Race for Recognition

White American and Black American consumers were asked to view a series of clothing ads featuring a mix of Black models and White models. Some of the ads included a relatively small number of models, while the others had a relatively large number. In each ad, the percentages of White and Black models were the same.
     Later, each study participant was asked to estimate the number of White and Black models in the ads. The participant was also shown pictures of Black models and White models and asked to say if each had been or had not been in one of the ads.

• All the consumers in the study—whether Black or White—were generally accurate in guessing the number of White models in the ads.
• When the number of Black models in an ad was relatively small, the White consumers said there were more Black models than there actually were.
• But when the number of Black models was relatively large, the White consumers were generally accurate in guessing the number.
• The Black consumers were generally accurate in guessing the number of Black models when the number was small, but were notably less accurate in their frequency estimates when the number of Black models was relatively large.
• The White study participants were substantially more accurate than the Black study participants in recalling the faces of the Black models.

     The researchers, based at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, attribute the differences to a high interest consumers of a racial minority have in checking that their race is represented. The evidence is that the Black consumers, when viewing each ad, would count the number of Black models, which left insufficient attention for storing in memory the facial features of the models.
     The study findings are a reminder to retailers that in advertising and store staffing, your shoppers who consider themselves to be in the racial, ethnic, cultural, or language minority pay close attention to whether their minority is represented equitably.
     Researchers from Stanford University found that Black Americans had more positive reactions to an ad with Black actors than American Whites had to the same sort of ad featuring White actors. Latino consumers living in Austin, Texas—where Latinos were an ethnic minority—were more likely to trust a Latino salesperson than were Latino consumers living just 80 miles away in San Antonio—where Latinos were an ethnic majority.

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Target Customer Segments with Cultural Events

Telescope Time for Satisfied Shoppers

Why is it that somewhere between 65% and 85% of customers who start shopping elsewhere for their items say they were satisfied with the prior retailer?
     Researchers from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and University of Valencia in Spain say that a major reason is simply because consumers seek variety, but that there’s also a deeper explanation. It has to do with regret. More importantly for us, these research findings, along with others, suggest ways to surface and reduce the problem so that you keep your customers.
     One set of methods has to do with increasing the variety:

• Change the merchandise mix and the merchandise arrangement in your store regularly so that you’re offering your repeat customers endless new stimulation. People will go back to see a movie they really enjoyed, but not more than once or twice again.
• Announce changes in your store. If you’ve a fair amount of walk-in traffic, it’s particularly important to make the modifications in display windows and areas shoppers will see as they stroll by. In ads, show images of the areas you’ve changed.
• Point out the changes to customers while they are shopping.
• In conversations with your shoppers about what’s in your store, telescope the past: Remind them of the variety of experiences they’ve had when shopping in your store. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Minnesota, and New York University say the reason this works is that we often forget all of the variety we’ve actually had in our lives and instead focus on how repetitive our experiences have been. By reminding the customer of prior buying trips—or asking the customer if there have been prior buying trips—we generate a sense of variety.

     Another set of methods addresses the regret which drives satisfied customers to seek alternatives to your store. The regret, according to the Tilburg/Valencia researchers has to do with giving up options. Your customer thinks, “I’m sorry that I’ve kept coming to the same store repeatedly, since I now don’t know what I might have missed.”

• In querying your customers about their purchase intentions, telescope the future: Talk about what your store will be offering months from now. This plants in the customer’s mind the notion that it’s okay to explore other alternatives, after which the consumer returns to your store.
• Stay in touch with past customers who haven’t been in for a while.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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Add Apparent Assortment in Tight Quarters

Brief Consumers After Easy Surveying

Consumers are more willing than in the past to share opinions with you, but they expect your questioning to be brief and easy.
     These are the findings of a global survey of 1,193 consumers by Swedish-based market research firm Cint. The Cint study assessed methodologies used by brand managers. Here are the implications I see for retailers:

• The increased willingness of your shoppers to share their opinions with you is because they’re convinced you’ll listen to them. They attribute your open ears to what they see as high competition for the purchaser’s dollar in this tight economic climate. To keep the helpful feedback flowing, open up your mind and your mouth as well. Consider how to make best of the information you gather, and tell your target audiences what changes you’ve made because of the information.
• Keep it short. In the Cint study, about 40% of respondents said they’d be willing to spend up to five minutes on a survey of their shopping opinions, and an additional 30% said they’d be willing to spend up to ten minutes. Plan your questions carefully so that you don’t lose those who get impatient.
• Enable your shoppers and potential shoppers to use the internet and mobile device texting to answer your questions. Many, if not most, consumers are more comfortable sharing criticism this way than in face-to-face or telephone interactions. And you do want to know the criticism of your store operations as well as the praise, don’t you?
• Reward respondents. The best reward is evidence you’re considering what the consumer shared with you. Still, a coupon for a discount couldn’t hurt. About 55% of those surveyed by Cint said money would motivate them, and about 40% said free products or vouchers would do it.
• In your questions, hesitate asking about changes you’re highly unlikely to make. Keep expectations realistic. Researchers at University of California-San Diego and Northwestern University found that when retailers overpromise what they can do, consumers quickly become disenchanted with the retailer.

     The evidence is clear that, as long as you make it brief and show you’re using the information, your shoppers enjoy being asked, and they’ll reward the retailers who do ask. In the Cint study, 62% of those surveyed said they were more likely to buy from a merchant after being solicited for their views. Only 3% said the questioning would make them less likely to buy.

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Draw Out Advice & Opinions from Shoppers

Whiff Warp & Woof of Store Signature Sales

According to NRF Stores, the best-selling men’s fragrance in the U.S. is named Fierce. It blends the scents of orange, fir, rosewood, and resin. Can you imagine the odor?
     Okay, I’ll help. Fierce is the fragrance shoppers encounter whenever they enter, or even approach, a flagship Abercrombie & Fitch store. A&F is making money by selling to consumers the smell the consumers associate with pleasant experiences in the store.
     Cracker Barrel shops—each an exquisite blend of restaurant and gift store—sells CDs of the music playing in the background. The customer can take away the sounds they associate with pleasant times in the shop.
     The warp & woof—the fundamentals—of selling store signatures like smells and sounds are the rules of classical conditioning.
     I admit it sidesteps the dignity of your customers to consider them as experimental animals like Pavlov’s dog. You do remember Ivan Pavlov and how when he paired the sound of a bell with feeding a dog, pretty soon the bell caused the dog to salivate? That‘s classical conditioning.

• It works best when the shopper is not already familiar with the same smells or sounds from other stores. They associate the sensations with you. Cracker Barrel, Starbucks, Walmart, and Target each arranged in the past to sell house brand special edition CDs which included tracks not available elsewhere. However, realize that uniqueness is not essential. United Airlines for a time used “Rhapsody in Blue,” one of the more familiar melodies to the adult American ear, as a classical conditioning stimulus.
• The effect is strongest when you present the fragrance or the music early in the shopping trip and then give the shopper a pleasant time worth remembering. Here, too, exceptions to the ideal sequence still do work.
• After both the experience of the smell or sound and the pleasant experience of the shopping itself, prominently remind the shopper of the availability of the items to buy. Put the cologne on the cash/wrap and tell shoppers it’s what they’re smelling. Have signage reading, “The music you’re hearing now is available for purchase.” Coach staff to watch for customers who show interest in the music, and when the interest is there, to say, “Thank you for shopping with us. Would you like to take a look at the CD containing the music you’re hearing play now? Or find out how to download it onto your player?”

