Graph Multiple Risks to Guide Decisions

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

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Add Risk Notices to Dilute Risk Opinion 

Take Comfort in the Comfort of Bad News 

Bundle Expensive & Cheap Synergistically 

Chart Your Numbers’ Compelling Backstory 

Just Emphasize the Gist for Older Readers

Slam Cabinets & Colleagues with Caring

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

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Build Up Bawl Outs When Telling Complainers 

Proceed to Protect Your Staff from Insults

Power Up People Before Selling Experiences

Why is it that people get greater happiness from experiences they purchase, such as a cruise or a concert, than from material acquisitions, such as a camera or a chair? Researchers at Sungkyunkwan University, University of Akron, and University of Technology Sydney cite prior studies to attribute the difference to considerations of socializing, distinctiveness, and self-identity.
     Experiences are often consumed with others, and past experiences are discussed with others. Friends show greater interest in hearing about our recent cruise than about our new camera. Happiness derives from distinctiveness, and experiences differ among themselves in content and context. A series of concerts reflects a broader range of characteristics than does a collection of chairs. And experiences shape our identity, while we shape experiences to fit our identity. It’s weaker with merchandise. We strengthen the self-identity by remembering our many experiences with the material goods.
     After citing the prior studies, the researchers hypothesize that consumers perceiving more personal power will enjoy experiences relative to material items to a greater extent. Socializing allows people to show and shape their power. Powerful people prefer purchases which differentiate them from others. And they’re highly interested in expressing themselves through their consumption.
     A set of experiments supports the hypotheses. The researchers conclude by recommending that marketers of experiential offerings target people already in powerful positions and cultivate feelings of power in potential customers.
     As to the targeting, wealth can bring a sense of power. Researchers at New York University, University of Southern California, and UCLA found that the experience economy does best when consumers feel financially confident. If the consumers instead feel highly financially constrained, their preferences shift to buying material goods that will last for a while. This is true even if the material items to be purchased are frivolous and indulgent. Emphasizing to prospects that fun experiences give enduring memories was not sufficient to overcome the effect.
     As to the cultivating feelings of power, use advertisements and store signage which emphasize the power possessed by the shopper (“At our business, you’re the boss”) rather than messages which deemphasize the power (“At our business, we take care of you”). Treating the shopper with deference instead of authority reinforces this impression. Studies at Stanford University and Tilburg University raised participants’ sense of personal power by having them sit on a tall chair and lowered it by having them sit on an ottoman.

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Leapfrog Generations to Sell Experiences 

Hang ’Em High for Power Deposits

Examine How Sharing Exaggerates Knowledge

When I recommend to you an article about retail pricing, your estimate of my knowledge about that topic increases. My recommending also increases my self-impression that I know a lot about retail pricing.
     These University of Texas findings seem trivial until you hear the rest: It happens even if I’ve read nothing at all in the body of the article I’m recommending to you. The act of sharing based on my seeing only the article title, for instance, misleadingly exaggerates my confidence in the depth of expertise about the topic.
     Considering the widespread online sharing of links among consumers, these findings argue for staying alert to your customers and clients making inadequately informed decisions. This holds true not only for those receiving links, but also for those sending out recommendations.
     One of the researchers’ studies found that consumers who share investment advice subsequently choose riskier investments. This may not be bad. A prior study by a different set of researchers concluded that subjective overestimation of financial literacy can have beneficial effects. Given the proper support, those self-confident consumers are more likely to plan well for retirement than are those who accurately assess their financial literacy. The degree of self-perceived financial ability was a better predictor of financial wellbeing than was actual financial skills.
     But this is an exception. For most consumer decisions, overconfidence is a liability. As you guide these shoppers toward properly informed choices, embrace their self-perceptions of expertise: 

• Respect them. Do your floor staff know where all the merchandise is located? Are they aware of the comparative features of brands in their department? Can they explain them to the customer if asked? Customers want sales staff who know it all, but without acting like stuffy know-it-alls. 
• Surprise them. Experts are attracted to categorization in ways that surprise them. Sporting equipment might be categorized by the sizes of the items. Power tools might be categorized by the type of job they could be used to complete. Clothing might be categorized by color. Foods might be categorized by country of origin. 
• Impress them. Experts want to know technical specifications. At the same time, they often make product selections without prolonged thought. They don’t request features lists because the experts think they already know what the products can do for them. Experts are interested in technical specifications largely to justify to themselves and others that they’ve made the right choices.

