Weed Out Weaknesses in Power Building

When your actions result in the customer experiencing a service failure, they may feel a loss of power and then blame that loss on you. If so, their interest in doing further business with you takes a hit. Counteract the perception of power loss to head off you experiencing revenue loss.
     Researchers at NEOMA Business School-Rouen Campus and Birkbeck University of London suggest accomplishing this by marketing the notion that using your services builds the customer’s power. This helps insure that in the event of a service failure, the customer will still feel sufficient influence. For their studies, the researchers used a restaurant slogan, “Revitalize yourself with a nice meal! Raise your strength! Boost your power!,” and a hotel slogan, “Boost your power with our comfort! Revitalize yourself and feel refreshed.”
     Both slogans proved effective in increasing the consumer’s perceived empowerment. However, another type of power reassurance backfired, as the researchers predicted it would. The slogan “You have power over us and your experience with us determines our future!” raised in the consumers perceptions of manipulative intent. The slogan came across as exaggerated and smarmy. This can cancel out the power increase perceptions. Avoid it happening by associating the influence increase with use of the service rather than with claims that the customer will control the organization’s actions.
     Although avoiding impressions of manipulative intent is useful, manipulating the shopper’s sense of power does offer payoffs for a marketer. If you make shoppers feel more powerful, they’re likely to spend more on themselves. If you make them feel less powerful, they’re likely to increase the amounts on purchases for others.
     Participants in a Northwestern University study placed bids on items like a T-shirt and a mug. When purchasing for themselves, those feeling greater power bid about 86% more for an item, on average, than those feeling lower power. When purchasing the item for someone else, those feeling less powerful bid about 52% more for an item, on average, than those feeling higher power.
     How can you manipulate a customer’s sense of power? In the Northwestern study, participants were asked to imagine an actual episode from their past during which they possessed either high power or little power. Another research technique is presenting to shoppers slogans which emphasize power possessed by the shopper (“At our store, you’re the boss”) or deemphasize the power (“At our store, we take care of you”).

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