Compare Cobras, Cobaias & Cosmetic Surgery

Concerned with the dangers posed by large numbers of cobras slithering around the countryside, British overlords in Colonial India said they’d pay a bounty for each cobra body submitted. The response from industrious Indians was to start raising the venomous reptiles to earn money. There were now more, not fewer, cobras. Realizing the program wasn’t working, the government discontinued it. The response of the entrepreneurs to this change was to release their stocks of snakes, since the animals were now worse than worthless. As the tale goes, the population of cobras ended up quite more abundant than it had been before the bounty offer.
     Unintended consequences. Among the component disciplines of consumer psychology is economics. When applying consumer psychology at the societal level, anticipate a full range of reactions, counterreactions, and tradeoffs arising from the dynamics of economics.
     Another example of the insights from such an analysis is seen when considering the use of cosmetic surgery in Brazil. Researchers at University of Macedonia and International University of Monaco report that most women in Brazil consider physical beauty as a requirement for successful life. This attitude is both a cause and an effect of the Brazilian government considering its citizens to have a “right to beauty.” Cosmetic surgery is low-cost or even free, thanks to government subsidies.
     But there have been some ugly outcomes. Because of the universal expectation of beauty and the removal of financial barriers, the surgery waiting list is long and many of the procedures are conducted by those still learning how. On the upside, new cosmetic surgery techniques are continually being developed in Brazil. Physicians worldwide travel there to learn. On the downside, the latest cosmetic surgery techniques might not be ready for prime-time exposure. A common term for the patients is “cobaias,” which translates to “guinea pigs.”
     Against this background of cosmetic surgery being expected, nay required, in Brazil, extensive beauty work is socially disapproved in certain other countries. Researchers at Murray State University and University of South Florida find evidence that the underlying reason is perceptions of compromised morality. This is another potential downside of cosmetic surgery, with economic implications if the perceptions affect employment prospects or effectiveness in persuading others. The researchers speculate that this disparagement of cosmetically-altered influencers is less likely if the influencers tell their targets of influence that the surgeries were done for self-expression, to reveal the influencer’s true identity.

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Beautify Persuasion Transactions 

Attract Ecommerce with Unattractive Faces 

Check for Unintended Consequences

Pattern Choices for Frightened Shoppers

When people’s security is threatened, they seek structure for the sense of control it offers. They’ll repeat patterns in their consumption activities. This was seen in studies by researchers at Peking University, Auckland University of Technology, University of Central Arkansas, Dongguk University, and Florida International University.
     In one of the experiments, a group of participants were asked to read an article titled “Can COVID-19 Damage the Brain?” To allow comparison with this high-threat group, the article assigned to another set of participants was “This One-Pan Meal Shows Just How Joyful Tofu Can Be.” All participants were then asked to assume they’d eaten six jellybeans in order from least-favorite flavor to favorite flavor and then asked to select between eating more jelly beans either in order from least- to most- favored or from most- to least- favored.
     Starting with the most-favored would seem to be objectively better, since you get your enjoyment sooner. But the high-threat group were more likely than the comparison group to select repeating the sequence of least- to most- favored. This finding supports the idea that frightened consumers will repeat a consumption pattern, even if that pattern is an inferior alternative.
     Another in the set of studies—this one involving the order of listening to favorite and not-so-favorite songs—found that the draw toward a repeated pattern when frightened is stronger among consumers whose childhood was spent in a less wealthy neighborhood. The researchers’ interpretation is that children in financially strained circumstances adopt uncertainty management strategies, including adherence to predictable patterns of consumption whenever possible.
     To earn shopper goodwill during periods when those shoppers are likely to feel frightened, make it easier to them to repeat patterns of consumption. Offer bundles of favorites. This doesn’t mean limiting the variety of choice or expecting consumers to limit the variety, though. If everything’s the same, there’s no opportunity to form a pattern.
     Pattern-seeking when we’re scared produces effects well beyond the order in which we eat jelly beans and listen to songs. We’ll not only establish patterns, but we’ll also see patterns when none exist. In the face of widespread social ambiguity—such as occurred early in the COVID-19 pandemic—we’d expect to find more conspiracy theories and information distortion, especially among people who grew up in financially insecure circumstances. It’s another uncertainty management strategy example, mobilized in this case as an effort to transform chaos into predictability.

