     There’s a notable limitation. If the less adventurous alternative is associated with purchase by lots of people, this results in a reversal of the effect. Studies at Ohio State University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology attributed it to fear of contamination from being around crowds. Because this fear can be subconscious, it might influence even an individual’s online shopping.
     Fear of disease also increases the quantity of purchasing. The explanation here goes beyond buying extra stocks of commodities because of concerns remaining from how stores ran out of items early in the Covid-19 spread. The explanation also has to do with the comfort buying brings when faced with thoughts of mortality.
     These research findings suggest that in the long-term, the atypical avoidance of atypical items will lessen. Consumers seek the stimulation of novelty after release from restrictions. We might even expect an overreaction, paralleling how people crowded into parks as soon as shelter-in-place was lifted.
     Purchasing extra items for extended storage may also fade as consumers see less frequent out-of-stocks. Also depressing excessive purchasing will be another effect of pandemics—the individual’s budget shrinks as the general economy does so. Researchers at Texas Christian University, The Pennsylvania State University, and College of William and Mary find that as this happens, consumers refine their purchase priorities based on personal values. The results here are likely to have consequences which last far longer than the disease danger. The researchers urge marketers during disease fear to prove how their offerings support the shopper’s values.
     Among those is the value of safe shopping. A pandemic legacy is that being around a sneezing fit while shopping has taken on a more sinister meaning.

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Use Terror Management Theory for Status Items 

Poach Those Jilted by Delayed Delivery 

Value Cultural Values

Wed Couples to Distinctive Brands

Couples living together often use the same brands. We’d expect this since, in most cases, one member of the pair does the shopping for both of them and differences between brands can be inconsequential. But studies at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Berry College indicate there’s more to it. A purposeful decision to use the same brands is an expression of a romantic relationship.
     Moreover, to develop a romantic relationship further, a couple will seek a brand distinctive for them. What’s thought of as “our song” generalizes to “our consumer brands.” This is true for shopping at certain outlets as well as purchasing within brand families of complementary items, such as the same brand of soap and shampoo. All this was verified in the research for couples who were married, cohabitating while not married, and in a romantic relationship while not married or cohabitating.
     The implication for marketers is to build brand loyalty among romantically involved pairs by offering items which will impress them as distinctive and which they can consume together. The bonus appeal comes in them taking on a new experience as a pair. Short of this, encouraging one member of the pair to introduce the other to a favorite brand might strengthen the loyalty between the two of them and between them and you. In such situations, studies at The University of Western Ontario and Washington State University indicate that having the male member of a male-female couple introduce the female member works better than doing it the other way around.
     The researchers predict that brand loyalties developed in these ways will last as long as the romantic relationship does, gaining deeper roots because of the appeal of nostalgia. Marketers strengthen this when tying brands to the couple’s shared experiences such as hobbies or special occasions.
     Still, romantic relationships don’t always last forever, so this basis for brand loyalty can twist around. Researchers at University of New Hampshire and Duke University found that when a husband or wife feels low in relationship power and is irritated at the spouse, oppositional brand choice arises. A brand clearly different from the one selected by the spouse is preferred. The researchers point out it could be a temporary situation. When the relationship is mended, the underlying brand preference again shows itself. But accommodating the temporary situation helps you make the sale as well as resolving your puzzlement about what’s going on.

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Build on Couples’ Decision-Making Rituals 

