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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