Market to Seniors, not to Elderly

You'll be marketing to older consumers. Even retailers of toys designed for young children recognize it's the grandparents who pull out the credit cards.
     There are broad differences in the abilities, living circumstances, and consumption habits among older consumers. AARP maintains three editions of their major periodicals: One for members ages 50-59, one for members 60-69, and the third for members at least 70 years old.

      Still, there appears to be broad agreement in what older people in your target market will be comfortable being called. Researchers at Ghent University and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium had a range of consumers, all at least age 40, evaluate the attractiveness of five names for them: elderly, 50+, senior, retired, and third age. This last label is seen in uses such as the Third Age Foundation, in which childhood is considered to be the first age and the second age covers family and career.

      The research participants were quite comfortable with older consumers being called 50+, senior, or retired. Any of these three would be good for you to use in advertising, signage, product packaging, and personal selling addressed to this important target market.

      However, there is an important exception to this: Respondents who were nearing age 50 or retirement didn't like any of the names as much as did people who had been in the group for a while. We hate to give up our thoughts of youth, even when the youth is middle age.

      Not surprisingly, respondents didn't like "elderly." Also playing to negative reviews was "third age." Maybe that's because it sounds like something out of a J. R. R. Tolkien book. Hmm, actually that is one place we'll find the term. It was the 3,021 years of the waning of the elves. Who would want that?

Go for Customer Gratitude and Guilt

We'd like to build emotional connections with our customers. And if we need to choose among emotions, go for gratitude over happy. It's more profitable to have our customers grateful to us for what we're doing for them than happy about the shopping experience. Research at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan, Italy looked at relationships between six emotions and what the shopper with those emotions did after completion of the purchase.
     The six emotions were anger, gratitude, guilt, happiness, pride, and sadness. The four behaviors were complaining to the retailer, criticizing the retailer when talking to other people (negative word of mouth), expressing an intention to make a future purchase, and praising the retailer when talking to other people (positive word of mouth).
     The greater the extent to which customers said they felt grateful to the retailer for helping to solve a problem or satisfy a need, the more likely the customer was to praise the retailer to others and to say they intended to shop with that retailer again. In the study, there was no significant relationship between customer happiness and either positive word of mouth or repurchase intention.
     Another set of findings had to do with the guilt expressed by a dissatisfied customer. Here, guilt could mean at least two things. First, the person was taking responsibility for the disappointment with the product or service. Second, the person felt badly about making a fuss since they felt obliged to the retailer for what the retailer had done. So it's no surprise that as guilt increased, the amount of complaining and negative word of mouth dipped.
     The lesson for retailers is to go beyond having a satisfied customer. Through our heartfelt, individualized customer service, implant in each shopper a sense that they owe us for what we've done.

Help Customers Show Off New Products

Ready for your quiz question? Okay, here's the situation: Some British researchers noticed a gender difference in where customers keep their cell phones while sitting in a club. Women are much more likely than men to take out their phone from purse or pocket only when they are ready to use the phone. On the other hand, men are much more likely to place their cell phone in a highly visible location soon after sitting down.
     The researchers figured that the men were placing their phones on the bar or table because they wanted to show off to others that they possessed the latest and greatest model. But to whom were the men interested in showing it off? The women? The other men? Both?
     Here's your question: Which one of these four caused the greatest jump in how often the men would take out their cell phones, put them on the bar or table, and begin toying with them, even when not placing calls?

A. As the number of men in the area increased.
B. As the number of women increased.
C. As the percentage of men compared to women increased.
D. As the percentage of women compared to men increased.

     The correct answer? The third choice. Was the picture of the peacock too big a hint? It appeared that the men were preening with their cell phones to disarm the competition in the same way that male peacocks pump up the strutting and feather preening when there are at least a few females around and then a bunch of other males come by.
     What's this all mean for you? If you want to sell your customers the latest and greatest, there's an advantage in you stocking items with a distinctive design easily recognizable even in a dimly lit club.