Enable Shoppers to Revisit the Already Done 

Indulge in Group Nostalgia 

Brand People by Interpersonal Relationships 

Break Bread to Curb Breaking Bad

Push Down Talking Down to Seniors

In what ways does a patronizing salesperson influence an elderly adult’s interest in patronizing a mobile phone store?
     Researchers at Saarland University, German Institute for Japanese Studies, and Akita International University asked seniors to read one of two descriptions of a store interaction. In the first scenario, when the elderly shopper says, “I’m looking for a cell phone,” the salesperson replies, “We have a phone with supersized buttons,” and when the shopper asks if the phone supports UMTS, the reply is, “Those modern abbreviations used by the younger generation often cause some confusion.” In the other scenario, the replies are, “What were you thinking about buying?” and, “This phone supports the UMTS standards.”
     We might expect that the first scenario would strike the study participants as showing sensitivity to the characteristics of the individual shopper, a desire to save the shopper’s time, and an effort to reassure the shopper that lack of technical knowledge is fine. But in fact, the older adults reading the first scenario were, on the whole, less receptive to purchasing the phone and shopping at that store in the future than were those reading the second scenario. Those reading the first scenario were also more likely to say they felt they were being talked down to as if they were a child.
     Women were more irritated by the patronizing salesperson behavior than were men. This might be due in part to the scenario being about a mobile phone. Women tend to think salespeople will underestimate their knowledge of technologies. This problem could be addressed by having more women salespeople available in the store and showing more female salespeople in ads.
     The salesperson’s responses were more likely to be seen as patronizing when that salesperson was described as being about 28 years old than as being about 58 years old. A general finding is that shoppers prefer to be served by people who approximate similarities to them. Having older salespeople available to shoppers could help here.
     Culture makes a difference. The study was conducted with German consumers. The researchers note that previous work shows Mexican salespeople being perceived as especially rude and French salespeople being perceived as especially arrogant.
     Still, across cultures, transactions with seniors go best when the competencies of the shopper are assumed by the salesperson unless shown otherwise. Failing this, even what is intended to be respectful can be perceived as the opposite.

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Stem the Tide of Female Shopper Discomfort 

Value Different Values Systems of Seniors 

Race for Recognition 

Forget Stereotypes of Seniors’ Memory Deficits

Proceed to Protect Your Staff from Insults

When frontline store employees are bombarded with verbal aggression from shoppers—shoppers who are feeling frustrated and those who are just being mean—we require that the employees refrain from firing right back. Far from surprising are the findings by University of Macau researchers that this restriction generates employee anger and that the anger corrodes store profitability. When under high stress, people fight or flee. Here, fight takes the form of active sabotage of the business’s standards and flight takes the form of ignoring even respectful customer requests.
     What the Macau studies do add to our knowledge is a way managers can ease this fight-or-flight anger: Maintain procedures and procedural justice for handling jaycustomer behavior. In the studies, procedural justice was measured by answers to questions about how store management handles employee concerns in general. Among the survey items were, “Have you been able to express your views and feelings?,” “Have procedures been applied consistently?,” “Have procedures upheld ethical standards?,” and “Have you been able to appeal an outcome?”
     When perceptions were of higher procedural justice, shoppers’ verbal aggression toward store staff was less likely to cause anger and the sabotage of good shopper service. It’s in the interest of management, then, to maintain excellent procedural justice. The pressure to do so, and to support employees with decisive action, became even greater when expectations for enforcement of mask requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic were implemented. The risks grew to include physical and well as psychological damage to employees from aggressive consumers who refused to cover their faces. Anger and rigidity from both sides set off explosions.
     Store employees should also receive procedural justice when the rudeness comes from the bosses themselves. A supervisor reprimanding in front of a complaining customer the employee responsible for the shortfall may be intending to demonstrate respect for the customer. But this message is severely undercut by the failure of the manager to show respect to the salesperson in front of the customer. Guilt and shame are powerful emotions which can lead to dysfunctional consequences
     It’s best you not be harsh even when in private. Psychologists at New York University and University of Tulsa estimated that about 70% of retail employees do less well when more emphasis is placed on fixing the blame for the problem than on fixing the problem. Hold employees responsible, but fix the problem instead of fixing the blame.

