Zoom In on Using Zoom Out for Luxury

“You want to buy this item I just showed you? Well, you will need to reach for it. After all, we both recognize it’s an exclusive piece, and you’re smart, so you know how exclusivity does not come easy!”
     That’s my version of Sophia University researchers’ explanation for a video zoom effect they identified: When a video ad starts with a closeup of a luxury product and then zooms out, viewers’ interest in product purchase is greater than if the video had zoomed in from overview to closeup. The zoom-out portrays the exclusivity of distance, and so reinforces the perception of luxury.
     The zoom-out advantages weren’t seen if the product was positioned as a non-luxury purchase. Nor did the effect appear with static presentations, that is, when showing a photo of a closeup and then a photo of a more distant view. The animation enhances the perception of moving away.
     The researchers checked for other possible explanations of the effect. Video ads that are more interesting, arouse suspense, or indicate scarcity might generate perceptions of luxury. None of these three characteristics were rated by consumers as greater in the zoom-out than in the zoom-in ad. But other studies do verify the value of you using interestingness, suspense, and scarcity signals in your video advertising.
     Also, other research demonstrates benefits, as well as liabilities, in generating perceptions of distance. Researchers at University of Chicago found that shoppers who characterized themselves as smart rather than not smart expressed a higher preference for products they’d have to travel across town to purchase compared to preference for equivalent products they could purchase nearby. These shoppers also evaluated products more positively when the products had been pushed back on the shelves rather than being in easy reach.
     Emotional reactions become less intense when a prospective purchase is perceived to be at a distance. According to studies at University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Oviedo in Spain, and Lieberman Research Worldwide, this is true for highly positive emotions—such as the thrill in having the item—and for highly negative emotions—such as anger at flawed product performance—and for all the emotions in-between. In these studies, distance could come from selecting an item to be used in the future rather than starting now, selecting an item for use by someone else rather than one’s own use, or considering an item after reading an ad rather than in the store.

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Look Lively! 

Sustain Mystery, But Not for Too Long 

Offer Scam-Free Scarcity 

Challenge Smart Shoppers

Program Service Robots to Socialize

Consumers value receiving services from people who demonstrate social skills. So as robotic devices take on consumer service functions, let’s equip those robots with social intelligence. Researchers at University of Bristol and University of Bologna define social intelligence in a robot as the ability to understand human emotions, respond to social cues, and in other ways maintain rapport with a person.
     This definition came from the researchers’ statistically-supported distinction among types of artificial intelligence. Verbal-linguistic intelligence allows a robot to accurately interpret instructions and information provided by the consumer and to respond in readily understandable ways to the consumer. Logic-mathematical intelligence is required for the robot to solve complex problems presented by the consumer. If the robot will be moving through space, such as to retrieve items for a customer’s store merchandise exchange or transport a disabled patient in a long-term care facility, visual-spatial intelligence is essential. And the researchers give the label processing-speed intelligence to a robot’s ability to promptly complete basic repetitive tasks.
     People’s emotional responses differ by the type of AI the robot is called upon to demonstrate. High social intelligence is the most influential of the five types in generating emotional attachment to a service provider. High processing-speed intelligence makes the most difference in avoiding negative consumer emotions such as frustration.
     High social intelligence is the most expensive of the five to build into a robot, so build it in only when necessary. This depends on both task demands and stakeholder expectations. In a limited-service setting, customers expect efficient operations and might perceive a robot which attends to their feelings as interfering with productivity. At the same time, intelligences like verbal-linguistic and logic-mathematical might be necessary for even the low-cost provider to meet the expectations of efficiency.
     When empathy is called for, developing social intelligence in a robot is worthwhile. Empathy exhausts the humans who practice it. Psychologist Adam Waytz reported a survey of nurses which shows compassion fatigue is strongly associated with job turnover. Robots don’t get tired. Programming into a service robot the language of empathy is challenging. But surely it can be done. Consider how decades ago, common opinion was that computer translation among foreign languages was a vain hope. The pessimism was misplaced.

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Emphasize Empathy in Providing Services 

Remind Consumers of Robots’ Competence

Mull Moral Disgust’s Effect in Consumption

The cupcakes with the Halloween ghost design looked exactly like the cupcakes with the Ku Klux Klan design. Which was precisely the point for the researchers at Israel’s College of Law and Business and Ono Academic College. Their objective was to evaluate the influence of moral associations on the consumer-reported tastiness of food products. The researchers predicted that the racist associations of the KKK would disgust consumers, and disgust disrupts the sweet pleasure of a cupcake.
     That’s what happened. College students served cupcakes described as having been decorated to look like KKK Klansmen rated the cupcakes as less tasty than did college students served identical cupcakes instead described as having a Halloween ghost design. Companion studies, using a broader sample of American adults, supported attributing the effect to moral disgust and showed it was limited to sensory dimensions. The KKK label substantially depressed ratings of cupcake attractiveness, sweetness, and freshness, but not ratings of caloricity or healthfulness.
     Notice that the relationship between moral disgust and physical disgust in the studies is not just metaphorical. Being morally disgusted generates physical sensations of disgust. It’s a relationship seen in other studies, too. After watching a film portraying incest, shoppers drank less chocolate milk than did shoppers who watched a morally inoffensive film. The choking off of chocolate milk consumption also happened when shoppers were asked to think about instances of fraud or cheating.
     The researchers at University of Pennsylvania, University of Colorado-Boulder, Duke University, and Fundação Getúlio Vargas looked at consumption of chocolate milk and water, but they say their conclusions apply to all sorts of eating and drinking. When people are morally disgusted, the disgust generalizes psychologically so that the people are less interested in buying foods and beverages.
     But since I don’t expect you’ll be showing flicks on incest, fraud, or cheating real often to your shoppers, what does all this mean for you?
     It means that it’s worthwhile to keep your enterprise morally clean.
     It also means that we might reduce consumers’ physical disgust by changing their moral perspective. For instance, entomophagy—including insects in diets—has been promoted as a way to address world hunger. But many people in Western food cultures get physically repulsed about gulping down bugs. Let’s consider how we can increase acceptance of entomophagy by persuading consumers it would be immoral to reject the practice out of hand when considering its societal advantages.

