Tease Out Sales by Teasing Consumers

Consumers relate better to brands which kid around. Gentle humor stimulates connection. But what about humor which consists of teasing the consumer? Researchers at Duke University and HEC Montreal find that the consequence depends on whether the teasing plays with the consumer’s identity or disparages the consumer’s identity.
     In one of the studies, participants were exposed to an ad for a Pizza Hut 2-for-1 Valentine’s Day Special. For some participants, the ad copy read, A CHEAP DATE THAT’S ALMOST AS CHEESY AS YOU ARE.” This was intended to be a playful tease. A second group received what was intended to be a disparaging tease: “A CHEESY DATE THAT’S ALMOST AS CHEAP AS YOU ARE.” And, for comparison, a third group of participants received what was intended to be just humor, without a tease: “MAKE YOUR PLANS NOW FOR A CHEAP AND CHEESY VALENTINE’S DATE.”
     Those participants receiving the playful tease reported greater psychological connection to the Pizza Hut brand than did those receiving either of the other two versions. In another of the studies, lower connections with the advertised brand were reported by participants viewing a tease intended to be disparaging—“YOU’RE FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE…BUT YOU STILL DESERVE TO RETIRE COMFORTABLY”—than by participants viewing a comparable tease intended to be playful—“COLLEGE YOU WAS FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE…BUT YOU STILL DESERVE TO RETIRE COMFORTABLY.”
     The researchers explain the results of these and companion studies in terms of anthropomorphism—the attribution of human characteristics to a non-human entity. When a brand teases, it seems more like a person, since we’re accustomed to a tease coming from a person. We feel closer relationships to other people than to non-humans, particularly inanimate brands.
     For the consumer’s relationship with the brand to be positive, the tease must be more playful than disparaging. Signals of playful intention include obvious exaggeration. The blend of playing around with the consumer and provoking the consumer is a matter of degree.
     I’ll supplement that explanation with this one: To hit home with a consumer, a tease needs to be personalized to one or more characteristics of the consumer. When you feel a person knows something distinctive about you, your relationship with that person strengthens, as long as that person doesn’t use the knowledge to disparage you. Similarly, when you feel a brand knows something distinctive about you and doesn’t misuse that knowledge, your relationship with that brand strengthens.

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Joke Around to Facilitate the Sale 

Drive Personalization by Fostering Narcissism

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Size Up Value in Showing Body Size Diversity

Past consumer behavior studies have concluded that women are motivated to purchase items modeled by people who are somewhat thinner than they themselves are, but not dramatically thinner. This is consistent with consumers’ attraction to what they aspire to be—aspirations that may get more adventurous in this Ozempic era.
     Still, researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Bath argue for showing models of various body sizes in online ads for clothing as well as on websites displaying the catalog of items, and for men’s fashions as well as women’s. This helps a shopper purchase a product which will fit them well while also serving the socially positive objective of enhancing acceptance of diversity in body builds, including self-acceptance of not being thin.
     The researchers consider three schemes used on fashion retailer websites: Showing only thin models, as Zara has done; showing models of various sizes mixed across items, as Lululemon has done; and prompting the website viewer to choose the model’s body size for viewing items, as Good American has done.
     The overall finding from the set of studies was that showing only thin models dissuades shoppers who aren’t thin from purchasing online. Along with this, the likelihood of product returns increases. The researchers point out that poor fit is a major reason for returns of clothing purchases and that product returns are costly for retailers and for the environment.
     One of the studies found that, compared to portrayal of body-size diversity in ads, portrayal of body-size diversity on product pages had a stronger positive effect on a shopper’s interest in continuing to shop with the retailer. The researchers explain this difference in terms of how a consumer’s mindset differs depending on whether they’re browsing products or gathering information about a brand.
     Another of the studies supported the common-sense conclusion that the overall body-size of a model counts more for a woman when purchasing a dress than when purchasing shoes. However, another study hints that body size is still a consideration for marketers with items where the shopper’s body size would seem unimportant: Researchers at Villanova University, Baruch College, St. John's University, Hofstra University, and University of Alberta found that salespeople more frequently recommend round- rather than angular-shaped lamps and perfume bottles to shoppers with a larger body size. The researcher’s explanation is that good salespeople look at similarities between characteristics of the shopper and the merchandise.

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Appeal to Pride of Distinctive Consumers 

Airbrush Away Shame in Your Shoppers

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Toss Rotten Tomatoes

How might it be that a few negative reviews of a movie on Rotten Tomatoes can hurt ticket sales, but a whole bunch of negative reviews could help?
     Researchers at The University of Adelaide and Edith Cowan University verified this effect via their analysis of 23,046 reviews of and sales revenues for 80 Hollywood movies which the researchers selected for having emotional scenes and memorable characters.
     The researchers’ explanation of this effect starts with acknowledging how past studies find that consumers are more likely to express positive than negative emotions in item reviews they post, but negative emotions expressed in reviews have a greater influence than positive emotions on the purchase decisions of review readers. Negative reviews tend to be more interesting to readers.
     When there’s a higher number of negative reviews, the review reader becomes more likely to carefully analyze the arguments of the reviews and therefore spot any flaws in the arguments. Further, any reader who has seen the movie and identifies with it will feel threatened by a large number of critical comments, leading to that reader wanting to post a positive review. Related to these explanations, bad publicity attracts attention, which can stimulate consumers’ interest in checking the movie for themselves.
     To make positives about a movie more interesting, researchers suggest that promotions incorporate emotional wording such as lovely story, beautiful scenery, and nonstop action. Emotion does sell, although I do predict that with the burgeoning use of AI shopping agents—in which the consumer delegates item choice to a set of algorithms—emotional appeals will be less successful in marketing.
     Another takeaway from this study is that you can safely toss away any overconcern about negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and other movie review sites when you’re marketing a flick, TripAdvisor and other lodging review sites when you’re marketing your hotel, and Yelp and other general review sites whatever you’re marketing. Beyond a certain quantity, negative reviews set off a balancing loop which ironically increases positive attitudes toward an offering. Along with this, respond selectively to negative reviews, attending just to those containing exclamation points, emoticons, or all caps.
     Actually, you might want to toss out into your audience of prospective purchasers a few rotten tomatoes of negative reviews, with your objective being to stimulate that audience to counter the negative via their own positive reviews or to try a sample for themselves.