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Build Up Bawl Outs When Telling Complainers

Unmask Personal Heroes for Life

As the COVID-19 pandemic filled consumers’ minds with thoughts about death, consumers’ bellies got filled with unhealthy foods. The cause-and-effect is called Terror Management Theory. When facing our mortality, our consumption leans into the indulgent. One direction this takes is purchase of luxury items. Another is eating and drinking sugary treats.
     Studies at University of Leeds, University of Limerick, and Copenhagen Business School saw a way for marketers to bend habits back toward the life-sustaining: Encourage people to think about their personal heroes. A classic pop psychology tenet is that our personal heroes inspire life-affirming positivity. Now the psychology research studies, conducted during the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, see this other positive from heroes during times of widespread disease, local terrorist attacks, or other reminders of approaching or potential death. The mechanisms of action are increases in the meaning of life and in personal power, each climb shown to result from reflecting about an individual hero.
     In the studies, the prompt to the consumer was as simple as, “Think of a person you consider to be a hero, and then write down a description of this hero.” Heroes are often characterized as brave, self‐sacrificing, honest, and strong, with moral integrity. For the study participants who were identified as pondering about their mortality, thinking about the hero led to more choices of offered healthy foods, such as apples and bananas, over less healthy foods, such as cookies and chocolate cake. Compared to those not thinking about a personal hero, those doing so were also more likely to agree with statements such as, “I think I have a great deal of power.”
     The agent of persuasion also can become a hero of sorts in the mind of the consumer. Fans of psychiatrist Carl Jung maintain that when people shop, they see the salesperson as playing a dramatic role. People shop to solve problems, and clinical research convinced Jungians we expect specific sorts of problem solvers in our lives. Among these, the Superhero takes responsibility for rescuing us. The customer expects the Superhero to go above and beyond what most salespeople are able or willing to do.
     However, studies at Boston College indicate this dependence on a salesperson decreases rather than increases the shopper’s sense of power. Don’t count on these short-term transactions facilitating healthy habits in the same way that conjuring up recollections of a long-term personal hero will.

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Use Terror Management Theory for Status Items 

Mythologize Your Store

Stick It to Some Shoppers

Consumer loyalty isn’t straightforward. Many people who are completely satisfied with a store will start shopping elsewhere because of a need for variety or a fear of missing out on what else is out there. People clearly dissatisfied with a store will continue shopping there out of habit or because the effort in switching would be a bother.
     Researchers at Texas State University wanted to identify ways to iron out such irregularities so that a retailer’s initiatives to improve customer service would directly increase loyalty. The process they conclude works well is to move the shopper from pleasant experiences on to emotional attachment.
     Pleasant experiences at the store are necessary, but not sufficient. Emotional attachment comes when customers frequently think about those pleasant experiences. Get your customers to stick around by making the store personality sticky for them. The researchers verified that doing this does, indeed, increase return business intentions.
     Consistency in delivery builds emotional attachment. However, consistency doesn’t mean boring. Regularly seek ways to personalize services which track the inevitable changes in your target audiences.
     Researchers at Neoma Business School in France and University of Gafsa in Tunisia measured emotional attachment at retail by asking consumers the degree to which they agreed with these four statements: 

• I am very attached to this store. 
• I feel this store is a part of me. 
• I feel like there is a bond between me and this store’s personnel. 
• No other place can compare to this store.

     A major finding of the studies was that a store’s target audience is composed of people who have widely varying degrees of interest in forming an emotional attachment with a retail store. For those seeking such attachment, birthday cards and invitations to special events could satisfy the desire. But those same techniques are likely to alienate shoppers who are pleased to give a retailer business, yet fear the commitments associated with an emotional attachment.
     This caution is consistent with the finding from University of California-Riverside, Boston College, and Southern Methodist University researchers that there are fewer repurchases from customers who say they’ve been thanked too much by the retailer, and this tipping point is different for different customers.
     For those not wanting emotional attachments, improving customer service may have little effect on building customer loyalty. This isn’t license to neglect service, but instead a caution not to count on a net financial profit from it.

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Monitor Variety Seeking 

Switch Thinking About Switching Costs 

Feel Out a Fitting Emotional Attachment 

Tally the Costs of Customer Service

Monitor Your Thanks to Customers

Grasp the Right Preferences of Shoppers

Almost a decade ago, studies from Brigham Young University and University of Michigan revealed that the direction in which a dining utensil was oriented influences attitudes toward the item. Now, researchers at Rutgers University, Oregon State University, and KEDGE Business School say a similar effect works for wall clocks, yogurt containers, and tax software. 