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Clean Up By Cleaning Up 

Creep Insect Consumption Toward Mainstream 

Develop Morality Impressions Using Diversity

Can Innovations Lacking Benefits Explanations

In 1990, A.G. Lafley, general manager of laundry products for Procter & Gamble, announced his bold decision. He directed that P&G laundry detergents be henceforth manufactured in denser formulations and sold in smaller containers. The upsides were obvious. Lower package, warehousing, and transportation costs. Easier to persuade retailers to allocate shelf space for the products. What made Mr. Lafley’s decision courageous is that consumer surveys indicated only a small percentage of laundry detergent shoppers said they’d prefer the format. He proceeded anyway, depending on reports that most of those surveyed were indifferent to the change.
     The decision paid off for P&G. Customers liked the packaging innovation once they experienced the results. The decision also probably contributed to Mr. Lafley later being chosen as P&G’s CEO.
     I’m aware of no evidence that consumers considered the laundry detergent to be inferior because of the smaller package. But laundry detergent is a commodity product with high substitutability potential. What about consumer reactions to packaging innovations with wine, where the choice process is more complex? The answer from studies at University of Central Florida and Murray State University is that non-traditional packaging tends to lower purchase intentions.
     The researchers’ explanation is that shoppers expected the wine to taste worse. This held true when people were shown pictures of the wine sold in a can compared to wine sold in the traditional 750 ml bottle. The effect was also seen when people tasted the wine and were led to believe it had been poured from a can compared to taste judgments from people led to believe the wine had been poured from a bottle.
     An aluminum can doesn’t look anything like a glass bottle, while a compact laundry detergent container looks like a large laundry detergent container. The parallel for a 750 ml wine bottle would be a miniature bottle. The researchers surmise that the further the deviation in wine packaging from the traditional, the higher the probability consumers will consider the product to be inferior to the traditional.
     Build innovation acceptance by articulating benefits of the change for the consumer. Also make the unfamiliar familiar by starting with innovations which resemble the traditional, then guide customers toward the even less traditional. Radical innovations carrying clear benefits are better accepted when introduced by a dominant brand. The dominant brand introduction changes people’s perceptions of what an alternative in that product category should be like.

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Dominate Anxiety Around Radical Innovations 

Change Up How You Do Business

Damn Positive Item Reviews

After sharing their findings, the University of Lethbridge and University of Alberta researchers wanted us to know how positively they regard the assistance given to them by their colleagues. They’re more than simply grateful. They write in the acknowledgments paragraph that they’re “fucking grateful.”
     Such adverbial enthusiasm in an academic paper does stand out. Indeed, the article is prefaced with, “This article contains strong language that some readers may consider offensive.” But as the researchers report, such profanities are not so unusual in consumers’ daily conversations, and standing out can be a distinctive advantage when communicating with consumers. In their studies, use of swear words in item reviews from Yelp and Amazon increased the probability readers of the reviews would consider the reviews helpful.
     Another of their studies found that a product was rated by readers more positively when a positive review contained a swear word as a qualifier (“the dishwasher is damn quiet”) than when an equivalent genteel word was used (“the dishwasher is super quiet”). Similarly, use of a swear word as a qualifier in a negative review leads to the item being rated more negatively. However, swear words make more of a difference with highly positive than with negative reviews.
     The researchers’ explanation for the effect is that the swear word usage amplifies both the description of item quality (“damn boring” is significantly more boring than “darn boring”) and the feelings of the reviewer (“I found it to be damn boring” is a substantially stronger reaction than “I found it to be darn boring.”) The dual impact doubles the persuasion potential.
     In you selecting item reviews to feature, consider the advantages of including some with swear words. In claims for your offerings, you might want to include a damn or, depending on the nature of your audience and item, give a fuck or two.
     Swear words’ effectiveness comes from challenging a taboo. The degree of challenge and the results depend on context. University of Auckland researchers analyzed reactions to a fictitious condom ad featuring a photo of a woman sucking a Dole banana. It turned out that shock was greater, and condom purchase intentions lower, among men shown that ad compared to reactions of men shown an ad with just the Dole banana. Yet with a less prominent brand, Nature’s Gem, it didn’t make a difference. It appears the men demanded dignity from Dole.

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Impassion Your Shoppers 

Respond Selectively to Negative Reviews 

Stock Shock Ad Ideas

Chop Shopping Cart Abandonment

More than 80% of online shopping carts end up abandoned, defined as the consumer placing one or more items into the cart, then ending up not buying anything in the cart. That startling statistic motivated researchers at University of Richmond, Clemson University, University of Southampton, and Shenzhen University to identify tips for lowering the cart abandonment rate.
     The researchers acknowledge the limitations of their project. They depended on only analyses of shoppers’ clickstream data, which leaves out the influences of search engine advertising and product reviews on shopping cart abandonment, for example. Still, that clickstream data was for more than 179,000 shoppers, with the number of shopping sessions ranging from 1 to 20 for each customer. Another limitation is that all the clicks analyzed were for one ecommerce retailer. But it was a multinational retailer which sold a range of products. Also, supporting the value of the tips is that they’re compatible with advice from other studies.
     Here are some of those tips, along with cautions: 

• Encourage smartphone shopping, especially when featuring clearance items or other sorts of deep discounts. Shopping cart abandonment rates were lower with smartphone shopping than when other devices were used. 
• Make item reviews easy to access, read, and navigate. Keep the reviews brief. Excessive detail or too many reviews results in deferring the choices and so abandoning the cart. 
• Build purchase certainty for items placed in the cart by maintaining and publicizing liberal return policies, including free return shipping. 
• When a customer removes an item from the cart, suggest an alternative to them. 
• When a consumer leaves an item in the cart and exits the shopping site, send a follow-up message encouraging them to complete the purchase. However, sending the message immediately can spook the shopper. Wait a day or two.