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Respond Selectively to Negative Reviews 

Invite People to Ridicule for Themselves 

Convert Controversy to Retail Sales

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Stifle the Smile When Selling Status

Luxury appeal operates more through the exclusivity of item competence than through the approachability of interpersonal warmth. This leads to a hypothesis that the broad smile on faces of ad models which can help sell mass-market items would hurt sales of high-fashion apparel and accessories. In status-oriented or competitive situations centered around dominance, you do best to chill out your emotions.
     Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Sussex, and Central European University Vienna tested this hypothesis with ads for Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, and two fictitious brand names developed for the studies and referred to in the ads as exclusive collections. Study participants included consumers in the U.S. and China.
     Overall, a neutral facial expression on the ad model produced higher levels of ad engagement, positive attitudes, and shopper purchase intentions. The researchers’ explanation is that in luxury contexts, a neutral expression, as contrasted to a smile, portrays pride in one’s self and in the luxury quality of the item being advertised.
     The researchers found that the effect did not hold with a mass-market cosmetic brand—Covergirl, but did with a luxury brand—Prada, for the same product category—a two-foundation makeup. With consumers who looked at the Covergirl ads, there were no significant differences between measures for those who saw the model with a smile and those who saw the model with a neutral expression. This supports the explanation that the smile-versus-neutral effect has to do with the nature of luxury contexts.
     The effect was stronger when in the ad, the model is looking directly at the viewer rather than averting a direct gaze. This suggests that a neutral look is particularly useful in luxury ads when the model’s gaze is directly toward the viewer.
     A direct gaze by a model enhances the credibility which luxury represents. Researchers at University of Houston found that an ad for a product or service appealing to positive emotions works best when the model’s eyes are averted rather than looking straight at the shopper. In one of the experiments—using a Facebook ad for a woman’s sun hat—people were 30% more likely to buy when the model had an averted compared to a direct gaze.
     But there was a downside to the averted gaze. It lessened model credibility. When credibility is essential, as with ads dependent on a luxury appeal, use a direct gaze by the model, advise the Houston researchers.

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Saturate Your Store with Sweet Smiles 

Chill Out Emotions to Look Cool 

Look Out for Where They’re Gazing

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Go for Oh’s to Reduce Restaurant No-Shows

OpenTable data show that in the U.S., about one out of every four restaurant reservations is not kept by the prospective diner. After citing that statistic, a team of Montclair State University, Mount Royal University, and Sejong University researchers detail the costs of no-shows, describe reasons for this behavior, and, through studies, develop suggestions for reducing the rate.
     The costs to restaurants include not only the lost revenue from those diners who didn’t appear, but also suboptimal inventory management of supplies and missed opportunities to seat walk-in guests at tables being held for those with reservations. The reasons for no-show behavior, as seen in prior studies, include some we might not expect, such as a customer booking at a number of restaurants and then forgetting to cancel the unwanted bookings.
     The chief strategy developed by the researchers for reducing no-show rates is to activate social pressure for reliability and punctuality by reminding consumers of the detrimental social effects of no-show behavior. Let’s get frequent diners in the habit of saying to themselves, “Oh, that’s why I should make only restaurant reservations I’m comfortable I can keep and conscientiously cancel any reservations I realize I won’t keep.”
     Based on results from their studies, the researchers conclude that this strategy works best when the cancellation policy is lenient. This is consistent with the idea that an optimal technique for reducing no-show rates won’t irritate prospective customers. Any penalties for cancellation should be perceived as fair and the cancellation procedure should not be perceived as burdensome.
     The researchers point out these techniques for curbing restaurant reservation no-shows might not work in other booking situations, such as with hotels. The average transaction amounts, length of advance planning, and visit frequencies are different. Still, I believe the strategy of increasing awareness among consumers about the costs of no-shows holds promise.
     Moreover, arousing a sense of obligation can nudge behavior toward the socially responsible in areas well beyond the no-show. The effects depend on you making the consumer’s behavior visible, or at least giving the impression of visibility. Although you can influence shopper behavior in the short-term by arousing shame, you’ll have better long-term results by aiming for a sense of obligation.
     With restaurants, feeling obligation should lead to higher diner tip amounts than would a feeling of shame, and in the areas well beyond, feeling obligation leads to more repeat business than does shame.

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Peer into Pressure from Obligation 

Prefer Obligation to Shame 

Tip Yourself Off with Tipping Tracking

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Use Color Codes Which Catch Shoppers’ Eyes

My thanks to Ernesto Cardamone, Gaetano “Nino” Miceli, and Maria Antonietta Raimondo from University of Calabria for this guest post.

