Customize for Prospects Who Use Smartphones

When shopping online via their personal smartphone rather than their personal computer, people are more likely to select options they perceive as fitting their distinctive characteristics and less likely to select options described as the most popular choice. City University of Hong Kong and University of Florida researchers observed this when asking study participant to choose among lifestyle products, chocolate truffles, wine, or even charitable contributions.
     The researchers explain the effect using evidence that, compared to the owner’s personal computer, the smartphone they own feels more personal and private, so using it directs more attention to the distinctive aspects of the self. We hold the smartphone close as we talk into it or type words and symbols. We don’t do that with a PC. When using a smartphone, we narrow our attention and experience a sense of privacy. Consistent with this explanation, the distinctive-preference effect was weaker or disappeared if the smartphone used by the consumer in the studies belonged to somebody else.
     An implication for retailers and fund raisers is for you to encourage marketing prospects to choose by using their personal smartphone and then for you to highlight the fit between what you know of the prospect’s distinctive characteristics and the option you prefer they select.
     Personalization appeal applies not only to a marketed item, but also to payment. For example, the tariffs offered to a smartphone user might be flat fee for unlimited usage with a label of “Worry-free,” for others pay-per-use with a label of “You’re in control,” and for still others a barebones plus add-on options with a label of “Getting started.”
     A corresponding difference between smartphone and larger computer device is seen when collecting marketing information rather than presenting marketing statements. Social media posts, product and service reviews, and open-ended responses to survey questions all show extra candor on the smartphone.
     One University of Pennsylvania study analyzed tweets which, by a tag on the item, could be identified as coming either from a smartphone or from a personal computer. The linguistic markers of self-disclosure included expression of strong emotions, references to family and friends, use of the first-person pronouns “I” and “me,” and self-focused storytelling. Additional studies analyzed TripAdvisor reviews and responses to survey requests for potentially embarrassing information. In all these, content entered via smartphone showed greater self-disclosure than did content entered via a personal computer.

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Wise Up by Tapping Smartphones 

Navigate Shoppers Toward Distinctiveness 

Drive Personalization by Fostering Narcissism 

Offer Service Pricing to Fit Idiosyncrasies

Employ Older Workers’ Interest in Influencing

The elderly want to leave a legacy. For example, University of Washington researchers say motivation arises to create an oral history, write an autobiography, or discuss prized possessions with younger family members.
     This desire helps explain the finding by Stanford University researchers that, compared to younger employees, older ones are more interested in assisting colleagues. In the study, participants were asked to report their work-period helping activities for five typical days. Instructions were, “Some examples of helping include but are not limited to: providing advice or information, listening to others’ problems, and helping someone complete a work task.”
     Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 78 years. Data analysis showed that older age was associated with more time spent on helping activities. Other data collection and analyses indicated that older workers derive more emotional satisfaction from helping coworkers than do younger workers. Because experienced employees would be expected to have thorough knowledge of their jobs, an implication for managers is to allow older workers to serve in training and mentorship roles.
     The study findings are true in the aggregate. Among older workers, there are surely those who you’d choose not to assign training duties because they lack skills in or enthusiasm for training adults. In addition, you might be concerned that the older workers lack the latest job skills. Moreover, the elderly tend to reject ideas and practices differing from their own to a greater extent than do younger adults.
     Relevant to this, participants in the Stanford study had been asked to report their work-period learning activities, described as including, but not limited to, “working alone or with others to develop new ideas, performing new tasks, and receiving feedback from colleagues.”
     Analysis of these responses indicated that older workers were as likely as younger workers to keep learning on the job. However, the evidence is that they enjoy the learning less than do their younger counterparts. These findings can be understood in the context of older workers feeling a loyalty to their organization—so they continue to learn what’s required—but having less enthusiasm about mastering what will be most useful in the relatively distant future, since they perceive that the duration of their life is limited.
     Here, too, assigning training responsibilities to the older employees helps. They are then learning not so much for their own distant future as for the distant future of their trainees, developing a legacy.

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Resolve Identity Crises for the Elderly 

Slice Open the Minds of the Elderly

Shut Eyes Wide So Shoppers See Whys

“Before looking at the rest of this ad,” reads the message at the top, “close your eyes for a minute to reminisce about a pleasant event you’ve experienced.”
     What effect would this have on a consumer’s receptivity to the ad’s persuasion? A pair of studies at Korea University, University of Minnesota Duluth, and Bryant University provides evidence that if the ad emphasizes practical benefits, the eye closure prelude boosts favorability impressions.
     In one of the studies, participants were asked to evaluate a hotel gift basket featured in an ad for a travel package. The basket was described as including, “a massage ticket to recover from your fatigue, a best-selling nonfiction book, a DVD about global warming, a GPS for road trips, and a protective sun cream.” Prior to being shown the ad, some participants were asked to close their eyes and recall a nostalgic event. The other participants were asked to recall a nostalgic event while looking at a target displayed on a computer screen.
     Those asked to reminisce with eyes closed subsequently gave a higher favorability rating to the basket than did those reminiscing with eyes open. The researchers attribute this effect to eye closure encouraging higher level thinking—in this case, why a utilitarian item, such as a protective sun cream, is worthwhile. When another set of participants were told the basket contained, “a refreshing massage ticket, a best-selling fiction book, a DVD about world-famous mountains, champagne for your rest, and an aromatic cream,” this pleasure-oriented bundle was rated marginally more favorably by those who first kept their eyes open rather then closed.
     Other studies indicate that the reminiscing itself, whether with eyes open or closed and whether for utilitarian or hedonic items, assists persuasion. Researchers at University of Minnesota, University of Southampton, and Grenoble École de Management asked each study participant in one group, selected at random, to think about their past. The remaining study participants were asked to think about recent or future events. Then each study participant was asked how much they’d pay for a set of items which were described by the researchers. The group who’d been asked to think about their personal past came in with higher bids overall.
     In additional studies by the researchers, activating nostalgic thoughts resulted in a higher willingness to spend money to stop an annoying noise, to share rewards with others, and to otherwise loosen purse strings.