     Shopping cart abandonment can become an issue in physical store selling, too, especially with self-checkout kiosks. Researchers at Oregon State University and Rutgers University found that an underappreciated cause of this is mistrust in the performance of the device. The researchers then identified a simple way to increase the trust: Give sounds of confirmation as the transaction progresses. Silence generates annoying uncertainty, while a brief series of tones tells the customer that the device is carrying out their wishes. This relaxes the customer’s concerns about tabulation accuracy and security of payment information. In the studies, the use of confirmation tones increased purchase intentions.

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Abstract Shoppers to Avoid Choice Overload 

Risk Stringent Return Policies 

Confirm Self-Service Transactions Soundly

Be Careful What You Have Customers Wish For

An unmet expectation has a more negative influence on a customer than a satisfied expectation has a positive effect. An example of this repeated consumer psychology finding, in terms of entitlement rather than expectation, appears from researchers at Macquarie University in Australia and Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina. They found that while a bonus reward delivered regularly by a marketer can delight a customer who feels they’re receiving the reward because they’re valuable to the business, the marketer discontinuing the reward in that situation risks revenge against the business.
     The study was inspired by an incident in which one of the researchers received on her birthday for three years in a row from an online retailer a voucher to be used on her next purchase. She came to feel entitled to the voucher. She believed the retailer considered her valuable to the business, as evidenced by her birthday being commemorated. When the voucher didn’t arrive one year, she cancelled the order she’d planned to make using the voucher, and she decided not to purchase from that retailer again.
     The reaction was not unusual. In their studies about disappearing delights, the researchers saw ample evidence of revenge intentions. In explaining why, the researchers distinguish between expectations and entitlement. The desire for revenge derives from the recipient believing they’re entitled to the bonus because they consider themselves to be of special value to the marketer.
     Based on their findings, the researchers recommend marketers avoid regularity in the gifts. The studies also indicate that the revenge intentions are more pronounced when the monetary value of the delightful treat is large. For this reason, they recommend that, if a marketer chooses to give a bonus at regular intervals, such as for each birthday, they keep the monetary value of the bonus modest. Also, explaining to recipients that they’re getting the bonus because they’ve been chosen randomly, when this is true, can dampen the desire for revenge. Again, entitlement is different from expectation.
     Loyalty program rewards can bring a related, but different, problem. Members come to feel entitled, experiencing joy only when the reward amount is increased, and only until they again become accustomed to the increased amount. In one study, this effect was so strong that when the loyalty program reward was decreased, the disruption to store loyalty was greater than if the participant was told the program had been discontinued altogether.

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Change Up with Entitled Customers 

Steer WOM Away From Surprise Bonus News 

Cure Feelings of Retailer Betrayal

Ease Away to Avoid Violation Backlash

There are dangers in having close business relationships with customers. A study at University of Southern Indiana, Louisiana Tech University, and Kennesaw State University shows this to be true with persuading customers to share with you private information to help you better personalize what you’re offering.
     A group of the study participants was asked to think of a retailer with whom they’d had both a “great online shopping experience” and “the best relationship.” Another group was asked to think of a retailer with whom they’d had both a “poor online shopping experience” and “the worst relationship.”
     Then all the participants were told to imagine they’d learned, via a news article, about a privacy breach in which several online companies had sold their customer databases to a data analysis firm without permission of the customers. In addition, some of the participants were told to imagine they were upset to read that the retailer they’d named was among the companies having breached privacy. The other participants were told to imagine they were relieved to read that their named retailer was not among those breaching privacy.
     The participants’ reactions to this indicate that an excellent relationship with a retailer increases a  consumer’s willingness to share personal information. However, the results also suggest that if the consumer’s privacy is subsequently violated, those having enjoyed an excellent relationship might retaliate against the retailer, such as by withholding personal information. This undesirable retaliation is less likely with those having had a weak relationship.

     Close relationships with customers offer so many advantages that it’s best not to stay distant. An effective way to do this is to honor your commitments. But if a commitment, such as protecting privacy, is violated, you’ll need to work more diligently to correct for the problem with those customers in a close business relationship with you.
     Another study points to a preventative tactic: You’ve asked the owner of a restaurant with whom you have a close business relationship to hold an ocean-view table for your birthday bash. When you arrive, the owner explains, with a tone of regret, that all the ocean-view tables are taken. How would you react?
     What made the difference for study participants was whether the customer and retailer had clarified in advance their respective expectations and obligations. With this, there was more customer empathy for the owner’s needs. Without this clarification, several study participants reported feeling betrayed.