Why do some products jump off the shelf while others blend into the background? The answer might be as simple—and complex—as color.
     We researchers identified what we call category color codes: the color patterns consumers associate with specific product categories. These codes shape what we expect to see in each aisle of the supermarket, and they influence how quickly we recognize and trust a product. For instance, in Italy, olive oil is often associated with yellow and green.
     But what happens when a brand wants to both fit in and stand out? This tension—between conformity and distinctiveness—is central to how products succeed or fail on the shelf. If a package looks too different, shoppers may not recognize it as belonging to the intended category. But if it looks too similar, it may never get noticed.
     In our study, we focused on the two most dominant colors on product packaging. Prior studies and an image mining analysis that we conducted on 10 product categories had shown that packages typically use two main colors—one covering around 49% of the surface, the other around 19%—with additional colors covering limited areas. So, we concentrated on how this main + secondary color combo affects shopper attention.
     We conducted a lab study, using mock two-colored packages in a controlled setting, and a field study in a supermarket. Using eye-tracking technology, we monitored how long shoppers looked at different product packages, as longer eye contact is a reliable indicator of attention.
     The most effective strategy we found? Choose one dominant color that aligns with category norms, and pair it with a second color that breaks those norms. Blend in just enough to be trusted, but stand out enough to be noticed.
     For manufacturers, these findings are important for setting the most effective color combination in packages. Moreover, for brands looking to piggyback on a category leader, the advice is clear: mimic the leader’s primary color, but use a contrasting secondary color to set yourself apart. For retailers, this insight can inform how products should be arranged on shelves to maximize attention.
     So next time you're walking the aisles, take a closer look—you might notice that what grabs your attention isn’t just a bright color, but a smart one.

© 2025 Ernesto Cardamone, Gaetano “Nino” Miceli, and Maria Antonietta Raimondo

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Saturate Hungry Shoppers with Vibrant Colors 

Go Bold or Au Naturel for Packaging Healthy 

Copycat Based on Leader Brand Proximity

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Verbalize Victimization to Reduce Censorship

How can Americans—citizens of a nation which enshrines the right to free speech in its very constitution—criticize somebody who lies by yelling, “Fire!,” in a crowded movie theatre?
     The answer to my question is at the basis of a study at University of Kaiserslautern-Landau and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: People support censorship of free speech when what’s being censored threatens imminent and significant harm to others. The researchers cite prior studies which document support for censorship of pornography on the basis that pornography harms women and support for censorship in children’s movies of scenes considered as harming the children’s proper sense of right and wrong.
     Information which is misleading threatens harm, and opinions which threaten harm can be considered misleading. But different people often have dueling conceptions of what would trigger imminent and significant harm. In addition, as shown in one of the researchers’ studies, people often view censorship as undesirable in general. What might persuade someone to change their urge to censor a particular item of information or expression of an opinion?
     The answer from the researchers to that question is: A rendition of a true experience of personal victimization which supports the value of the information or opinion now being shared. The researchers’ explanation for this effect is that when we perceive someone as a victim, we go on to consider them—and then, by association, what they’re saying—to be less harmful.
     This technique was shown to be effective in a study involving opinions about gun ownership. The progun experience used was, “Tyler supports gun regulations (i.e., restricting access to guns) because he had firsthand experience with guns when his daughter was hit by a stray bullet.” The antigun experience used was, “Tyler supports gun rights (i.e., access to guns) because he had firsthand experience with guns when he shot an intruder to protect his young daughter.” Parallel results were obtained in a follow-on study concerning views of abortion.
     The power of storytelling was also found in an earlier project by the same team of researchers about changing political opinions themselves, not just views about political opinions being censored.
     Political opinions resist change. New information which confirms previously held beliefs is remembered. New information which contradicts beliefs is ignored or forgotten. The result is political polarization or even dehumanization of those whose views oppose our own. Telling stories dissolved the dehumanization.

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Embed Politically Hot Facts in Personal Stories 

Disclose Yourself to Radiate Authenticity

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Invest Passion Properly in Investor Appeals

An excellent business concept withers away quickly without adequate funding to see it through to success. How should entrepreneurs verbalize their arguments for adequate funding in proposals to early-stage investors? asked a research team from University of Melbourne, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Monash University, and University of British Columbia.
     Key to developing an answer was recognition of the distinctively high risk the early-stage investors would be accepting. The researchers report past studies which indicate such investors want to fund only business concepts with promise of very high payoffs—home runs—and they freely use educated hunches—gut feeling—in their decision making.
     The researchers augment this formulation by positing that early-stage investors are influenced by the ways in which the entrepreneur uses language in the proposal. Of particular importance were the passion in the phrasing and the preponderance of concrete words versus abstract words in the exposition.
     The substance of a proposal consists of statements of the financial, social, human resources, and intellectual capital investments in the business concept which the entrepreneurs have made themselves. The researchers refer to this substance as costly signals, since they involve expenditures by the entrepreneur.
     Importantly, costly and costless signals interact in their effect on investor acceptance. On the basis of interviewing a set of venture capitalists and analyzing investor acceptance or rejection of more than 5,300 written proposals from startups, the researchers developed these recommendations: 

• When there are many costly signals in the presentation, high use of passion helps achieve investor financing. If costly signals are low, stay aware of the danger of expressions of passion so strong that they’re viewed as indicating lying or naiveté. 
• When there are few costly signals, high use of concreteness helps. If costly signals are high however, the danger of concreteness is that it’s viewed as indicating a lack of cognitive flexibility and long-term perspective.