Use Psychology for Shopper Crowd Management

What a dream to have more shoppers rushing into your store than you ever thought possible! But how quickly that dream can turn into a nightmare. Do you recall how Wal-Mart worker Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death by Black Friday shoppers while attending the front doors at the Valley Stream, New York store? Or how customers at a Burlington Coat Factory store in Ohio looted and destroyed merchandise when they learned that a woman's offer of free merchandise was a hoax?
     Understand the psychology of crowds as part of preparing for having people fill your aisles when you hold Black Friday sales, limited quantity sales, celebrity appearances, releases of new video games, and similar events:

• If shoppers will be waiting in line to enter the store or department, have store staff wearing name tags talk to the shoppers. Invite those in line to fill out a sweepstakes form with their name and other identifying information. Because they lose some of their individual identity and therefore their sense of individual responsibility, people in crowds are driven to actions they would not take otherwise. Name-to-name contact can head this off.
• Distribute the special items throughout the shopping area. Your objective is to scatter out any crowding.

     There are other actions you might think would work well, but could backfire:

• Should you have uniformed security guards? Some people in crowds become less anxious and more responsible when they see staff in police-style uniforms. However, other people get agitated and angry.
• Should you extend the hours of the event? Maybe, but within limits. Extend them too much and you lose the excitement which drives buying.

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

Use Store Photos to Inspire Improvements

Here's some advice from Art Freedman about an activity that can start out as fun and end up making you lots of money:
"If you want to have some fun one day, take a camera and walk through your store. Just start shooting photographs of your store. Shoot a lot of them. Load them up on your computer, and sit in front of your computer with your staff, and ask, 'What do you see? Where are our opportunities? What does our store look like?' Sit there and find ways to make your store better.
"If you intend to sell a lot of paint, what does your paint department look like? As you look at the photos, and as you walk by the paint department itself, how are you making it inviting for the customers to come there and buy? Do you want your end caps to be signed? Do you want the end caps to be full? What do you want the end caps to look like? What do you want the main aisle to look like? What do you want the impulse areas at the registers to look like? What do you want your store front to look like?
"Take those picture and look carefully at them with your managers and your floor staff, because what you see is what you are going to get. If you want it to be different, then have it look different. What do you want all your aisles to look like? Is the store merchandised in a way that shows off the product categories in which you want to be dominant? If I looked at the photos you took in your store, would I be able to tell?"
For details, start on page 91 of Making Money Is Not Illegal, Immoral or Fattening.

Shock Shoppers, But End Happily

A few years ago, Volkswagen kicked off a marketing campaign centered on two TV ads designed to shock viewers. In one ad, the TV viewer seems to be inside a Jetta as the driver chats with a passenger. Suddenly, a truck crashes into the car so severely that air bags inflate and the passenger's head is thrust into the airbag. In the other ad, the perspective is again from inside the Jetta as two couples discuss a movie, and again a truck suddenly comes crashing into the car. Viewers see the passengers shaken up, but uninjured. Each ad ends with "Safe Happens" flashing onto the screen.
     The impetus for the campaign was the 2006 Jetta's top scores in federal crash tests. The crashes were real, with stunt actors inside the cars. According to Volkswagen, the outcome of the campaign was positive, with the ads causing consumers to get more interested in buying a Jetta.
     The ads caused many consumers to do something else, too. Some contacted Volkswagen to ask if any of the actors were actually injured. These people were worried. And some consumers flocked to a website set up by Volkswagen as part of the campaign. On the website, people could recreate or customize their own crash. These consumers were fascinated.
     Those two reactions are quite different. Still, I would not be at all surprised if a number of the people who found out the actors were okay would end up playing the online crash game, and some of those who played the game repeatedly would start wondering if the actors came out of the crashes safe and sound.
     Shocking ads can pay off. Two tips: First, be sure the cause for the shock is justified. Second, give viewers of the ads ways to feel good after the shock.