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Keep Up On Your Promises 

Elucidate with Close Business Friends 

Know the Tradeoffs in Being Sincere 

Cook Up Dynamic Pricing with Privacy Cookies

Vie for Attention to Vice on Hot Afternoons

Twitter users engage with tweets about vices later in the day to a greater extent than earlier in day, says a Rutgers University study. Virtue tweets get better engagement in mornings.
     These were relatively mild vices and virtues. Vice tweets were defined as those which promise immediate pleasure now with limited long-term benefit. Celebrity gossip, for instance. Virtue tweets are less titillating but offer longer-term benefits. Personal finance tips, for instance.
     The article cites prior studies yielding similar results. People wash their hands less diligently and tell lies more frequently as the day progresses. The current studies enriched understanding of the effect by showing that daily temperature plays into it. Likes by users in three metropolitan cities in India were tabulated for tweets on The Times of India account. Analysis of data showed engagement moving from virtue to vice earlier in the day when the weather was hot. The article references research showing that high temperatures melt consumer self-control.
     Marketers can use findings like these to frame and schedule messages to consumers depending on the time of day the person is likely to be exposed to the message, with a further refinement available by considering the outside temperature in the location where the person will be exposed to the message.
     Another consideration is how people aim for balance in vice and virtue. Then, it might be words rather than time of day which serve as a subconscious prompt. University of Miami researchers assigned participants to unscramble sentences containing words like “delicious” and “delightful,” which suggest vice, or words like “healthy” and “exercises,” which suggest virtue. Participants were then asked to choose between a granola bar and a chocolate bar, one to be consumed immediately and the other to be consumed later.
     The people who had completed the sentence unscrambling with the vice words were more likely to choose the chocolate bar now and the granola bar for later. Those people unscrambling with the virtue words were more likely to choose the granola bar now and the chocolate bar for later.
     The implication for marketers here is to make fun items available when the consumer has chosen a serious item. After acting holy, shoppers tend to get naughty. When people put a healthy food item into their grocery shopping cart, they become more likely to select a fun food item next. Consumer researchers call the phenomenon “licensing.”

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Bear with Care When Wanting Self-Control 

Ricochet Shoppers Using Context 

License to Marry Naughty

Acknowledge the Power of Cycles

Reinforce Seniors’ Responsible Forgetting

Since late room service qualifies for me as roughing it, I’m not the ideal study participant when asked to imagine going camping. UCLA researchers conducted such a study in exploring how older adults accommodate their memory deficits.
     Groups of younger and older adults were presented a list of items to bring on a camping trip and told which of the items were their responsibility to bring and which were the responsibility of a friend. Each item name was presented in turn on a screen for three seconds followed by, for two seconds, the cue as to whether the participant or the friend was responsible for bringing the item.
     As expected, participants considered items they were to remember as more important than items the friend was to remember, and the older adults later remembered fewer of the item names than did the younger adults.
     Both age groups remembered more of the names of the items they were responsible for bringing. The researchers call this strategy responsible forgetting. The researchers cite prior research which indicates that forgetting of unimportant information enhances memory for important information.
     Importance influenced the use of responsible forgetting to a greater extent than did whether the individual or their friend had responsibility for bringing the item. The researchers attribute this to two related factors: First, the participants may have had experiences of friends who are responsible for remembering essential items, such as water on a camping trip, ending up forgetting. Second, if the item was central to the individual’s comfort, such as their favorite type of pillow, they might choose to refrain from delegating responsibility.
     Participants were instructed not to write down the item names. The study has implications for when seniors are presented information quickly without the opportunity for review. In those situations, reinforce responsible forgetting by stating when an item is important to remember. In the marketplace situation, also encourage people to write down the important items, or give them a list of the important items.
     Psychologist Shepherd Ivory Franz, who studied brain plasticity and flexibility, testified to the value of memory aids. Professor Franz was also an amateur ichthyologist who complained that each time he learned the name of another fish, he forgot the name of a fish he’d previously known. This may not have been literally true, but it does seem that for ichthyologists, a list of fish names would be handy.

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List Ways to Map Clarity for Senior Shoppers 

Remember the Consumer Appeal of Forgetting

Know What’s Unknown About Senior Shoppers

Successful marketers navigate without definitive information. To wait until everything is certain makes us too late in profiting from opportunities. Still, let’s take into account the degree of certainty of the information we do have.
     Stockholm School of Economics experts apply this to marketing to the elderly. They opine on what needs further research. Here are the main areas, along with my comments about them:
     How does aging influence brand loyalty? Much past research indicated that seniors stick with the brands they know to a greater extent than do younger adults. The implication for marketers has been to devote greater attention to acquiring new customers in the elderly demographic than to keeping the ones they have. But this loyalty might derive largely from convenience. People become less mobile with advanced age. The universal availability of ecommerce could change the calculus. Maybe we need to shift the balance toward continual maintenance of brand loyalty.
     What are all the ways aging develops consumption wisdom? Most past research about elderly consumers articulates their perceptual and cognitive senescence. However, by virtue of having been around the block so many more times and around so many more blocks than their younger counterparts, odds are they’ve seen, been cheated by, and learned to spot more false advertising posted on storefronts along those blocks.
     What are the most useful ways to characterize age in the elderly consumer segment? This has most often been done by chronological age—the number of years since birth. But it might be more useful for marketers to consider subjective age—how old consumers feel themselves to be.
     A related way to characterize age is as the person’s perception of the amount of time until they’ll be unable to participate in the consumer marketplace, such as because of death or severe disability. This is useful for marketers to know because it probably influences the consumption timespan the shopper has in mind when making decisions about purchases, donations, health care measures, and even who and what to vote for in elections.
     What are the effects of generativity? Generativity in an elderly adult is the degree and nature of their interest in leaving a legacy and assisting the next generation. It could be that as an individual senses death creeping close, their interest in planning for the far future increases rather than decreases.

