Cross Time Markers for Positive Experiences

When do your customers expect ninety minutes of a pleasant activity to be more enjoyable than ninety minutes of a pleasant activity? No, I didn’t make an error there. I intended to pose that riddle with repetition.
     The answer, according to a set of studies at University of California Berkeley and University of Chicago, is, for example, if the interval is 1:45 PM to 3:15 PM instead of 1:15 PM to 2:45 PM. When more time markers are crossed—in this case two markers of hours from 1 to 3 instead of one from 1 to 2—the consumer’s prediction of pleasure is greater. Similarly, an indulgent vacation scheduled for March 31 through April 6 would be expected to deliver higher pampering than if the same duration was for April 2 through April 8.
     The parallel effect applies to negative experiences. Expectations are of greater discomfort when more time markers are crossed. We’d expect the dental patient to be less concerned about a procedure scheduled for 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM than if scheduled for 10:30 AM to 11:15 AM. A delayed delivery of a special order from a retailer will probably seem less pleasant if the promised arrival is some date next month rather than a date this month which is the same number of days away. Another facet of the effect is that people predicted they’d accomplish more tasks in a given interval when the start and end times covered hour labels further apart.
     The researchers acknowledge that services marketers often have limited control over how many time marker boundaries are crossed. They recommend exploring the use of different temporal systems. Although an air flight arrival must be at 11:02 AM rather than 10:58 AM, a description of “take off in the morning, be in your hotel before lunch” could be persuasive.
     Time markers also influence whether a consumer will use an item if time is involved in acquisition. University of South Carolina researchers provided summer theatre patrons a movie ticket. Some tickets were for use later that summer, the rest for use that coming fall. Summer tickets were more likely to be redeemed than were fall tickets. But only for those who’d earned the ticket by having taken about seven minutes to complete a survey. For those getting the ticket by paying a discounted $3.00, there was no difference between summer and fall ticket use.

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