     The effect has to do with the positioning of an object and whether the viewer is right-handed or left-handed. With the dining utensils, if a fork, spoon or mug is portrayed in an ad in the position the viewer would prefer in order to easily pick it up, the product is liked better. With the wall clocks, yogurt containers, and tax software, including in the ad, close to the featured item, a mug with the handle oriented for grasping by the dominant hand improves product appeal.
     Notice that this means the more effective ad is showing a mirror image. The consumer is looking at the ad, so what would be closest to the consumer’s right hand will have been to the left of a person whose image faces us in the ad. Because most people are right-handed, a natural tendency would be for the marketer to orient photo setups the other way around. That detracts from the motivational power of the ad. All this applies not only to ads, but also to in-store displays and to customer-facing demonstrations of the items.
     The earlier research concluded that all this happens because the proper positioning allows the viewer to more easily imagine using the item themselves. The more recent research, because of some additional experimental conditions, extends on this by saying that the ease of imagining a grasp on the item leads to ease in grasping the idea of subsequently owning the item.
     The size of the effect is not large. The researchers estimate it adds about 0.7% to the chances the shopper will form a more favorable impression of the item. It provides what I call “a retailer’s edge.” In using the dominant-hand-positioning tactic, you risk overdependence on it, forgetting that the quality of the offering counts for much more.
     Another danger is that in positioning the cue to appeal to right-handers, you would decrease the appeal to the approximately 10% of adults who are left-handed. Would it be best to have a pair of cues, each one positioned for one or the other group? Maybe.

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Hand Shoppers An Aid to Imagining Usage 

Take Occam’s Razor to Your Shoppers

Secure Distance with a Second Language

Never negotiate to buy a used car from an owner who has their toddler sitting in their lap, advise researchers from University of Toronto. People place a higher value on items they’re selling when personal associations to the item are activated, such as subconscious associations to the toddler having ridden in the car. It’s an aspect of the endowment effect, which refers to how people set higher values on objects they own than on equivalent objects they do not.
     Asking the seller to relocate the toddler into their playpen before negotiating eases the endowment effect by increasing the emotional distance from the car. Researchers at Koç University suggest another way for cars and all other items: Conduct negotiations in the seller’s second language. For about 20% of North Americans, that second language is English. Worldwide, mastery of more than one language is relatively common. The Koç studies included dual English/Spanish and dual English/Turkish speakers.
     Multilinguistic skills affect more of consumer psychology than only the endowment effect. When surveying consumers about their likes and dislikes, use the respondent’s favored language. But if this becomes overly cumbersome, use images of happy and sad faces on degree-of-agreement scales, say researchers at Erasmus University in the Netherlands.
     The researchers’ argument is that even when survey respondents comprehend English just fine, those who are not native speakers tend to interpret emotion words differently. Specifically, according to findings, they tend to report more intense emotions when answering in a non-native language than when using their favored language. “Love” and “hate” don’t feel as strong in the second as in the primary tongue. It loses something in translation. So where the Spanish-speaker might say “disagree somewhat” on the Spanish-language version, they’ll say on the English-language version, “strongly disagree” in an effort to correct for the reduced affect.
     Every enterprise benefits from valid surveys of their target audiences. And if your enterprise sells used merchandise or accepts trade-ins, the endowment effect complicates negotiations. A set of Boston University and University of Pittsburgh research studies saw differences of over 20% between price estimates of buyers and sellers. Then those researchers found a way to dramatically reduce the gap with a method which transcends linguistic culture: Demonstrate empathy. Acknowledge the special value the item at issue has to the seller.
     It also wouldn’t hurt to acknowledge the special value to the seller of any toddler sitting in their lap.