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Fire with Small Steps Before Aiming 

Hew to How Old the Senior Feels 

Generate Seniors’ Generativity Now 

Color Clients to Die Green 

Originate Creative Ads with Seniors’ Skills

Present Dynamic Pricing Transparency

Dynamic pricing is a system in which the marketer moves the price for an identical item up and down frequently in response to factors such as the popularity of the item, what competitors are charging, or customer characteristics. When done properly, dynamic pricing increases a marketer’s profitability directly, by charging close to the maximum shoppers are willing to pay, and indirectly, by coming closer to optimizing the supply/demand balance.
     But if done improperly, dynamic pricing irritates shoppers. Researchers at University of Passau find that presenting an ecommerce dynamic price in terms of a high discount from a reference price reduces the irritation. The common objections to dynamic pricing from consumers are that the pricing policies lack transparency and charging some customers more than others is unfair. The method analyzed by the researchers addresses the objections. In their studies, it increased purchase intentions for the dynamically priced item.
     The displayed discount should be at least 10%, recommend the researchers. When it’s less than this and shoppers become aware that the item’s price changes frequently, they perceive the dynamic pricing practice as unfair and they’ll be more likely to defer the purchase, thinking a better deal is on the horizon.
     Transparency about the marketer’s use of dynamic pricing is also important. In the studies, when the procedures involved the consumer participants discovering the policies and procedures of variation in prices on their own, this aggravated negative reactions, on average.
     Shoppers are more receptive to dynamic pricing when done with attention to their individual characteristics. This customized pricing requires the marketer to gather information about the shopper, and this means overcoming shopper resistances to sharing the information. Tell them how the sharing benefits them. Describe how you’ll use the information and summarize your privacy protections.
     Knowing the shopper well might allow you to analyze their attachment style, and this plays into acceptance of dynamic pricing. Attachment style refers to how accepting and supportive the shopper believes others are toward them. Those who are confident others will be available whenever needed have a secure attachment style. In the research, words that characterized them included wanted, welcomed, liked, and cherished. People who worry about the stability of relationships with significant others have an anxious attachment style. Words used to characterize them included abandoned, neglected, disregarded, forsaken, disconnected, and let down.
     People with a secure attachment style tend to view customized pricing favorably.

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Influence with Trustworthy Scarcity 

Cook Up Dynamic Pricing with Privacy Cookies 

Attach Style to Customized Pricing 

Orient Shoppers to Appreciate Discounts 

Up Down Price Drops

Harvest the Joy of Selling Your Creativity

The joy from completing a sale may not in itself compensate for insufficient remuneration. Still, that joy is a payoff, as explored with a set of studies from Technical University of Munich, University of Vienna, Ortec Finance, Erasmus University, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Cornell University.
     The circumstance analyzed in the research was people selling items they’d created themselves, such as arts and crafts marketed via Etsy. A successful sale confirms to the creator their competence as a producer, and this generates happiness. As anecdotal evidence for this effect, the researchers quote from an Etsy forum, “It’s so flattering when people choose to buy your creations,” and from their own interviews, “A sale… makes me feel as though my items are appreciated.”
     In the formal studies, sellers of handmade items reported experiencing greater happiness during times they were selling more of those items than when selling fewer. Making more money is likely to increase happiness. Also, when you sell more, this can lead to expectations of robust future sales. However, the explanation for more happiness from increased sales goes beyond those causes. Analysis of the data showed the relationship held even when accounting for the differences in sales revenues. That's because happiness is generated from recognition by others of the salesperson’s skills as a producer. Experiencing the competence from producing the item does bring happiness. Then there’s additional happiness derived from selling the creation.
     The effect was smaller when the salesperson was selling items created by others. Still, I believe the findings argue for salespeople and other marketers to personalize offerings to the extent that making the sale brings happiness by verifying the marketer’s creative skills.
     In all this, avoid giving to consumers the impression that the creativity you invested in your item makes you hesitant to part with it. Such an impression could kill sales. Also don’t make what you’re offering overly precious. Utah State University researchers noted how people seeking rental income often will describe their offering in ways which show how great care has been lavished on the item. The objective might be not only to portray the item as attractive, but also to discourage damage. Yet the researchers found that when people described high emotional attachment to the item, prospective renters became less likely to seal a deal, worrying they might sully a masterpiece highly beloved by the owner.

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Stay Humble When It Comes to Handcrafted 

Gimme Some Lovin’ Handmade 

Anticipate Aesthetics Avoidance 

Limit Design Support for Personalized Gifts 

Wash Your Hands of the Endowment Effect

Accommodate Culture with Low-Involvement

What’s the best language to use in your retail transactions when the majority language in your area is English and the language associated with the customer’s culture isn’t English? And does it make a difference if the frontline employee (FLE) appears to be the same ethnicity as the consumer?
     A shopper should be pleased with you taking the trouble to accommodate their language and ethnicity, considering it a sign of respect for the shopper’s culture. Yet studies of a nationwide sample of U.S. Hispanics which were conducted by researchers working at American University, Old Dominion University, and University of Prince Edward Island indicate the answer is more complex. The shopper’s degree of involvement in the transaction matters.
     The situation explored by the researchers was retail banking services offered to Hispanic consumers where the Spanish language and Hispanic culture are in the minority. Involvement in the transaction referred to the extent to which the consumer was expected to participate in the service encounter because of the relevance of the choices to the consumer’s values. We might expect cultural accommodation to make more of a difference with high involvement transactions because there’s deeper interaction between the marketer and the shopper.
     The researchers predicted the opposite, and then verified that hypothesis. The high involvement transaction used in the studies was arranging for a mortgage loan. The low involvement transaction was depositing a check.
     Study results indicated that use of Spanish by a frontline employee who looked Hispanic produced better consumer service ratings and future purchase intentions overall compared to when these accommodations were absent. And among the study participants given the scenario indicating the presence of the accommodations, the effect was stronger for the low-involvement than for the high-involvement transaction.
     The researchers’ explanation is that such accommodations make a difference, but are less important than considerations such as the terms of a mortgage loan. With the high involvement decision, the accommodations had only peripheral impact. With a routine transaction like depositing a check, the accommodations gained relative notice.
     Hiring FLEs based solely on matches with shopper ethnicities jeopardizes organizational success if the FLEs lack requisite competencies. Still, having across your FLEs the range of consumer ethnicities and language preferences represented in your shoppers is good business. The evidence is this is particularly true for low-involvement transactions—the type which might easily be the type where a new prospect tries out your organization.

