Tie Attribute Loyalty to Variety Seeking

A study done more than fifteen years ago recommended that movie sequels be named, not numbered. Analyzing movie titles in IMDB, the UCLA and University of Pennsylvania researchers saw how sequels carrying names did better at the box office and drew interest for a longer time. We’d expect “Die Another Day” to earn more than “James Bond 21.” Numbered sequels were perceived by participants in their studies to be too similar to the original.
     After that research, “The Fast & Furious” franchise came along. Using variations of the same name in successive movie titles seems to have paid off just fine. “Fast & Furious 6,” “The Fate of the Furious,” “F9.” The right answer seems to be that if you want entertainment to attract audiences, blend the familiar elements which have earned loyalty in the past with novel elements which satisfy variety seeking. This is the formula attended to by researchers at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and California State University-Long Beach in predicting how financially successful a movie will be.
     Because studio movie production costs are extraordinarily high, the researchers aimed for an analysis model which could be used before a script is greenlit—approved for financial backing, in the language of the industry. With this in mind, they based their methodology on a computerized analysis of the text in the movie script. One tool for this was the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count dictionary, which covers grammatical and social psychological factors and has been widely employed for content analyses of text.
     Comparison was with the text of scripts for past movies. Also conducted was a textual analysis of consumer reviews of past movies. The researchers’ objective was to identify which content attributes should stay the same as in previous movies proven attractive to a similar audience and which attributes should be different.
     The resulting model’s predictive power was greater than that for comparable benchmark models from the literature. The impact of the study, though, has less to do with the specific attributes identified than with the approach to prediction. The statistical assumptions and methods used in the research were highly sophisticated. The conclusions were limited to predicting the success of movie scripts. Application to books, stage plays, and maybe even advertising campaigns might work. Beyond that, maybe not so well. But the general lesson applies broadly: For maximum attraction, realize that attribute loyalty is tempered by variety seeking.

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Let Go of Irritating Brand Extensions 

Evaluate the Viability of Brand Extensions 

Spoil Your Audience with Spoilers

Brand Identity Paradoxes for Biculturals

Bicultural consumers, such as Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans, may experience contradictions in their identities and values, with the two cultures pulling them in opposing directions. Noting these paradoxes, researchers at University of Illinois and University of Minnesota hypothesized that brands incorporating contradictions in identities or values in their meanings—“paradox brands”—would carry extra appeal for bicultural consumers.
     The explanation is that navigating the contradictions in daily life develops within biculturals a cognitive flexibility which leads them to find engrossing the opposing perspectives embodied within the paradox brand identity. Examples from the researchers include Land Rover, carrying associations of both ruggedness and sophistication, and Burberry, identified as traditional, yet trendy. In one of the studies, the researchers used descriptors rugged, outdoorsy, glamorous, and charming to characterize the brand they intended as paradoxical. In another study, they used trendy, up-to-date, traditional, classic.
     The findings from the set of studies supported the hypothesis that biculturals on the whole engage more with paradox than with non-paradox brands. Supporting the researchers’ explanation for the effect, when monocultural participants were assigned a task to increase cognitive flexibility, they then became more receptive to paradox brands.
     These findings are especially useful for two related reasons. First, the researchers report that about one-third of the U.S. population is composed of bicultural consumers, and that segment is growing rapidly. To be successful, marketers will benefit from a competitive advantage for appealing to these shoppers. Paradox brands allow that.
     Second, bicultural consumers aren’t all the same. The cultural contradictions encountered by Hispanic-Americans differ from those encountered by Asian-Americans. Then there are broad differences among individuals within each of those demographics. Both personalized marketing and sensitivity to the particular cultural background increase marketing success. But use of paradox brand identities, which appeal broadly across distinctions among biculturals, allows more efficient marketing.
     Other research has associated cognitive flexibility with playful creativity. It’s possible, then, that bicultural consumers will be especially drawn to creative ads, which University of Cologne studies say exhibit: 

• Originality. How different is the ad from other ads about similar consumption choices? 
• Flexibility. To what degree does the ad shift from one idea to another? 
• Elaboration. In the ad, how many different details are presented at the same time? 
• Synthesis. How well does the ad conceptually join together divergent ideas and details? 
• Artistic value. How well does the ad use words, images, and colors to produce aesthetic pleasure?