     The researchers caution that the study attended to written text proposals and how there are other considerations for investor acceptance when the entrepreneur’s pitch is face-to-face with nonverbal signaling or in a proposal with the visual design of images.
     Also note these suggestions are specifically intended for an entrepreneur soliciting startup funding. The suggestions might not fully apply with other types of investment or loan requests. There, other red flags apply. In one study, loan defaults were more likely when God or family was mentioned in the loan application.

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Impassion Yourself to Arouse Shoppers 

Set Appeals of Product Touch in Concrete 

Borrow Content Analysis to Curb Loan Defaults 

Crow Pleasure When Crowdfunding

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Lubricate Chatbot Transactions

When a chatbot employs its artificial intelligence capabilities to interact with a consumer in ways mimicking normal human conversation, the chatbot can be presented to the consumer as being robotic or this can be left unspecified. The choice was of interest to a team of researchers at The Ohio State University as they explored shopper hesitations when purchasing a potentially embarrassing product.
     The personality characteristic the researchers selected as most likely to lead to embarrassment in purchase was self-presentation, which refers to a shopper’s degree of worry about how other people will judge the shopper. The products the researchers used as likely to activate self-presentation worry were genital lubricants and antidiarrheal medications. The overall study finding was that purchase embarrassment is less when the chatbot is clearly identified as a chatbot. This effect was strongest among study participants with the highest self-presentation concerns, as reflected on a brief survey.
     The two-part explanation for the effect, which was supported by the studies: Consumers are likely to conclude the chatbot is actually a human unless it’s been specified otherwise. Consumers feel that a chatbot lacks the mind capabilities to judge others.
     The overall conclusion did have an exception: If the clearly identified chatbot is anthropomorphized—given characteristics of a person—the shopper’s discomfort in interacting with this sales agent about the potentially embarrassing product increases significantly. In the studies, anthropomorphism consisted of including a drawing which incorporated characteristics of a woman, although it was clearly a cartoon and not a photo of a human, and by having the chatbot use emotional language like, “I am so excited to see you!”
     Prior work had concluded that most shoppers far prefer interacting with a human than with a chatbot unless the chatbot shows signs of emotional warmth. In their own studies, the researchers found that people preferred an online store with a human service agent than a store with a chatbot agent when shopping for a non-embarrassing product, namely hay fever medication.
     If your online store sells both potentially embarrassing products and ones which are not, you’ll need to decide when and whether to clearly disclose you’re using a chatbot.
     Or the solution might be in the fact that you carry a variety of products. A common way for customers to reduce self-presentation concerns when selecting a potentially embarrassing product is to purchase a bunch of less sensitive products at the same time.

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Ally with Alexa Over Alex for Chatbot 

Remind Consumers of Robots’ Competence 

Anthropomorphize Partners & Servants 

Bare Asinine Oversights That Embarrass

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Lose the Carpet Baggage, Wannabe Senator!

Political scientists have verified over the decades that voters favor electoral candidates with tight connections to the areas the candidates are campaigning to represent. A pair of Boise State University and George Washington University researchers says this home-area advantage amounts to about an additional 2% to 7% of the vote in U.S. Senate races where an incumbent is not running. There is still evidence of home-area advantage when an incumbent is running, but it is less than for open-seat contests.
     This happens in large part because a candidate who has lived in the area for a long time has better established place identity, mastering the principles, issues, and dialects of the locale. The researchers cite the anecdotal example of Mehmet Oz being mocked for mixing up the names of local grocery stores in his 2022 run to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate and ultimately losing to John Fetterman, who happens to have the zip code of his Pennsylvania hometown tattooed on his arm.
     The researchers show how the place attachment generates in voters relatability, trust, and reduced resistance to choosing a candidate of the opposite party. This is especially relevant because the U.S. Senate decides issues on a national level and views of those issues are often based on a voter’s strong partisan identity as either liberal or conservative. The data indicate that Democratic candidates benefit more than Republicans from what voters see as local ties, and Republican candidates are punished more than Democrats from what voters see as the carpetbagging of recent arrival or deceptive representations.
     This set of studies considered only U.S. Senate races. We might expect to see the home-area advantage in other elections, too, where the definition of area could range from neighborhood up to nation. The appeal of being local seen in selection of legislators also might generalize to a consumer’s selection of merchandise or service. “All politics is local,” attributed to Tip O’Neill, corresponds to “All retailing is local.”
     The advice for political candidates is to sidestep any indications you’re a carpetbagger—toting your suitcase in from out of town or mispronouncing the names of the neighborhood grocery stores. When voters these days praise “outsiders,” note the Boise State University and George Washington University researchers, those voters are probably referring to candidates from outside the ranks of career politicians rather than to candidates from outside the voters’ area of residence.