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Empathize to Ease the Endowment Effect 

Correct for Language Preference on Surveys 

Release Those Pajamas from Purgatory

Stay Interesting

Researchers at Stanford and Harvard Universities asked college undergraduate NBA fans to play a version of fantasy sports. Given high ranking performance statistics on a small set of basketball players, the undergraduates were assigned to state the salary they’d be willing to pay each player during the player’s sixth season with the team.
     For some of the undergraduates, the statistics were said to have come from the player’s first five years with the NBA. For the other undergraduates, the statistics were said to be projections of performance for the first five years with the NBA.
     Compared to the players with a proven record of excellence, those for whom only potential was stated averaged higher salary figures, $5.25 million versus $4.26 million. It appeared that potential was valued over achievement.
     There are a few possible explanations for this finding. It might be that performance excellence is expected to fade over the years, so while the young rookie would be expected to get better, the older veteran would not. Or the undergraduates may have assumed that player salaries would continue to go higher each year, and the bid for the veteran was for the upcoming year, while the bid for the rookie was for six years beyond now.
     However, the main explanation identified by the researchers was instead that potential is more interesting, and therefore more valued, than achievement. This was seen in further studies done by these researchers regarding job candidates and in separate studies by University of Wisconsin researchers about brands. Brands labeled by consumers as interesting sold better and generated more word-of-mouth.
     What makes a brand interesting?, asked the second set of researchers. The answer is mastery of novelty. Interesting brands intrigue consumers because they break routine, yet those item and store brands are felt to be interesting only if consumers believe they can comfortably cope with the differences.
     Importantly, a brand experience doesn’t have to be thoroughly pleasant in order to be interesting. In a Cardiff Business School and Kedge Business School study, repeat customers for Tough Mudder found the program highly interesting even though it included wallowing in a ditch of cold mud, running among four-foot-high flames, and crawling through high-voltage electric wires. Mastery provided the payoff.
     Few people might choose to navigate those hazards while purchasing their weekly groceries. But regularly introducing novelty, as long as you equip shoppers to handle it, maintains interest and, consequently, sales.

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Play Up Your Potential

Tool Up for Word-of-Mouth 

Pain a Stimulating Picture 

Redesign Your Store for Loyalty 

Unpack Product Learning

Solve Mysteries of Tribal Cues on Items

In a study of U.S. consumers, researchers at China’s Zhejiang University and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics found that displaying an American flag image on a T-shirt produced lower evaluations of the item. Yet a team of researchers from Duke University, Cornell University, and University of Waterloo saw that featuring an American flag on a T-shirt increased interest in purchasing the item among a group of U.S. consumers.
     An explanation for these seemingly contradictory outcomes might be seen in another study of tribal cues—a study which used for American residents not an American flag, but instead a Christian cross and Muslim crescent moon plus a star. But as with the American flag studies, the findings were not straightforward.
     For this University of Wyoming study, participants were shown a print ad for a coffee shop they’d not heard about before. In some cases, the ad included one or the other religious symbol and for the remaining participants, there was no religious symbol. All participants were asked how likely they’d be to patronize the coffee shop and their feelings about the coffee shop. Those participants shown the ad which included a religious symbol were also asked to speculate on why the owner of the coffee shop would choose to do that.
     The overall finding was that use of the religious symbol didn’t make much difference in patronage intentions. But digging deeper, it was seen that the assumed motivation for use of the symbol did. If the motivation was to reach a specific target market, it was a positive. This held true across participants, not only for those who had identified themselves as Muslim.
     This brings us back to the studies with the American flag. The Chinese researchers’ explanation for the negative impact, as verified by additional studies, was that the U.S consumers saw the inclusion of the cue as a contrived appeal to patriotism. The researchers described the study participants’ reaction as outrage.
     For the Duke-Cornell-Waterloo study, presentation of the T-shirt with the American flag had been preceded by asking the study participants to read an article highly critical of the U.S. The group among those participants who then were more highly attracted to the T-shirt were those who had high confidence in the American culture. The perceived motivation for the shirt including the flag was to provide an opportunity for consumers to bear witness to this confidence.