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Speak to Shoppers’ Language Stereotypes 

Create Sales with Creative Ads 

Dial In to Dialectical Thinking

Limit the Value Range on Guest Gift Cards

Clarkson University researchers were interested in a commonly used feature with gift cards—a redemption range printed on the card. A Best Buy gift card reads “Choose any amount from $20 to $500.” In the top right corner of a gift card for Dairy Queen purchases is printed “$15-$250.”
     You won’t buy this Best Buy gift card at a Best Buy store, nor will you buy the DQ one at a Dairy Queen, and that explains why a range amount is on the card. These are referred to as guest retailer cards, selected from a rack maintained by a host retailer and containing gift cards from an assortment of retailers. When the customer purchases the gift card, they tell the cashier how much they want loaded onto it. Having the range of values avoids the host retailer needing to stock cards for many points along that range.
     How would a gift card recipient react to a card loaded for $15 when the upper range is $250? the researchers wondered. And how does any anticipation of the potential recipient’s reaction influence the potential gift giver’s actions?
     As we might expect, the researchers found that a purchaser wanting a low value loaded would prefer a card with no range printed on it than one with a range. This is due to the social risk of appearing not to sufficiently care about the recipient. This interpretation is supported by the preference difference disappearing when the purchaser is buying a low-value gift card for themselves. The givers’ concerns are appropriate, considering how another part of the study indicated that recipients felt more positive with a no-price card than with a price-range card when the value was $25 and the range was $25-$250.
     Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that retailers set the range shown on their own guest cards to what they learn are the most commonly purchased loads. This would probably lessen the distance between the maximum available value seen by the gift card recipient and the value the giver chose to load onto the card, making the purchase of the card more attractive to the giver.
     Research also suggests typicality from another perspective. If your store carries few items with prices around $100, but many in the $20 to $50 range, recommend to the gift card purchaser that they get two $50 cards instead of the single $100 card they originally requested.

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Fit Displayed Items to Payment Denomination 

Begin Gift Card Users with Store Typicalities 

Enhance Variety in Nonprofit Donations

Power Differences to Market Courses Globally

Many universities offer their courses worldwide via the internet. Already, thousands of online curricula have enrolled millions of students. Education is a business opportunity, behind only health care as the largest U.S. industry. Researchers at Baylor University and University of Victoria say spending on marketing in the education industry has been growing 22% annually, but that a challenge is in marketing these courses profitably across global markets. Toward addressing this challenge, the researchers find that the Power Distance Belief of a country’s culture provides guidance.
     In reply to my inquiry about the study, Prof. Lingjiang Lora Tu, one of the researchers, explained, “Power Distance Belief is an established construct in marketing literature which measures individuals’ attitude toward status inequality. Low PDB individuals perceive status inequality as illegitimate and have more egalitarian values. High PDB individuals perceive status inequality as facts of life and endorse more hierarchical values.” The Power Distance Index for many countries can be looked up online.
     The researchers find that prospective course enrollees in areas with low PDB cultures are more responsive to emotional appeals than to cognitive appeals. Based on the study findings, the researchers recommend that the emotional appeals should describe the self-discovery and self-development benefits of the curriculum. In high PDB cultures, by contrast, emphasize practical benefits which appeal to cognition. Talk of how successful mastery of the skills which are developed by the coursework can enhance social and economic influence of the student within the power hierarchy.
     These differences were most clear when enrollees needed to pay for the course. This is important because many marketers of online upper education courses to less-developed countries use a freemium model: Allow anyone to take the course for free and offer the option of payment for a certificate upon successful completion of the course. Usually, the payment can be made at any point during the course. One objective is to democratize knowledge worldwide. But free courses shift attention from the outcome of the learning to the process of the learning, making those from high PDB cultures more like those from low PDB cultures. Their interest in self-discovery and self-development grows.
     Studies at University of Wisconsin, University of Chicago, and University of Michigan indicate a freemium model allows broad course availability while maximizing learner engagement. If you use a freemium marketing model, it’s probably best to present both process and outcome benefits of the courses.