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State Your Best Association 

Augment Political Projection with Introjection

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Elucidate Effects of Dynamic Pricing

If your customer believes they’re being asked to pay a higher price for a service than are similar customers, they’re more likely to generate negative word-of-mouth (WOM) about you. The contribution of studies at University of Fribourg which validate this expected effect is in elucidating the different reasons it happens.
     A common reason for different customers paying different amounts is dynamic pricing, where the marketer moves the price for an item up and down frequently in response to a complex mix of factors such as the popularity of the item, what competitors are charging, and customer characteristics. Dynamic pricing can lead to both price confusion and perceptions of unfairness among shoppers and customers.
     It is these two responses which stimulate the negative WOM, say the researchers: Price confusion is the predominant motivator for generating negative WOM when the services are of a type the customer frequently purchases. The consumer may be seeking clarification and advice. Perceptions of unfairness are the predominant motivator for services of a type infrequently purchased. The consumer may be seeking revenge and social support.
     The researchers say the major managerial insight from their findings is to avoid using dynamic pricing when there’s a high likelihood your business reputation would be damaged by negative WOM. But 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. That indirect benefit can be especially important with services, such as a concert ticket or airline booking, because the supplies of capacity and time are limited. If you choose to employ dynamic pricing, mobilize ways to reduce the negative WOM.
     University of Passau studies conclude that presenting an ecommerce dynamic price in terms of a discount of at least 10% from a reference price reduces irritation. Transparency about the marketer’s use of dynamic pricing also proved to be 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.
     HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management researchers find that persuading shoppers to authorize your collection of information about them increases dynamic pricing acceptance. It works because, after agreeing to have you learn about their browsing habits, shoppers attribute more responsibility for a price increase to some characteristic of themselves rather than to exploitive intent.

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Present Dynamic Pricing Transparency 

Cook Up Dynamic Pricing with Privacy Cookies

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Anticipate Fresh Starts at Time Period Ends

People are especially optimistic about investment decisions when those decisions are made on the last day of the week, month, or year, say researchers at University of Toronto Scarborough and Nanyang Technological University. The consequence is a higher tolerance for risk with these end-of-period decisions. The researchers’ explanation is that as a time period ends, people shift their focus toward all that could go well with the fresh start of the next time periods.
     There’s evidence that what generates this optimism is the ending of a time period rather than the starting of the next one. When the researchers asked a group of 396 people to state on which day of the week they felt most optimistic, Friday was selected by about 37% of the respondents—the highest percentage for any of the days—while Sunday was selected by only about 4%—the lowest of the percentages.
     The researchers calculate that almost one out of five days in any year could be classified as being at the end of some temporal landmark. This gives persuasion agents such as financial advisors a fair amount of flexibility in choosing on which day to present to a client an investment option and on how to describe that day to the client. The researchers conducted one of their studies on a Tuesday, October 31. They found that participants’ investment risk tolerance was higher when the day was described as “the last day of the month, right before a new month is about to begin” compared to “a typical Tuesday with the whole week ahead of you.”
     Accepting greater risk is not always good. In another of their studies, the researchers found that in a real peer-to-peer lending platform with a 36-month repayment window, the rate of return for investors was lower for loans the investor approved on an end-of-period day. Ethical financial advisors will use the end-of-period effect only for investment decisions where taking more risk holds clear promise for a higher payoff to clients.
     With this caution in mind, though, consider other ways to optimize optimism as a consumer persuasion tool. In studies at University of Kentucky, Texas A&M, and University of Seoul, researchers were able to influence the degree of consumer optimism by the wording on signage posted in the area. Optimism was increased by signage that appealed to bettering oneself. It was decreased by signage that warned about making mistakes.

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Optimize Shopper Optimism for Price-Quality 

Cross Time Markers for Positive Experiences

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Pair Single Bananas with Compassionate Eaters

“Comedian,” by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan consists of a solitary banana affixed to a wall with duct tape. Number two of the limited edition of three fetched more than $6 million at a 2024 art auction, with a fresh banana having replaced the original. A single banana was an art object of great value.
     The standards are different at a grocery store. As soon as a banana is torn off the bunch and returned to the shelf, its odds of consumption dive. Researchers at RWTH Aachen University and Goethe University Frankfurt cite prior reports by others that single bananas account for the highest amount of food waste of any item in the produce section and single bananas are much more likely to be discarded than their bunched counterparts if not sold by the end of the day.
     To slip this probability around, the researchers suggest portraying the isolated banana as sad. In their study, single bananas were placed in a separate basket next to the bunches. The content of a sign adjacent to the singles was rotated during store hours. Sometimes it read “Here are single bananas that want to be bought as well.” Sometimes, it read, “We are happy singles and want to be bought as well,” accompanied by an image of a single smiling banana. And sometimes it read, “We are sad singles and want to be bought as well,” accompanied by an image of a single frowning banana.
     Shoppers encountering the sign with the sad banana were those most likely to purchase single bananas. Companion studies by the researchers indicated this could be explained by the portrayal of sadness arousing in the shopper feelings of compassion. This emotion was assessed using a self-report scale containing items like, “I feel sympathy towards the single bananas.”
     Parallel results were obtained when the produce of choice was a tomato which had been pulled off the vine attaching together a bunch of tomatoes. But there were limits to the effect. When single bananas were offered at a 30% price discount, singles did not sell better if depicted as sad than if not. The impact of the large discount overwhelmed sensitivity to the loneliness of the fruit.
     And availability matters. In analyzing their data, the researchers recognized a need to exclude from the tallies a period during which there was an unusual popularity of singles, but the unusual popularity could be explained by there being a shortage of bunched bananas.