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Border Shoppers’ Uncertainty 

Let Shoppers Go Through Their Rituals 

Tiptoe Around Pandemic Atypicality 

Monitor Variety Seeking

Compensate for Discounts Dispiriting FLEs

Deep price discounts motivate shoppers to buy. But those same deep discounts, if used frequently by a store, demotivate the people who are making those sales. That is, unless management takes corrective action. The reason the frontline employees become dispirited, according to studies at Germany’s WHU, is that these people perceive frequent or deeply-discounted pricing as discounting the value of their work. There is then a tendency to pull back on the quality of their efforts to match what they perceive others as thinking their work is worth.
     Add to this how deep price discounts bring into a store increased numbers of shoppers who are highly price-sensitive. These people feel little reason to form with store staff relationships which enrich the job of selling. Keeping an eye on price, they’ll give their business to another store next time if it has a better discount. Or if they do return because they decide the store often has the best prices, they could join the salespeople themselves in deciding that deep discounts indicate weak frontline service. Consumers who are at a store primarily for a deep discount become more likely to treat employees shabbily.
     The suggested corrective actions consist of supervisors continually acknowledging the importance of their frontline employees’ conscientiousness and providing them ample opportunities to demonstrate their value. As part of this, the WHU researchers recommend that you inform employees about planned price promotions, explain the objectives, and encourage dialogue about how to improve future price promotion campaigns.
     You also could adapt for this purpose techniques found by researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and University of Hong Kong to be effective in curbing job burnout: 

• Encourage feedback from customers. Use a positive frame like, “In what ways might we do even better?” rather than a negative frame like, “What do you dislike about our store?” 
• Remind staff of the importance of the work they do. 
• Rearrange job duties so people have new responsibilities. 
• To the degree that you can, allow each staff member to serve the shopper throughout the purchase process. Empower employees to handle customer complaints.

     The last of these four has special importance. Studies at Ireland’s Waterford Institute of Technology find that a promise of on-the-job autonomy attracts new employees who will excel in customer-facing tasks. Having made that promise, you don’t want to risk losing their contribution to your profitability by allowing corrosive impacts from price promotions.

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Sharpen Your Price Image 

Discern Differences Deep Discounts Make 

Burn Out Resignation of Skilled Staff 

Promise Autonomy to Promising Front-Liners

Sell More with Self-Mockery

A Frenchman visiting New York City enters a McDonald’s restaurant in late afternoon. When he reaches the front of the long queue, he orders a glass of wine, knowing that the McDonald’s restaurants in his home country serve alcoholic beverages. The employee, having heard such a request before, replies, “Sir, in America, McDonald’s doesn’t include wine on the menu.” A look merging disappointment with puzzlement crosses the Frenchman’s face. “You mean, people come here for the hamburgers?”
     I’ve not heard of McDonald’s using that joke in their marketing campaigns. However, gentle humor can ease sales resistances, and self-mockery can humanize a brand in ways consumers find attractive. A study at IAE Paris explored this. Participants were exposed to a fictitious IKEA ad in which the brand made light of a consumer criticism the researchers had found to be common among IKEA shoppers.
     In some cases, the tag line read “Parce que nos meubles sont compliqués à monter, on ne s’est pas démonté pour les repenser,” which is French word play on “As the assembly of our furniture is complex, we did not back down from rethinking the situation.” Difficulty in assembling the furniture is considered to be a major dissatisfaction.
     In the other cases, the tag line read, “Parce que nos files d’attente sont trop longues, on ne s’est pas défilé pour les écourter,” word play on “As our waiting lines are too long, we did not run away from making them shorter.” This addressed what’s considered to be a less important dissatisfaction.
     For all, the text was followed by :), representing a smile. A companion study used complaints about McDonald’s—a strong complaint that the burgers are unhealthy and a weaker one that the burgers are too small.
     The overall finding from the studies was that self-mockery increases purchase intention, although only for a minor source of dissatisfaction and only for consumers who already have a strong brand attachment.