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Discount Doubts About Veterans’ Discounts 

Proselytize to Fit Current Culture

Lessen Emphasis on Less Bad Sometimes

When Coca-Cola announced, “Our Bonaqua lightweight mineral water bottles are specially engineered to use 34% less plastic,” you might expect the purchase likelihood of the product would grow. But studies at City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong indicate that the opposite can happen. Consumers could respond, “Gee, I wasn’t even thinking about how my mineral water comes entombed in a slug of plastic. I’ll stop buying bottled mineral water.”
     To avoid this negative response, the researchers discovered, persuade shoppers to pay more attention to the decrease in the bad than to the presence of the bad. Accomplish this by discussing the upsides of change generally. When presented with a benefit claim of reduction in a negative attribute, accompanying it with “We understand that customers always change over the course of their lives,” resulted in greater product attractiveness than did, “We understand that customers are always committed to consistency over the course of their lives.”
     It also worked to briefly describe the advantages of even small decreases in the negative characteristic. Again, the objective was to portray the characteristic as occurring in degrees of intensity rather than as a binary “there or not there.”
     Studies at Indiana University and University of Pittsburg cover another approach on this issue: Consumers distinguish between resolvable and irresolvable attributes. Resolvable attributes are those which can be corrected or repaired. Irresolvable product attributes are those for which correction requires purchase of a replacement item. Whether an attribute is resolvable or irresolvable comes from how the customer thinks about it. To reduce the possible damage from claims about a decrease in the negative, present it as resolvable. “To deliver mineral water to you, we need to have a container, but the nature of that container can be improved.”
     Still, because of the risk of it doing damage, you might choose not to highlight the decrease in a negative attribute. If you’re doing well enough, it can be best to leave well enough alone.
     Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania researchers compiled a list of thousands of the retailer’s customers who could lower their monthly fee by changing their monthly plan. Of those contacted about the available decrease in cost, about 10% cancelled their service within three months. Of those not contacted, about 6% cancelled. Being told they could have been saving money led to subscriber disquiet.

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Resolve to Investigate by Attribute Type  

Leave Well Enough Alone if Well Enough

Herd Conformity Away from Deindividuation

Customer conformity can be a wonderous thing for marketers. It makes it easier to predict what your shoppers will want or not, so inventory matches sales. The underlying purpose of fostering word-of-mouth is to encourage conformity. The unity of conformists into a herd drives charity fundraising campaigns and powers political movements.
     However, herding stimulates deindividuation, where the conformists neglect personal responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. The problem with this is that herds can explode into mobs. For example, during deep discount sales, the insides of stores, and during civil unrest, the outsides of stores, are at risk of mayhem from mob violence.
     Researchers at University of Melbourne find that herding is facilitated by physiological arousal. In their studies, participants who had jogged in place for one minute were more likely to select the “popular choice” pizza or the “popular model” toy than were participants who sat at a computer during the one minute. The researchers went on to discuss how this effect extends to items beyond pizza and toys as well as to physiological arousal from loud music or voices, not only from vigorous physical exercise.
     To encourage conformity which proves fruitful to you and your shoppers, generate excitement. But to head off herding which threatens to escalate, maintain sufficient calm. This means preparing. When a retail store is confronted by an unexpected mob, the shocked staff can go mentally numb and close down their sensory channels. This erodes defenses against criminal behavior. Rehearse staff on how to handle all sorts of situations in managing crowds. This reduces, or can even eliminate, the traumatic shock. In particular, unambiguously designate who to contact for assistance during the incident and then after the incident.
     Still another way to disrupt the negative side of herding is to encourage self-identification. Understand the psychology of crowds as part of preparing for having people fill your aisles when you hold Black Friday sales, limited quantity sales, celebrity appearances, releases of new video games, and similar events. If shoppers will be waiting in line, have store staff wearing name tags talk to the shoppers. Invite those in line to fill out a sweepstakes form with their name and other identifying information. Because they lose some of their individual identity and therefore their sense of individual responsibility, people in crowds are driven to actions they would not take otherwise. Name-to-name contact helps head this off.