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Humanize Diseases to Build Preventive Care 

Waste Not with Misshapen Produce 

Meet Meat Eaters with Distinctive Alternatives

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Opine on Opportune versus Opportunistic

Your customers might not be able to reel off the distinction between opportune and opportunistic, but they’ll likely know it when they see it.
     Researchers at Edith Cowan University; Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, Pakistan; RMIT University; University of Tasmania; and Prince Sultan University analyzed reactions of a sample of Americans whose cars had been recalled for a safety repair and who completed the recall compliance process.
     The recall might be called opportune when offered by the marketer promptly after discovery of the problem and performed with minimum effort from the customer. It’s well-timed and suits the situation.
     But what if the dealer tries to sell the car owner additional repair services or products unrelated to the need for the recall? That can easily come across as unfairly taking advantage of the customer at a time the customer is disadvantaged. That’s opportunistic exploitation.
     In the study, perceived opportunistic recall management was measured with a degree-of-agreement scale completed by the study participants and composed of items like, “I think my car company is trying to make me buy new part(s) for my car,” “I think, through the product recall, my car company is trying to increase their brand awareness,” and “I think the product recall is a means of advertisement for my car company.”
     Analysis of the data indicated that a recall viewed as opportunistic deteriorated customer trust and loyalty along with lowering intentions to purchase that car brand in the future. The lesson for car dealerships, other retailers, and other marketers who process product recalls is to keep the focus on fixing the specifics which necessitated the recall.
     Then beyond this, the study results suggest two methods to reduce perceptions of opportunistic actions: 

• In communications with the customer, portray your commitment to ethical practices and social responsibility. 
• Allow ample opportunities for the customer to protest actions they consider to be exploitive.

     For these to work, though, consider them openings for two-way dialogues. Among the degree-of-agreement items used to asses the first method above was, “The communication makes me feel that the company is willing to respond to my specific questions about its ethical practices and corporate social responsibility initiatives quickly and transparently.” Among the degree-of-agreement items used to measure the second were, “I complained to the company” and “I blogged against the company.” Complaints and social media postings are prompts for conversation if you take the time to notice them.

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Call In Responsiveness to Product Recalls 

Maintain Store Distinctiveness in Ad Groups 

Cure Feelings of Retailer Betrayal

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Bundle Mandatory Socio-moral Surcharges

Airline passengers are painfully familiar with partitioned pricing for optional comforts, such as an additional charge for checking a bag, boarding early, or having extra legroom. Anecdotal reports verify that air travelers grumble about these fees.
     But what about when those additional charges are to fund socially or morally beneficial objectives and when the charges are mandatory? wondered a pair of Virginia Tech researchers. Examples include an environmental sustainability surcharge some Marriott hotels add to the room price, a fee to support fair-trade initiatives levied on Equal Exchange purchases, and an assessment by many restaurants to fund health care insurance for the employees.
     The specific question was whether consumer reactions are better if the bill is presented as a total amount with names of mandatory surcharges noted or if the bill is presented with partitioning of the item price and the itemized prices for any surcharges.
     The answer from analyses of the collected data is that the first arrangement is preferable. Fold surcharges into a total price and name the socio-moral cause without specifying the amount of the total attributable to it, such as, “price includes all taxes, fees, and carbon-offset surcharge.” The problem with the partitioned pricing presentation is that the consumer tends to feel the marketer is avoiding responsibility for the socio-moral cause by passing the charge on to the customer.
     The researchers identified three ways the marketer can use partitioned pricing with socio-moral causes while avoiding the negative impression: 

• Specify that the amounts collected are being forwarded to an entity outside the marketer’s control 
• Show how the marketer supports the socio-moral cause aside from collecting and forwarding the mandatory surcharge 
• Describe ways the surcharge collection benefits the consumer

     I can imagine a marketer using these techniques in circumstances ranging from wanting to show a lower price for the item itself to helping a diner more easily calculate the tip amount based on the price of just the food and drink.
     Partitioned pricing and corporate social responsibility are complex topics in consumer psychology, so take care not to overgeneralize findings. For example, these Virginia Tech researchers found that the problems with partitioned pricing hold only for socio-moral surcharges. With other mandatory surcharges, such as for shipping, partitioned pricing can be the better alternative.
     Then for a counterintuitive finding, consider the study showing how steeply dropping the price of a fair-trade item makes it less attractive to consumers.

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Fear Fair Trade Discount Promotions 

Externalize Surcharges in Partitioned Pricing 

Apologize via Corporate Social Responsibility

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Power Sales of Free-From Merchandise

A pair of researchers at University of Leeds and Nanyang Technological University points out that growth in the market for free-from products—such as lactose-free milk and fragrance-free face washes—has far outpaced the increase in rates of allergies. It appears that consumers’ choice of free-from products is due to something else.
     The researchers’ studies indicate the something else is a consumer’s perception they have low personal power, and this occurs because low-power consumers feel more threatened than do high-power consumers about the presence of potentially harmful ingredients.
     In one study, participants were asked to choose for use in their coffee between a dairy milk with its lactose and a lactose-free soy milk. Each participant also completed a scale to assess their sense of power. The scale included items like “I can get people to listen to what I say” and “If I want to, I get to make the decision.”
     Results showed that those reporting lower perceived power had a higher preference for the soy milk over the dairy milk. A parallel finding was obtained with another set of participants when purchase frequency of gluten-free foods was measured.
     In a companion study, degree of personal power was influenced rather than just measured. One group of participants were shown a poster that read in part, “You feel like you are a captain, because you are living in a world full of resources.” The second group instead read, “You feel like you are a servant, because you are living in a world full of restrictions.”
     Those reading the second poster were more likely than those in the first to select a fragrance-free face wash over a fragranced one.
     In these studies, people were excluded from participation if they said they had allergies.
     The nature of this preference for free-from products can be used by marketers to charge a premium for the items and to target advertising for free-from merchandise to consumer groups likely to be feeling low personal power.
     In all this, stay aware how advocating free-from can have unintended consequences. The U.S. FASTER Act which went into effect in 2023 requires notification if sesame is included in a packaged food or dietary supplement. In response, some companies added sesame to products that hadn’t included it and labeled it as such. It was risky to guarantee no traces of the seed. This result eliminated options for consumers seeking sesame-free foods.