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Speak to Shoppers’ Language Stereotypes 

Diversify Job Duties in Diversity Management 

Secure Distance with a Second Language

Visualize Beyond Three Claims

As a rule, when a shopper perceives that a salesperson has persuasive intent, the optimal number of product claims by the salesperson is three. Up to three, the chance of convincing the shopper increases. Beyond three, the sales pitch quickly becomes less persuasive as consumer skepticism grows.
     Studies at Shanghai Jiaotong University, Purdue University, and University of Kentucky show how this “charm of three” also applies to benefits claims in ads. The researchers then identify a way to overcome the limitation to three benefits claims: Have the shopper imagine using the product. The mental imagery transports the shopper’s thoughts into a story, and this eases the skepticism.
     In the studies, the instruction used to encourage mental imagery was, “We do request that you utilize the power of your imagination. Let your imagination fly, and imagine you are using this product.” Study participants not asked to engage in mental imagery were instead told, “We do request that you be careful and well-reasoned…. Try to make a logical assessment of the product.”
     Along with this, the study participants were shown an advertising leaflet containing a photo of the item—a bottle of essential oil—and either one, three, or five benefits claims, and then were asked their degree of agreement with two questions: “The essential oil seems to be a better product than the current options in the marketplace,” and “This essential oil seems worth trying.”
     The “charm of three” effect would cause those people presented three claims to rate the product more favorably than would those presented either one or five claims. And this is what happened with the group of study participants encouraged to “make a logical assessment.” But for the group encouraged to “let your imagination fly,” the item favorability rating was higher with three claims than with one and higher with five claims than with three.
     Mental images of using an item—what consumer researchers call consumption visions—increase purchase likelihood. The current research indicates one way consumption visions do this is by allowing you to present a greater number of benefits without arousing skepticism. Researchers at National Chengchi University in Taiwan find that ads are more likely to produce consumption visions if they are for hedonic, pleasure-giving, products, such as shampoo, than for routine utilitarian products, such as dental floss. These researchers also suggest using vivid text in your product descriptions to stimulate the senses.

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Thread Success with Three Claims 

Involve the Shopper in Your Story 

Stimulate Consumption Visions with Ads 

See Visualization’s Carryover Advantages

Excite Artwork Purchasers with Vibrant Colors

Attention to what you’re selling usually increases the amount shoppers are willing to pay, and intense opinions attract attention to what you’re selling. Up to a point. Beyond that tipping point, intensity repels attention. Interest is outweighed by discomfort at even thinking about the matter.
     Researchers at IESA Business School and EICEA-Universidad de La Sabana provide a specific example of that general principle in the art market. They saw how paintings by five prestigious Latin American artists which incorporated intense colors attracted higher prices at Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions than did paintings by the same artists with more subdued colors.
     Up to a point. The plotted relationship between color intensity and fetched auction price was an upside-down U shape. If you’re an art dealer, you could graph the relationships for paintings you sell to identify about where the tipping point occurs and then use that in subsequent auction bids or pricing decisions.
     Because of the range of data collected about the 1,627 auction sales, the researchers were able to also identify other determinants of final bids for the paintings. The larger the canvas, the higher the average price. Paintings executed by the artists when they were younger tended to fetch higher prices then those executed by the same artists when they were older. Longer descriptions in the auction catalog, reports that the work had been shown at a museum or gallery, and a record of past ownership all served to increase prices offered.
     Other research shows the influence of color intensity on people’s willingness to pay for items beyond paintings. When shoppers are anxious to use a purchase soon, they’ll consider items with saturated colors to be a better value for the money. The reason, according to studies at Boston College, is that vibrancy makes items look larger, which in turn is due to how saturated colors grab attention. Consumers who place a higher value on an item being larger will pay more when the item’s colors are saturated.
     To use this finding as a marketer, recognize that a color’s saturation refers to a property other than its hue. Red is a different hue than green or blue. Saturation refers to the purity or colorfulness of the hue. The attention-grabbing property of saturation may have evolutionary origins in that ripe fruits and venomous animals in nature tend to have more saturated colors than their surroundings.

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Convert Controversy to Retail Sales 

Saturate Hungry Shoppers with Vibrant Colors 

Craft the Investment Appeal of Art Items 

Muse Seeming Museum-Like in Your Store

Age-Frame Labels for Senior Smart Homes

Children’s toys and games commonly carry labels indicating appropriate age ranges for item use. University of Zurich studies indicate that age-frame tagging would help for marketing to users at the other end of the life span.
     The researchers begin by noting the aging of the population, the desire of seniors to stay in their own homes, and the shortage of skilled people willing to provide home health care. Together, these create a potential market for smart home technologies, which incorporate sensors and trackers to monitor residents who have physical, sensory and/or cognitive impairments, then issue a call for help if needed.
     But sales of these devices have been far below what we’d expect, given the potential. The researchers propose that a major explanation for this is the complexity of a choice so central to survival and one often requiring notable financial expenditures. This impacts not only the seniors themselves, but also the younger relatives concerned with the seniors’ welfare. The involvement of the others in itself adds to the complexity, stress, and feelings of choice overload. A senior can feel their independence is threatened when younger relatives want to make important decisions for them.
     Compared to price-frame labels, age-frame labels were found to reduce the complexity and consequently increase probability of purchase of a smart home technology. Related to this, younger family members expressed less need to intervene in the senior’s smart home decisions made on the basis of age-frame labels.
     Price-frame tags used in the studies were in the format “Economy,” “Standard,” and “Premium.” Age-frame tags were in the format “Ideal up to 70 years,” “Ideal up to 75 years,” and “Ideal over 75 years.” An exception to the general finding of age-framing facilitating purchase intentions was with the very old. The researchers attribute this to a resistance to change accompanying advanced age.
     In 1846, Alexander Turney Stewart introduced a labeling innovation to American emporiums. Every item in his Marble Dry Goods Place on the east side of Broadway in New York City carried a price tag. Most other stores at that time expected customers to haggle with the merchant about the price. Stewart’s price tagging was so successful that by the late nineteenth century, it was almost universally used in store retailing.
     With growing attention toward marketing to seniors now, an innovation which proves to boost selling success to them can be age-frame labels.