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Expect Shopper Conformity & Variety Seeking 

Flash Mob Scenarios Before Staff Eyes 

Use Psychology for Shopper Crowd Management

Even the Odds for Romance Seekers

Marketing targeted to people wanting to find a romantic relationship with a significant other are more successful when messages include numbers divisible by 2. Researchers at University of Sydney produced this effect by asking consumers to say how likely they would be to buy a set of products. In some cases, odd numbers were associated with the products. The hunk of cheese was 2.25 pounds, the box of chocolates included 17 sweets, and the jacket cost $68.83. For the remaining consumers, the numbers were even. Cheese at 2.24 pounds, the box of chocolates containing 16, and $68.82 for the jacket.
     These study participants also were presented with a questionnaire which included items like, “It is important to me to find a romantic partner.” It was found that the people indicating higher agreement with such items also expressed stronger purchase intentions for the items carrying the even number information.
     The easiest explanation for these findings is that people whose thinking is occupied on pairing with a significant other find even numbers to be more familiar, and what is familiar to a consumer tends to be favored by that consumer. A similar finding had to do with V8.
     Researchers at University of Florida and National University of Singapore ended up asking study participants whether they’d prefer a glass of V8 or Campbell’s tomato juice. But before this question, the participants had been shown an advertisement for V8. For one group of participants, the ad read, “Get a full day’s supply of essential vitamins and minerals with a bottle of V8.” For the other participants, the ad read, “Get a full day’s supply of 4 essential vitamins and 2 minerals with a bottle of V8.”
     Those who saw the second version of the ad were especially likely to select the V8 over the tomato juice. The ad which used the numbers 4 and 2 subconsciously generated the numbers 6 (4 plus 2) and 8 (4 times 2). A preference for V8 was created because of familiarity with the number.
     Such nudges are subtle. In the study of those seeking romance, differences were not large, although noticeable and statistically significant. There also are limits on when they apply. Greater preferences were not seen among people who had already achieved the romantic relationship. They also were absent among people aiming for simultaneous relationships with a bunch of partners. That’s not even odd, though, right?

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Hit Shoppers with a Two-by-Four

Eke Out the Best IKEA Effect

The “IKEA Effect” refers to the consumer research finding that consumers are willing to pay substantially more for a product they’ve had the opportunity to customize. IKEA, like a number of other retailers, encourages shoppers to select among sets of options in configuring a purchased item. These are “mass customization toolkits.” Although the name is ironic in that an IKEA product is usually priced lower than a completely assembled corresponding item, the IKEA Effect has been seen in a number of studies.
     Some years ago, studies at Tulane University, Harvard University, and Duke University attributed the IKEA Effect to the reinforcement of self-identity experienced via the choice of options, plus the value to a consumer which comes from validating their competence in assembling the personally-selected components. That second prong has its own irony, highlighted by the use of “toolkits” in “mass customization toolkits.” Many jokes are rooted in the incompetence faced by many as they attempt to put the pieces together. Clearly, there are limits to that second basis for the effect. Don’t count on it.
     Researchers at SUNY-Oneonta, National Chiayi University, and National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology explored limitations on the first basis, with implications for retailers getting the best from the IKEA Effect. They found that the exertion of time or effort in choice and assembly is not a significant factor in building value for the purchaser. This argues for keeping the processes simple.
     Important factors included a wide range of options, but not at the expense of simplicity. Provide ways the shopper can easily sort through the choices to fit their desired identity Researchers at University of Alberta and University of St. Gallen created and then evaluated a technique for this: Develop a limited number of combinations of the major item attributes, then encourage the shopper to choose one of them and personalize using the other attributes. A fit with the individual’s aesthetic preferences counts.
     In a set of nine studies covering the item categories of shirts, automobiles, vacation packages, jewelry, and financial products, the researchers identified clear benefits of this customization via starting solutions. The purchasers were more satisfied with what they ended up buying and found more mental stimulation in using the items. And the store or retail firm owners were pleased with how the purchasers selected a greater number of item features, which resulted in a higher-dollar transaction.

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Ask “Whither Art Thou Helping?” 