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Spot Values by Asking Shoppers for Reasons 

Hang ’Em High for Power Deposits 

Highlight How High A Shopper’s Ready to Go 

Note If “Not” Drops Price Sensitivity

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Untangle Responsibility Attributions

In both the U.S. and UK, welfare payments to disabled citizens are a noticeable percentage of the government budget. Voter opinion about these payments counts.
     University of Michigan and Cardiff University researchers concluded that public support for disability benefits in Wales depends on the degree of responsibility placed on the person for their disability—in a way we might expect—and whether the disabled person is an immigrant—in a way we might not expect.
     Study participants considered the case of a man unable to work because of a brain injury. Depending on which of three groups the participant was assigned to, the brain injury was said to be either the result of childbirth complications, a high-speed motorcycle accident, or illicit drug use. For about half the number of participants in each of the three groups, the man was described as, “David is 28 years old and lives in Cardiff.” For the others, the man was described as, “Khalid is 28 years old and emigrated to Wales from Yemen with his family when he was 5.” Participants were asked to indicate how strongly they believed the man deserved some financial assistance from the government and how responsible they thought the man was for his disability.
     Overall, respondents in the drug use condition were most likely to say the man was responsible for his disability, and those in the childbirth complications condition were least likely to say that.
     Did David and Khalid deserve disability benefits? For those presented a David scenario, the childbirth group gave the highest ratings of deservedness, the drug group gave the lowest ratings, and the motorcycle group results were in the middle. But for Khalid, there was one intriguing exception to this same pattern: Respondents in the childbirth group gave lower ratings of deservedness than did those in the motorcycle group.
     After considering the full set of findings, including from a study in Scotland, the researchers attribute this exception to respondents suspecting Khalid’s family of exploiting a more generous UK welfare system by emigrating to Wales after learning of Khalid’s disability. This suspected responsibility for gaming the system was intertwined with perceived responsibility for the brain injury, and the responsibility of Khalid for his actions was intertwined with the responsibility of Khalid’s family for their actions.
     To effectively assess and change public opinion, attend to intertwined attributions which may not be apparent at first glance.

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Pin Responsibility in Unhealthy Food Choice 

Benefit Non-Disabled with Accommodations 

Construe Differences in Disability Duration

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Clear the Clouds from Switching Costs

Cloud video gaming—in which the processing is completed on a vendor’s computer servers—has been growing at a compound annual rate of about 75%, while the traditional video gaming in which processing is completed on the gamer’s local computer has been growing at a rate of less than 6%. The researchers at Durham University, The University of Leicester, and The University of Manchester who cite those statistics used semi-structured interviews and an online survey with gamers to analyze what factors are producing this difference.
     The data indicated a chief reason was how cloud gaming better enabled play of a broad variety of games across a broad range of circumstances. On the other hand, of the numerous factors considered in the study, switching costs exerted much less influence. In this context of video gaming, switching costs referred to the gamer needing to learn how to use the new platforms and accepting that many of the skills that had been mastered to use the old platforms would now be useless.
     Gamers in the study did acknowledge switching costs. One participant told the researchers, “I’ve spent years building up my game library and hardware setup. It would be hard for me to give it up.” Further, perception of higher switching costs was associated with higher reluctance to change from the traditional method. But the researchers say we should expect less influence of switching costs with a hedonic pastime like video gaming than we would with a parallel shift for a utilitarian project, such as storing company data on a vendor’s computer server and having processing completed on the vendor’s computer system. Variety is more important with the hedonic, consistency with the utilitarian.
     The lesson is to attend to the relative influence of switching costs while acknowledging that switching costs do always matter at least somewhat when we’re asking a consumer to make changes. Research findings from Santa Clara University, University of Maryland, and University of Texas-Austin indicate that switching costs exert a stronger influence than does customer satisfaction on whether a consumer will continue to patronize a retailer.
     To make a switch tempting, we’re wise to tell the target population about the ample benefits. People need to see the potential gains in order to put out the energy to form and maintain new habits. However, we too often forget about the importance to the shopper of the costs of the switch.

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Minimize Switching Costs 

Cost Past Customer Satisfaction 

Slant Referral Rewards Toward the Referred 

Tie Attribute Loyalty to Variety Seeking 

Anchor Frequency Estimates to Individuals 

Curtail Quantity Sensitivity by Here-and-Now

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Portray Relative Risk via Pricing Which Fits

Price can portray relative risk. In an Arizona State University and Tulane University study, groups of students were advised to get a flu shot. Some were told the price of the inoculation was $25, while the rest were told it was $125. So that the decision to get the shot wasn’t influenced by whether the student could afford it, all were told the fee would be reimbursed by health insurance. Each participant was then asked to estimate how likely it is they would contract the flu if not receiving the shot.
     The group told the shot cost $25 judged themselves as more likely to get the flu. The researchers’ explanation is that a lower price signifies a need for greater accessibility, and therefore a higher risk of nonuse. People are more likely to get the shot if the price is lower because it is more affordable, but also because the prospect of not getting it is scarier.
     Using a different scenario, an Aalborg University, University of Zurich, and Goethe University study produced a contrasting conclusion: A higher price portrays greater risk.
     These study participants perused an ad for a canyoning or a whitewater rafting adventure at a $100 price. Offered as an option was insurance to reimburse up to $100,000 in medical bills if the person was injured during the adventure. Some participants were told the price of this insurance was $9.90, while the others were told it was $79.90.
     The question in this study was not the likelihood of purchasing the insurance, but instead the likelihood of purchasing the tour whether or not the insurance was purchased. The answer is that people quoted a higher price for the insurance were less likely to indicate interest in purchasing the tour. Companion studies by the researchers gave evidence this was because those people considered the tour to be riskier.
     The effect is stable, but not large when calculated as an average across a group of people. Namely, for each 10% increase in the insurance price, the likelihood of purchasing the tour dropped by between 1% and 2%. A retailer could probably set a price for insurance which yields a substantial profit without the price sabotaging sales of the base item.
     Still, why isn’t that 1% to 2% higher? Perhaps because it’s an average for a group and within any group are adventurers who are attracted by signals of higher risk.

