Reserve Brand Nicknames for Consumer Use

BMW becomes Beamer. Rolex becomes Rollie. Christian Louboutin becomes Loubi. 

     Consumers might enjoy using a nickname to refer to your store or product. This does not mean you should use that nickname in your marketing to prospective customers. A team of researchers from Western University, Stockton University, and University of Massachusetts warns that if, for example, Bloomingdale’s were to refer to themselves as Bloomie’s in their ads, the customer-conceived moniker could compromise Bloomingdale’s ability to charge premium prices.
     The researchers show that when a brand blatantly co-opts a nickname created by its customers, the brand yields some authority over the consumer, and this dilutes the power of the brand in the eyes of consumers. In the studies, participants were less receptive to a price premium when Beemer was used for a BMW, expressed less interest in purchasing a Rolex when the nickname Rollie was used, and moved toward other luxury brands when Loubi was used in place of Christian Louboutin.
     This effect held for non-luxury brands, too. Use of Chevy rather than Chevrolet reduced social media marketing likes and shares. Tarzhay got fewer click-throughs than Target. Purchase intentions were lower for Wally World than for Walmart.
     I’ll add to the researchers’ argument the idea that brand authority is compromised when, as is common, nicknames conceived by consumers are cute modifications of the actual name. The diminutives can imply the consumer’s dealing with a child who lacks the power of a mature adult.
     Exceptions to the diminutive formatting are nicknames conceived by consumers to ridicule the brand, and there’s little need for a marketer to be cautioned against co-opting those. Starbucks is unlikely to refer to themselves as Fourbucks or Neiman Marcus to advertise “Just call us Needless Markup.”
     Because the cautions are based on the value of a brand’s portrayal of power, the researchers hypothesized that the cautions would hold less strongly when the brand succeeds by emphasizing warmth over competence or when the marketing campaign touts how the brand’s doing a social good. These hypotheses were validated in a study using the name versus nickname of a fictitious charity and in a study using the marketing message “[Starbucks/Starbies] supports the disability community. It is an inclusive space at [Starbucks/Starbies].”
     The most important add-on to the general finding, though, is that nicknames for brands and items created by consumers are good for business when being used by the consumers.

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Combine Competence with Warmth 

Spark Nicknames in the Name of Love

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Fizz Fizz to Generate Effectiveness Perception

“Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is,” the jingle hitting the airwaves in 1975 has been credited with doubling sales of sponsor Alka-Seltzer. The visual accompanying the jingle showed tablets of the antacid, which had been tossed into a glass of water, bubbling away as evidence of beneficial action.
     The effervescence occurred outside the body, before the bubbles were swallowed. Researchers at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Université Laval, and University of Massachusetts find sensations experienced on or in the body also can convince the consumer of product effectiveness. In analyzing results from a survey project, they concluded that fizzing, tingling, cooling, or heating sensations during usage improve product ratings.
     In one of their studies, participants read an ad which stated, “Introducing HerbLife Balm. Our yellow balm is made from herbs such as turmeric and prai. To use the product, rub and massage a small amount on the affected area. This balm improves your physical performance.” The participants were then instructed to apply the balm to their arm. For some of the participants, the balm had been formulated to produce a tingling sensation shortly after application. For the other participants, the balm formulation was identical except that the ingredient producing tingling was omitted.
     Those participants experiencing the tingles were more likely to accept an offer to actually purchase the product at the conclusion of the session.
     Another in the set of studies found that people using a tingle-producing gel claiming to improve physical performance actually did improve their dumbbell lifting performance to a greater extent than an equivalent group of people using the same gel lacking the sensation-producing ingredient. The researchers’ explanation is that the sensory signaling generated a perception that the gel was transferring benefits to the body, which in itself energized the body to perform better. It’s of note that the gel used in this study contained no ingredients which had been shown to independently improve physical performance.
     The implications of these results apply most clearly to what consumer researchers call credence products. These are items where the evidence of effectiveness is not obviously clear to the user. A hammer is not a credence product. Pain-relieving balms, performance-enhancing gels, antacids, vitamin supplements, vaccines, and the like are credence products. Manufacturers could benefit by adding to their credence products an ingredient which generates a stimulating sensation. Marketers could benefit by featuring sensation-producing credence products.