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Step Up to Discover Senior Motivators 

Brighten Up Seniors with Smart Home Thinking 

Market to Seniors, not to Elderly 

Negotiate with the Stubbornness of Old Age 

Abstract Shoppers to Avoid Choice Overload

Select True Online Reviews for Trust

When you’ve the opportunity to select or edit customer reviews for use in marketing, improve the extent to which readers of those reviews trust them. Loyola University Chicago and Northeastern University study findings assist in that endeavor. Researchers gathered more than 3,000 authenticity assessments from consumers along with almost as many self-reports of why the respondent considered a review real or fake.
     Readability of the review mattered. Study participants were more likely to trust a positive review when the sentences were short and trust negative reviews when the sentences were long. The central questions being asked by the researchers concerned how consumers identify fake reviews, not how to persuade shoppers. Still, the finding about readability is consistent with advice to use short sentences in reviews designed to influence shoppers about benefits of your offering.
     Anecdotal evidence indicates that consumers frequently doubt that people would intentionally post fake negative reviews. This overlooks motivations like competitors wanting to draw business to themselves and angry customers wanting to exact revenge.
     Fake negative reviews unfairly hurt your profitability. Fake positive reviews distort consumer expectations, leading to customer dissatisfaction. Coach shoppers to recognize motivations for posting these fakes. Also monitor social media channels to spot and respond to fake reviews. Actually, it’s wise to selectively reply to genuine negative reviews as well.
     The researchers present their findings against the backdrop of previous studies showing people usually consider online consumer reviews to be genuine, especially if the reviews include negative comments. Encouraging criticism may seem like a strange way to attract customers. But a substantial stream of consumer behavior research finds that a sprinkling of negative reviews adds believability to the positives. For important decisions, reviews including both strong positives and a few negatives drives a desire to lean more. When benefits far outweigh liabilities, you’ve won a customer.
     Studies at Israel Institute of Technology, Open University of Israel, and Tel Aviv University discovered that, with less important shopping, reading a few grouchy reviews among an abundance of highly positive ones leads shoppers to conclude they’ve done their homework. Most consumers like getting routine purchase decisions completed promptly, but feel a need to do at least some evaluation. In the studies, comments accompanying a one-star rating were largely irrelevant to the leading purchase criteria. It was the presence of a negative rating rather than the relevance of the criticism which gave the shopper a sense of adequate vigilance.

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Choke Off Phony Store Reviews 

Perfect Mistake Claims in Reviews 

Prevent Store Brand Sabotage 

Mind Your Ps & Qs in Reviews

Rue No More About Handling Rumors

Respond Selectively to Negative Reviews

Care for Differences between Dog & Cat People

A year 2010 Anthrozoös article reported personality differences between “dog people” and “cat people.” The University of Texas-Austin and Atof, Inc researchers said people who prefer dogs are more likely to describe themselves as self-disciplined, outgoing, and altruistic, characteristics corresponding to Big Five personality traits of Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness. In contrast, cat fans came through as relatively higher on Big Five traits of Neuroticism and Openness, which include characteristics such as worrying and—fitting when considering cats’ reputation—curiosity.
     Among other things, the Big Five model of personality has been used to characterize shopper preferences and suggest selling approaches. A year 2022 Journal of Marketing article contributes to consumer psychology from the perspective of another classic personality assessment model—Regulatory Focus Theory, which describes promotion-focused and prevention-focused mindsets. Promotion-focused consumers continually search for opportunities to move closer to their ideal selves, while the prevention-focused are always alert to avoiding losses from what they have now. Promotion-focused consumers take more risks than prevention-focused consumers.
     The University of Massachusetts, University of South Carolina, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University authors of that article claim dog people are more likely to be promotion-focused and cat people, prevention-focused. The researchers relate these findings to how, compared to cats, dogs are typically more receptive to change and to rewards.
     Aside from the personality model used, the 2022 study is different from the 2010 study in identifying the range of ways these pet preference differences are demonstrated and in showing how consumers can be prompted to be a dog or cat person even when not owning one or the other pet. Dog owners were more likely than cat owners to invest in risky stock options and favor a pet toothpaste which claimed to freshen breath versus prevent gingivitis. These sorts of differences between dog and cat people were seen not only when study participants were screened on the basis of actual pet ownership—people who owned both animals excluded—but also when study participants were simply asked at the start to think about experiences with one or the other of the pets or were first exposed to an ad with text reading either “Be a dog person!” or “Be a cat person!”
     Many people like both animals, and valid personality assessment models describe differences along dimensions, with few people at an extreme. Still, attending to differences between dog and cat people could help guide marketing.