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Yield to Power Distance Belief 

Free Up Shopper Resistances to Trial

Insert Intrinsic Aims in Transformative Tales

Transformative services are distinguished by a major objective being improvements in the users’ well-being. Health care services are an obvious example. Less obvious examples include the workshops many retailers offer: Do-it-yourself sessions at The Home Depot. “Healthy Eating Education” programs from Whole Foods Market. “Women’s Trails and Ales” hikes organized by REI.
     Testimonials for transformative services should describe the customer’s thoughts and feelings about achieving personally important benefits from using the services. Researchers at Boise State University and The University of Sydney note that customer testimonials generally don’t include this. Their studies indicate such descriptions significantly increase a testimonial’s persuasiveness. In my email exchange about the study with Prof. Anne Hamby—one of the researchers—she added that specific comments from customers about the customers’ reasons or motivations are key.
     The research findings also argue for asking that there be an emphasis on direct personal pleasure from use of the transformative service, since this is important for optimal influence. The researchers acknowledge this is easier with travel activities, let’s say, than with academic tutoring, for instance. Still, almost all transformative services do yield direct personal benefits. This is, after all, what characterizes them as transformative.
     Taking the researchers’ recommendation would change testimonials from bullet points into stories. This, in itself, augments the persuasiveness. Stories involve the reader with the hero and the setting. Readers are transported from their own world into the world of the tale, generating in the reader emotions reported by the story’s protagonist. When those emotions have been clearly reported and are positive, an emotional rationale for being persuaded develops.
     But the researchers also see importance in descriptions of negative emotions. These reduce unintended consequences from misuse of the service. Tales in which an error’s been committed and then a recovery made, with the wave from fear to relief, serve as educational cautions. Understanding the report about the unintended consequences from the transformative service becomes an additional transformative service.
     Remedy marketing has abundant unintended consequences. The availability of smoking cessation programs can lead to people smoking more, since the people get the impression they can stop anytime they choose to. And once a consumer has gone through a debt consolidation program, that consumer may become more likely to spend irresponsibly, since the consumer figures he can go through a debt consolidation program again

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Transform Loyalty with Store Workshops 

Craft Powerful Stories 

Emote Selectively 

Back Away from Backup Plans

Cruise Through When People Suspect Selling

A challenge in persuasion is navigating the suspicions raised in people when they know you’re trying to sell them something. Researchers at European University Viadrina selected 171 sets of data from studies about consumers’ persuasion knowledge. A main finding from their statistical analyses of the data is that when someone knows you’re aiming to persuade them, they’re more likely to develop negative impressions toward the transaction and more likely to decide not to buy at that time than if they didn’t suspect a selling agenda. The effect is substantial. For instance, persuasion knowledge cuts advertising persuadability in half.
     Among other insights from the meta-analysis: 

• When a sales pitch is perceived as personalized, such as with a highly targeted promotional campaign, persuasion knowledge has greater negative effects for the marketer. The researchers recommend that you minimize personalized pitches to shoppers likely to have persuasion knowledge. 
• Persuasion knowledge sabotages influence effectiveness to a greater extent with unfamiliar products and with products the shopper needs experience using in order to evaluate. The implication, in my opinion, is that with such products, you do best to guide the person toward the sale in a sequence of contacts. 
• When a shopper becomes highly involved in deciding whether to make the purchase, the impact of persuasion knowledge on the sale fades. This point leads me to think it profitable to involve the person early with the item. 
• The disruptive effects of persuasion knowledge are greater for U.S. consumers than for those in the other countries studied and are greater for adults than for children or teens. This suggests to me the value of public policies insulating young consumers against exploitive sales techniques.

     Other research hints that mental processes set off by persuasion knowledge could sharpen attention to what you’re selling. If so, interest in learning about the item would grow, enhancing chances of making the sale later.
     Related to all this, University of Minnesota, Florida State University, and University of British Columbia studies find individual differences in sugrophobia. The name is derived from “fear of sucking,” and the meaning is “fear of being a sucker.”
     Low sugraphobes have their guard way down. They probably won’t even realize when they’ve been duped. They deserve protection from gullibility. On the other hand, high sugraphobes approach each influence transaction with vigilance and skepticism. Add in persuasion knowledge and the cruise toward a successful sale could be rocky indeed.

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React When Faced with Reactance 

Humor Your Customers