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Imply High Risk with Low-Price Sacred Goods 

Pain a Stimulating Picture 

Present Warranties as Insurance, not Assurance 

Externalize Surcharges in Partitioned Pricing

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Serve People Just What They Expect

Surprisingly, if you exceed your customers’ expectations for service quality, this can decrease customer satisfaction.
     The University of South Carolina research team points out how customer expectations for service quality depend on characteristics of the particular transaction. Consider the example of a diner who generally expects highly attentive service, with the waiter checking frequently throughout the meal, but who wants limited interruptions when accompanied by a friend who’s seeking a confidential conversation.
     This example was the basis for scenarios the researchers used in their studies where degree of server attention and degree of desired privacy were varied. When these two variables aligned, customer satisfaction was highest. The greatest disruption of customer satisfaction occurred in the situation of a customer with low service expectations receiving service which exceeded those expectations.
     It's clear how service falling short of expectations lowers customer satisfaction. But overly solicitous service also has negative consequences. The researchers cite prior studies showing that positive misalignment can cause customers to feel embarrassed, guilty, and unpleasantly indebted to the service provider. It’s possible to thank customers too much.
     An exception to the general conclusion occurred with another study conducted by the researchers where the scenario reflected a severe service failure, namely a diner needing to wait one hour to receive the meal they ordered and the food arriving overcooked. In these circumstances, subsequent service quality exceeding customer expectations didn’t lessen satisfaction. The customer probably felt they deserved the bonus.
     Providing service consumes resources. When service quality exceeds customer expectations, that could harm the organization financially and precipitate employee burnout. And over time, the situation gets progressively worse. Each time you exceed expectations, it can nudge the expectations up for the next time the customer visits. At some point, it would no longer be profitable to keep raising the bar for yourself.
     Actually, the customer might not even notice if you do manage to exceed their expectations unless the excess is dramatic. When shoppers’ expectations are exceeded, the shoppers could take it for granted and don't give lots of credit.
     The University of South Carolina researchers’ core advice is that the nature of optimal service depends on the characteristics of the shopper and situation. Certainly, there is a challenge for the provider in assessing these as a transaction progresses. It requires attending closely to the customer’s actions and reactions. But isn’t that itself an essential component of optimal customer service?

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Assess the Costs of Customer Satisfaction 

Handle Customer Satisfaction As Relative 

Dazzle Your Customers 

Multiply Recovery from Double Deviation 

Burn Out Resignation of Skilled Staff

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Unwrap Blind Box Collectible Concerns

How are a bubble gum pack, a storage locker, and a Birchbox alike?
     They’ve all been marketed as blind boxes—containers purchased without the customer knowing what specific items are inside. Baseball player cards were first packaged with bubble gum in the 1920’s by Fleer and Topps brands with the objective of increasing gum sales to kids. On A&E’s “Storage Wars,” adults bid on abandoned storage units at auctions before knowing what's inside. A Birchbox subscriber receives a mystery assortment of curated beauty enhancement products each month.
     University of Newcastle and University of Sydney researchers explored the type of blind box purchases in which the contained items are collectibles for the buyer. What these researchers documented is an addictive loop of impulsive purchases. The researchers report that the addiction potential is high enough to have caught the attention of regulatory agencies.
     Consumers are drawn to blind box collectibles via the appeal of uncertainty and the urge for completion. As to uncertainty, in a University of Chicago study, people worked harder for a bag containing either two or four chocolates than did another group told the bag had four chocolates. The tickle of ambiguity stimulated these study participants to act.
     The thrill of the tease is an aspect of this. Show shoppers a gift box being slowly opened, and their evaluations of what’s inside the box will be more positive than if you just showed them the item. The unboxing video genre has gained notable numbers of YouTube followers.
     The pleasure-from-watching-the-striptease is so compelling that researchers from Chinese University of Hong Kong saw it even with an empty box. In this case, the observers of the unveiling liked the empty box itself more, on average, than an equivalent set of consumers who were only shown the box.
     As to the drive to complete the whole set, blind box collectible purchases might be compared to slot machine gambling. Because the purchaser doesn’t know what specific items in the set will be acquired, they could continue buying in hopes of filling in what’s missing in their collection. This behavior could easily become economically imprudent and potentially addictive.
     In your own use of blind box collectible marketing, stay alert for any need to nudge a compulsive buyer toward counseling just as a casino operator would with their clientele. Also consider recommending collection groups where your customers could trade their duplicates while socializing.

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Tickle with Uncertainty 

Cross to Cross-Selling with Collecting Urges 

Hide Item Features from Shoppers Sometimes 

Stumble Upon Serendipity as a Sales Tool 

Compulsive Buying Disorder. Okay, Laugh

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