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Appeal to Nostalgia 

Lumber Through Forest or Trees 

Stimulate Consumption Visions with Ads

Graph Multiple Risks to Guide Decisions

Sometimes more is less. Potential hypertension patients considered a drug with reported side effects of seizures, congestion, and fatigue to be less dangerous than did another set of potential hypertension patients told of a reported side effect of just seizures.
     An explanation is that when presented bunches of information about possibilities of risk, our brains often remember the gist—the general magnitude—rather than details. Related to this, people average the impressions. This means that adding a low- to a high-risk consideration will lower the overall perceived risk. Risk can arise from a side effect’s severity and/or its likelihood.
     A duo of University of Calgary and Miami University researchers found this effect with risk assessments of rheumatoid arthritis medication, a dietary supplement to aid sleep, and an eye massager device. The researchers than went on to identify a way marketers might lessen these judgment distortions by consumers: Present the probability of side effects using a pictograph. For each side effect described, the risk was portrayed by a corresponding number of symbols in a column.
     Note that this graphical presentation technique did not result in a treatment option with multiple side effects being judged as more risky than a treatment option with a single side effect. It instead prevented the one with multiple side effects from being judged as less risky than the one with a single side effect. There is still a judgment distortion.
     Also note that the severity of the risk plays into all this. In the studies, the gist-averaging was often overridden when the risk of one treatment side effect was extremely high.
     And in a University of Texas and Northwestern University study, a single highly-risky consequence overwhelmed consideration of other consequences: The researchers asked people to say which of two cars they’d be more likely to purchase. The first car was equipped with an airbag which was less likely to ultimately save a life in the event of a serious accident. The other car had an airbag that was more likely to save a life, but it also had a miniscule chance of causing death because of the force of airbag deployment.
     Most of the study participants chose the first car, thereby accepting a far greater chance of being harmed in an accident. In this study, too, presenting the information graphically led to participants’ more rational decisions.

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Add Risk Notices to Dilute Risk Opinion 

Take Comfort in the Comfort of Bad News 

Bundle Expensive & Cheap Synergistically 

Chart Your Numbers’ Compelling Backstory 

Just Emphasize the Gist for Older Readers

Slam Cabinets & Colleagues with Caring

How a salesperson closes a display cabinet influences the likelihood of closing a sale with a shopper who’s watching.
     Researchers at University of Wyoming, University of Kentucky, and Georgia Institute of Technology collected customer reports of what the researchers call secondary selling, defined as the degree to which a salesperson interacts with secondary entities in a manner indicating to the focal customer that the salesperson respects these entities.
     Examples of flawed secondary selling: “The salesperson was showing me a hard drive that he'd just gotten out of the cabinet, and when I decided that it wasn't the one I wanted, he slammed it back in the cabinet.” “She tossed some of the products pretty carelessly into the bins.”
     Examples of good secondary selling: “They were careful when they put the key in the glass door to unlock it. They slid the door gently and carefully sorted through merchandise to find a product.” “[The salesperson] was cleaning the fish tanks and clearly cared about keeping them clean. She explained how to clean them without using harsh chemicals.”
     The researchers then found that good secondary selling boosts sales revenues and customer satisfaction. Their set of studies included data from automotive service centers, retail electronics stores, and furniture shops. The researchers point out that secondary selling encompasses how the salesperson treats not just store property, but also shoppers beyond the focal one.
     Flawed: “They were short with them and didn't make much eye contact.”
     Good: “I watched a salesperson go out of their way to help a woman find items in another location in the store. I thought it was respectful.”
     The implication for salesmanship is to remember how people are more likely to be persuaded by those who show them respect and that evidence of respectfulness comes from how store property and other customers are treated.
     Florida State University studies provide evidence secondary selling applies to how store colleagues are dealt with. A customer who encounters defective merchandise or service from your business often yearns for the person who is responsible to be bawled out. In fact, these researchers found that a promise the employee will be reprimanded is among the most effective ways to keep from losing a snubbed customer. However, the researchers also saw how customers want reprimands delivered out of the customer’s presence. They want harshness, but also want the employee to be granted the respect of privacy.

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Build Up Bawl Outs When Telling Complainers 

Proceed to Protect Your Staff from Insults