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Talk to Multiple Senses with New Products 

Confirm Self-Service Transactions Soundly 

Post Dramatic Tales for Post-Experience Goods

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Investigate Insulting’s Populist Persuasiveness

Although there’s past evidence people generally dislike incivility, politicians who lob cutting insults at their opponents are winning elections. Populism may be central to unraveling this paradox, according to researchers at University of Lausanne, University of Amsterdam, and University of Bern.
     The distinguishing view in populist sentiments is that society is divided into the common people, who are generally virtuous, and the elite, who generally intend to exploit the common people. The common people must continually be on guard that their welfare is not ravaged by the elite. Incivility serves as a way to challenge the norms of the elites, demand attention, and express frustration. With this in mind, the researchers hypothesized that uncivility toward the opposition, such as obscene insults, will help persuade people who are high in populist attitudes.
     To test this hypothesis, a group of U.S. consumers was recruited for a study. About 44% self-identified as Democrats, 27% as Republicans, 24% as Independent, and the remainder as none of those three designations.
     The study participants were administered an inventory to measure their degree of agreement with populist views. They also were asked their opinion on the topic of requiring parental consent for gender transition in teens, then presented arguments either for or against, and again asked their opinion. For some of the respondents, the arguments had been presented with a courteous view of the opposition (“I know some might disagree” or “I can respect that some people may think differently”). For the remaining respondents, the view of the opposition was designed to be rude (“I don't care what other people think. It’s fucking obvious” or “Every other opinion is just bullshit”). The degree of attitude change about the parental consent topic was calculated.
     As the researchers predicted, respondents reflecting populist views were persuaded to a greater extent by the arguments when those arguments were accompanied by rude statements about the opposition.
     However, the pattern of findings was different in a parallel study conducted with respondents in Switzerland, a culture which, compared to the U.S., leans more toward consensus than polarization. In Switzerland, there was no evidence that incivility was more persuasive than civility among people with strong populist attitudes. Indeed, it appeared the rude messages backfired when the message aligned with the Swiss respondent’s initial view—that is, a higher rejection of the supporting arguments.
     In applying these findings, then, attend to cultural differences in consensus-polarization.

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Persuade Populists 

Damn Positive Item Reviews 

Constrain Politician Parodies to Controllables 

Endorse Policy, Not Character, Political Attacks 

Praise Your Brand Competitors

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Raise Referral Success Via Bigger Devices

Any organization experiencing customer turnover benefits from having current recipients of products or services personally suggest to others that they also give their business to the organization. And every organization experiences customer turnover.
     Solicit referrals to both strong and weak links: “Please recommend us to your colleagues, and recommend those colleagues talk about us to their colleagues.”
     Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg conclude that when you ask a current customer to make a referral, you also encourage them to use a laptop or personal computer, rather than a smartphone, to compose and send the request to each referred individual. That’s because referrals made via smartphone tend to be shorter and contain less positive content than those made on the larger devices, but longer, more positive recommendations stimulate better follow-through by the referral recipient.
     Those inferior characteristics of smartphone-based messaging can be attributed to how the small size of the screen and keyboard on the device make it more challenging to compose the referral. At the same time, the portability and ubiquity of smartphones could easily result in a greater number of referral messages sent out in response to your request than if the referring customer waits to do it on a laptop or PC. In accord with this, another of the researchers’ recommendations is to make it as easy as possible for a referral message to be completed on a smartphone. Auto-completion and pre-formulated text modules help here. Actually, these also could be helpful for composing a referral on a laptop or PC.
     Studies at City University of New York and Pennsylvania State University indicate that what you’d best include in any pre-formatted text modules depends on the degree of familiarity the recipient of the referral message currently has with the proposed supplier. If they’ve had few if any dealings with the organization previously, the best text should be thoroughly positive. This relaxes perceptions of risk generated by the prospect of transacting with an unknown.
     But if the recommended supplier is already well-known to the referral message recipient, text which qualifies the referrer’s expertise in making the recommendation is more important than whether the proposed supplier is described as flawless. In addition, researchers at Italy’s LUISS University and University of Bari suggest that in this latter situation, the text be more abstract than concrete, describing general upsides and concerns in doing business with the supplier rather than giving detailed examples.

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Minimize Customer Turnover 

Cultivate Referred Customers 

Wise Up by Tapping Smartphones 

Open Wide to Calm Complaint Intensity 

Slant Referral Rewards Toward the Referred

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