Empower Indirectly Using Co-creation 

Tempt Shoppers with a Template 

Design Stores with Visual Aesthetics

Open Wide to Calm Complaint Intensity

Smaller bodies spew fiercer complaints. Whether that’s true or not for people, researchers at China’s Zhongnan University of Economics and Law found it’s true for computer devices with screens. In an analysis of over 7,800 complaint posts, those sent from a mobile phone, compared to those sent from a desktop computer, averaged more indicators of emotional intensity. The indicators included words such as “angry” “sad,” and “entrap,” plus format cues like words in all caps and use of exclamation marks. Similar findings were obtained when the researchers had groups of participants use either an iPhone with a 5.5-inch screen or an iPad with a 9.6-inch screen to file a complaint. The complaints from the iPhone were more intensely negative.
     Further study indicated that the reason for the difference has to do with a sense of spatial crowding. A smaller screen feels more constrained, and constraints aggravate pre-existing irritation. Along with this, the findings provide guidance for reducing the effect: Make the screen less crowded and more open, such as by omitting a frame around the area where the consumer enters the text of the complaints. In the studies, this simple change eased the fierceness.
     We want our customers to be psychologically open to expressing dissatisfactions. Whatever the severity of the problem, you’d like to know about it so you preserve good relationships with your customers and prune out suppliers of flawed merchandise. By designing the small-screen interface to be physically open, we protect against misinterpreting the depth of irritation.
     Other studies, conducted in a Western culture using a different approach, suggest an alternative explanation for the small-screen complaint-fierceness effect. University of Pennsylvania researchers find that people are more candid when communicating via smartphones than via personal computer. That could account for the increased intensity in the griping when a consumer feels cheated or otherwise wronged.
     An important extension to this, though, is that candor also can swing complaints toward less intensity when it leads customers to recognize their own responsibility for dissatisfaction. Researchers at Bayer Healthcare, Columbia University, and Maastricht University found that placing a mirror behind places where you accept complaints reduces the intensity of customers’ disgruntlement. Mirrors cause us to pause and look at ourselves. Moreover, the reflection in the mirror helps people sense emotions they’re experiencing, again arousing self-awareness which can ease extreme irritation. Signage including words like I, my, and mine also helps.

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Bring Flaws to Life Before Living with Them 

Wise Up by Tapping Smartphones 

Mirror Responsibility at Complaint Desks

Originate Creative Ads with Seniors’ Skills

Although the cognitive deterioration often accompanying advanced aging leads to rigid thinking, healthy older adults are, in fact, more creative on average than are younger adults. A task commonly used by psychologists to assess creativity is to ask the person to think of as many uses as possible for a highly mundane object like a brick. The superiority of older adults on just such a task was documented in a set of University of Michigan studies. Not only that, but another group of older adults generated more creative recipes than did a group of younger adults when limited to using corn, carrots, and tomatoes.
     We might explain this enhanced creativity as due to longer life experiences. Older adults have had more opportunities to observe a brick being used in unusual ways or to come up with a new way to combine the few cooking ingredients left in the pantry. When we talk about how the wisdom from aging compensates for the slowed responsiveness, we could refer to the additional and broader range of life experiences. Moreover, the slowed responsiveness might in itself enhance creativity by generating contemplation.
     The Michigan researchers had an additional explanation, though, one in which another common negative of old age—increased distractibility—becomes an advantage. Seniors find it difficult to suppress intrusive thoughts. But intrusive thoughts provide a broader range of ideas when your objective is to be creative.
     Workgroups responsible for marketing are wise to include among their membership senior citizens. Seniors constitute the fastest growing consumer demographic in the world, and who better to know the psychographics of seniors than other seniors? Plus, because of the increased creativity which comes with advanced age, those seniors in marketing workgroups could be a bonus to produce winning campaigns for every aged target.
     Research findings from University of Cologne show the dramatic effect of additional creativity in ads for a store or the products and services sold by the store. In the studies, money spent on a highly creative ad campaign bounced sales up nearly twice as much as did a campaign with little creativity. But not all aspects of creativity pay off equally well. Elaboration, which refers to how many different details are presented, and artistic value, which refers to how the ad use words, music, sounds, colors, and/or images to produce aesthetic pleasure, were especially powerful. Look for those skills in senior citizen marketers.

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Cut to the Chase of Old Voters’ Shortcuts 

Create Sales with Creative Ads