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Give Me Five for Productive Staffing 

Sell Either Protection or Promotion 

Keep Fluffy Happy at Retail

Face the Fact of Facial Discrimination

When a devout Democrat aims to persuade a devout Republican, they’ll almost surely use different arguments than when wanting to influence someone carrying their same political views. The devout Democrat also might discriminate against the devout Republican. A study by Boise State University political scientists demonstrates the wide range of ways in which this discrimination shows itself and how we often assume another’s political affiliation based on the subtlest of cues—in this case, what their face looks like. The research also indicates, as we’d expect, that the discrimination also occurs the other way around, from Republicans toward Democrats.
     The researchers’ first task was to check whether people are willing to judge a person as being either a Republican or a Democrat based on being shown only an image of their face. Indeed they are, in general, with only a third of the respondent sample choosing “Equally likely Republican and Democrat” across the 80 faces used.
     Then a subsequent study revealed how people with clear political affiliations treat others differently depending on whether the other person is seen as in political agreement, assumed from facial appearance. Respondents rated co-partisans higher on competence and on desirable personal traits like honesty. Given the same résumé, study participants were more likely to say they’d consider hiring a candidate for a middle management position when that candidate was assumed from facial appearance to be a co-partisan. Similar differences were found regarding less consequential decisions, such as a willingness to talk about politics.
     But does the fact that facial appearance is a subtle indicator of party affiliation mean it is no more than inconsequential evidence? The researchers point out how in their studies, the same head shot was sometimes seen by one set of participants as that of a Republican while by others as a Democrat. Moreover, once we engage in conversation with the other person, we’ve plenty of opportunities to suss out their belief system. If we were misled by the face, we could correct the assumption.
     That correction is, of course, if we engage with the person. The range of discriminatory behaviors identified by the Boise State University researchers cautions us that people might never get to the point of meaningful social interaction.
     Recognize in those we aim to persuade, as well as in ourselves, the dangers of discrimination via facial appearance and similar snap judgments.

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Work Class for Warmth 

Attract Ecommerce with Unattractive Faces 

Watch Out for Discrimination

Attack with Credibility

Share a Scent to Ease Shared Consumption

When Zipcar introduced their collaborative consumption service, they anticipated users embracing the opportunities offered. Zipcar members would carry an access card which unlocked a car they’d reserved. The car’s parked in a convenient location, and the ignition key is inside. Along with the savings of money and hassle, the company expected users to enjoy the feeling of sharing with others.
     Instead, it was feelings of mistrust which were generated. Once the program got rolling, Zipcar members wanted the company to strictly enforce rules about filling the gas tank and returning the car on schedule, but at the same time found that the strict enforcement estranged them from other members. In 2013, Avis Budget Group acquired Zipcar, bringing the policies more toward traditional car rental.
     That was then, this is now. Researchers at HeSam University, Le Mans Université, and Toulouse School of Management propose use of a pleasant, clean scent to ease the tensions associated with shared consumption. In their set of studies, they diffused a fragrance they describe as a “floral musky note” in a shared workspace in a company, a university library, a rail station concourse, and a car which had been used by others in a car sharing service. In each case, users expressed more positive feelings about sharing when in the scented than in the unscented environment.
     The researchers also assessed why this worked. Of the three explanations considered, the only one which was validated was improvement in the consumer’s mood. Neither perceived influence of the scent on the behavior of other users or perceptions that the space with the scent was cleaner accounted for the difference.
     In the car sharing study, the fragrance was diffused using perfumed cards placed on the floor behind the driver’s seat. In other studies, a fragrance dispenser was used. In a retail store where many consumers are sharing the shopping space, another option for dispensing a floral musky note is... flowers. Researchers at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and University of Leuven explored the effects on shoppers of adding in-store vegetation. The strongest difference was in areas that were somewhat crowded with merchandise, had high traffic, or were visually busy. Here, the plants reduced stress for the shoppers. The sense of pleasure reported by the shoppers was more calmness than excitement.
     In using scents, you’ll want to attend to possible allergies and other consumer sensitivities. Keep any fragrance faint, simple, and familiar.

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Interact for Collaborative Consumption 

Plant Advantages with Foliage 

Clean Up on Floors & Dollars with Scents 

Use Fragrances to Pace Shoppers 

Calibrate Store Congestion & Clutter

Double Down Against Sweethearting

In extending special favors to the employees whose work they oversee, supervisors could be disloyal to their own employer. For instance, this might occur if the supervisor allows a restaurant hostess to go home early when the restaurant isn’t busy while ensuring that the hostess is still paid for the whole shift. University of Hohenheim and Ebonyi State University researchers find that such “supportive-disloyal leadership behavior” can lead to customer sweethearting, furthering the damage to the employer’s interests.
     Customer sweethearting refers to a store employee: 

• Giving away products or services for free or at a deep price cut 
• With plans to get, in return, an extra tip, increased social status, or a product or service for free or at a deep price cut from the sweethearting recipient 
• And all this violating policies set by the store owner/operator

     It’s the first prong of that definition which creates the risk to profitability and the third prong which qualifies sweethearting as a form of fraud.
     Employee sweethearting refers to a supervisor providing unauthorized privileges to supervisees, also with the motivation to obtain benefits in return from the supervisee and also in violation of policies. Employee sweethearting can stimulate customer sweethearting. The employee imitates the supervisor. The motivation includes a need to maintain relationships with customers. In addition, observing employee sweethearting persuades employees the chances they’ll be disciplined for customer sweethearting is low.
     The researchers also find an alternate route: The indulgent behavior by the supervisor satisfies a need to belong, in this case via a positive relationship with the supervisor. The need to cultivate relationships with customers is less, so sweethearting decreases. Related to this, the resulting loyalty to the welfare of the organization stifles sweethearting.
     The alternate route was more likely when the supervisor established mutual trust with employees. However, there’s still the possibility that the mutual trust will cause imitative behavior. Organizations should recognize the double-edged nature of employee sweethearting and double down with initiatives to curb it, say the researchers.
     To more directly reduce customer sweethearting, set special favor policies which are unambiguous and easily understood. What sorts of items can be given away or deeply discounted? Which employees are granted the discretion to do this and under what circumstances? What practices, such as trading discounts, are forbidden? To audit the extent and the effectiveness of the practices, what degree of reporting and accountability are required from those employees?

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Stab Sweethearting

Shape Staff Behavior with Self-Queries