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Invest in Financial Literacy Overconfidence 

Embrace Shopper Expertise 

Calibrate Your Shoppers Well

Launch Items Which Arouse Competitiveness

Being among the first to own a just-released iPhone or Nike sneaker bestows honor in the iPhone or Nike sneaker community. People will wait in long lines at the store or will jockey to be early in the internet queue.
     These and other brands with rabid fan bases can benefit from the consumer competition at product launches. It’s true that in-store, the competition could get dangerously aggressive. Shoppers shove each other, wrench items from each other, or worse. But if managed properly, the competition boosts initial sales revenues—valuable for marketers, who want to quickly recoup product development costs—and for retailers, when they recognize the demand lets them set premium prices on the items.
     Researchers at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies developed a statistical model to identify which product characteristics arouse the desire to compete to be the first to own. A basic is item uniqueness. A product perceived as better than any other in that category is more than distinctive. It’s one-of-a-kind. The Hankuk researchers also identified in their model the importance of the consumer’s need for uniqueness. If the prospective purchaser wants to be one-of-a-kind, they’ll be attracted to a product with this characteristic.
     Factoring in is item scarcity. People are willing to exert more effort to obtain desired items which are in short supply. This is true whether or not the item is newly introduced to the marketplace. But when a new introduction is a limited release, a fear of missing out triggers the sort of competitiveness necessary to awaken at 3 AM to be in the front of the queue.
     This relates to the more general theme of self-enhancement. New releases which enable the purchaser to claim authority or exert influence over others are more likely to lead to competitiveness. Here, too, there are individual differences. Self-enhancement is associated with personal gain at the expense of others’ welfare. The race to acquire is seen as producing winners and losers.
     For the owner to claim the prestige of a winner, the item needs perceived popularity. The perception can come from the queue itself. A large group competing to be among the first further fuels the competition to be among the first. This ties back into the drive arising from scarcity. Unless the new release is perceived by the individual as popular, the competitive spirit will be diluted.

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Navigate Shoppers Toward Distinctiveness 

Chimp Away Sales Resistances Using Scarcity 

Ease Social Risk by Accommodating Shyness 

Highlight How High A Shopper’s Ready to Go 

Offer Late Alphabet Customers Head Starts 

Anticipate Black Friday Syndrome

Cancel Culture About Negations Selectively

Including negators such as “not” and “never” in marketing messages risks confounding audiences. Consumers given a list of toothpaste dispenser characteristics which included “not difficult to use” liked the dispenser less than did another group given a list of the dispenser’s characteristics identical except that it read “not easy to use.” The participants had little trouble remembering what the phrasing said. It wasn’t as if they failed to see the “not.” Instead, it was that the “easy” or the “difficult” had much greater emphasis in the decision making than did the “not.” One group was evaluating the toothpaste dispenser with “easy” in mind, while the other had “difficult” in mind.
     The recommendation for marketers: To smooth the cognitive flow when you have the objective of persuading a prospect, avoid the speed bumps of negations.
     But researchers at University of Adolfo Ibáñez and University of Nevada-Reno identify an advantage of using negations in marketing via social media—enhanced consumer engagement. In one of their studies, Facebook messages for 18 brands, including Lululemon and Monster Energy, with a greater use of negation words, such as “don’t” and “none,” had higher numbers of likes, comments, and shares. Parallel results were found with Twitter message likes, retweets, and replies and with word-of-mouth intentions of recipients of direct email marketing.
     Results from the set of studies led the researchers to explain the effect in terms of brand power: From childhood, culture shapes us to maintain positivity in interpersonal communications. Use of negations by an adult implies the power of social confidence because the adult is violating a norm. The association between negations and power carries over to brand image. People like to portray social influence, which they aim to gain by engaging with brands they find to be powerful.
     This explanation for the role of negation is supported by the researchers’ finding that the effect was stronger for consumers expressing a need for status, measured by items like, “I want to improve my social standing as compared to others.”
     The recommendation for marketers: To build consumer engagement with your brand, incorporate negations into messages.
     In navigating between these two opposite recommendations, you’ll be determining the situations in which to cancel traditional cultural expectations of positivity for interpersonal communications. To help with this, assess the probabilities of shopper confusion and need for status in your intended audiences. Also attend to the appeal among consumers of the low-status underdog at times.

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Unknot Distortions from Using “Not” 

Flex Shoppers with the Complex 

Risk Underdog Appeal When Risk is Low 

Produce Facebook Engagements with Pronouns