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Play and Sell Store Theme Music
Condition Your Customers

Sweep Millennial Women Off Their Feet

Ready for lovely profits from your Valentine’s Day shoppers? Results from a survey sponsored by the National Retail Federation and conducted by BIGinsight say that the dollar value of Valentine’s Day purchases will be up about 8.5% over last year and at the highest level for at least ten years. More than 9,300 consumers were polled for the survey.
     It’s the men whose hearts and wallets seem to be throbbing harder here. They’ll be spending nearly twice as much as the women to sweep their sweeties off their feet.
     How about helping the other side by sweeping the ladies into your store for Valentine’s Day and beyond? For tips on that, let’s turn to another survey, this one conducted by comScore on a sample of about half a million female consumers.
     The thrust of the findings were that Millennials—women ages 16 to 29—are different sorts of consumers than other age groups. The others in the project were classified as Generation X (ages 30 to 44), Baby Boomers (45 to 59), and Seniors (at least age 60).
     Here’s what’s important to know about Millennial women from the comScore study and other research:

• Because of Millennials’ comfort with technology, they are more likely to be persuaded by the internet than by television.
• Because of Millennials’ multitasking preferences, you need to command their attention more quickly and dramatically than is necessary with the older age groups. Use colorful, stimulating content.
• Because of Millennials’ sensitivity to social cues, stories told by the retailer can be influential, especially when each story kicks off with a surprise.
• Advertising professionals refer to the “lift” of persuasive communications: We want to lift consumers from awareness of your store and merchandise through favorable attitudes, and on to an intent to purchase from you. The lift from awareness to favorable attitude is more challenging with Millennials than with the other adult age groups. However, the lift from favorable attitudes to purchase intent is easier with Millennials than with the others. Millennial women are more likely than other women to retain a favorable impression from an ad.
• All consumer groups are price sensitive now. As a group, female Millennials are especially price sensitive. Still, they’ll seek out stores where staff sweep them off their feet, even if those stores happen to have higher price points on merchandise or services.
• As with the other age groups, trustworthiness is fundamental.

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Attend to Face-to-Face Word-of-Mouth
Lock In Customer Gratitude

Build House Brand Equity with Distinction

There is a trend among retailers to use the same private label brand name across product categories. The reason is that these house brands have succeeded in establishing not only a price advantage over national supplier brands, but also a reputation for superior quality. For instance, Kroger Co. renamed their “Naturally Preferred” and “Private Selection” organic lines “Simple Truth.”
     Currently, private label items cost, on average, about one-third less than the price of the national label brand. But in some categories, the private label item costs more than the average national label brand, and overall, the comparative prices of the private label alternatives are climbing.
     When items carry the same brand name across product categories—such as a bath soap and a shampoo—you’d like to strengthen the brand image by using the same package design. Having almost identical package designs is common with house brands, where a consumer could be looking at tables and tacos during one shopping trip.
     Overall, using a similar package design to build brand image is a good idea from a shopper psychology perspective. Mere familiarity brings credibility.
     There’s a potential downside, though. Research findings from Wake Forest University and University of North Carolina–Greensboro suggest that when packaging is similar across items, the shopper senses a loss of control. The consequence might be that shoppers seek variety beyond the similarly branded items. The shopper becomes a bit less likely to buy the house brand across product categories unless you take steps to restore the sense of control.

• Introduce distinctions by placing products with the same package design in different relative shelf positions for different product categories. With the mouthwash, the house brand is to the top left of the other brands, while with the toothpaste, the house brand is to the bottom right of the other brands. Research at University of Pennsylvania and University of Illinois confirms that random arrangement of a product set can lead to more buying.
• If your merchandising allows this, use variations of the same name. At Trader Joe’s, you might see Trader Ming, Trader Jacques, and Trader Giotto.
• Curb the routine with distinctive designs and color schemes on signage for different product categories. Researchers at Columbia University and University of British Columbia find that such techniques give the shopper a sense of control, and this sense of control curbs further variety seeking.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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Counteract Problems from Similar Brand Labels
Less Store Clutter, More Store Branding