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Highlight Humility with Humor 

Avoid Satire in Comparatives

Lay Into Lying Driven by Moral Convictions

Much thinking in consumer psychology about deceiving people concerns product sales. At what point do lavish claims about item performance cross over from marketing enthusiasm into fraudulent exaggeration? When is it okay to withhold information about safety risks if the shopper doesn’t ask about them?
     Researchers at The University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania were interested in deception within the marketplace of ideas. The dynamics of deception differ here because the deception is often motivated by a drive to uphold personal values important to the liar rather than the desire to make money.
     People like to see themselves as trustworthy. When lying in order to make more money or protect themselves from criticism, people aim to lie only as much as they feel is absolutely necessary. But a moral imperative to defend personal values can readily flood away such restraint. People will justify the deception as being in the service of a greater good, allowing misstatements to gain a greater breadth and intensity.
     Benevolence is an example of a moral motive seen among the studies reviewed by the researchers. We lie to help or to avoid harming others. Examples of this I’ve encountered include the diner with the slightly overcooked steak who tells the server that everything is perfect even though it’s not. A woman leaves her hairdresser the usual tip, although the woman is not at all comfortable with the unexpected new look.
     But deception driven by benevolence has an ugly side. The server, the chef, and the hairdresser have missed out on valuable information. In a Cornell University study, it was found that job supervisors pulled punches when providing feedback to women. This happened much less often with male employees. The explanation was that people believe women are less confident than men about their job performance. Supervisors want to encourage women to do well by overaccentuating the positives. Building confidence, not questioning competence. The problem is that the white lies deprive women employees of the constructive criticism they need in order to most quickly become superb performers.
     The Chicago/Pennsylvania researchers caution about other moral motives, such as lying to protect values of group loyalty or individual freedom, and about forms of deception aside from outright falsehoods, such as obfuscation.
     Let’s present our arguments ethically in the most persuasive ways. In doing this, let’s realize how deeply felt moral intentions might generate lies which cause destructive actions.

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Expose Puffery for All It’s Worth 

Selectively Keep Information From Customers 

Satisfy Each Customer’s Self-Concept 

Ease Irritation by Eliciting White Lies 

Criticize Women Strongly 

Beat Around the Bushwhack 

Mow Down Astroturfing Influence

Highlight How High A Shopper’s Ready to Go

A shopper’s acknowledgment that they are inferior to what they want to be allows you to sell solutions. Researchers at Arizona State University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, and Columbia University analyzed studies showing a selection of ways self-discrepancies drive consumer behavior: 

• Direct resolution. If your prospect is fatter than they want to be, they might like to join a gym or purchase diet foods. Consumers who are dismayed that their intelligence is fading as they age could be interested in brain training activities. 
• Symbolic self-completion. MBA students lacking objective indicators of business success such as multiple job offers were more likely to show off symbols of business success like expensive suits. Or suits chosen by those considering themselves overweight could be designed to look slimming. 
• Dissociation. This path diverts the shopper from audiences or contexts where the discrepancy will be apparent. A person who feels less financially savvy than desired is receptive to stopping a subscription to The Wall Street Journal and subscribing instead to USA Today. 
• Escapism. A short-term version of Dissociation is to distract oneself from thinking about the perceived inadequacy, usually by engaging in an entertainment activity. For effectiveness, the entertainment must avoid reminders of the discrepancy. If consumers feel themselves to be less socially adept than desired, escapism could consist of attending a show where single-ticket purchases are common. 
• Fluid compensation. The consumer who is feeling inadequate in one realm strives to cultivate other skills they feel confident they possess. You can sell to these shoppers by identifying those areas in which they have both skills and interest.

     The first two of these five lend themselves to easier interpretation of shopper needs. You can make those paths more likely by building the shopper’s self-esteem, which, in turn, encourages higher aspirations. Flatter the shopper’s expertise.
     Don’t go too far, though. Abundant flattery, even if justified, can come across as phony or result in a backlash of shopper hubris. In studies at University of Texas-Austin and Switzerland’s University of Bern, when consumers’ self-esteem became extraordinarily high, they turned toward aiming for the status quo.
     Self-efficacy operates differently, though. Self-esteem relates to a general impression, while self-efficacy concerns confidence about a specific skill. Persuade shoppers they are capable of achieving what you’re proposing. Accomplish this by selecting the right items for each transaction.

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Reap Loads from Solo 

Convince Shoppers to Reach for the Stars 

Airbrush Away Shame in Your Shoppers