Targeted marketing by a company—for instance, sending advertising to a preselected segment of the possible audience—can benefit a consumer by reducing their handling of ads which hold little interest to them and can benefit a company by optimizing the marketing budget. Moreover, most consumers like to be acknowledged as individuals, and marketers can leverage increasingly sophisticated methods to
If your customer has paid for their outfit, they’ll enjoy experiences in those duds more than if they’d gotten the identical outfit for free. Researchers at Western University in Ontario, University of Edinburgh, and University of St. Thomas in Minnesota found this to be true when the purchaser would be using the outfit on an avatar in onscreen video game action.
As a retailer, you could present a surprise gift to a customer after they’ve completed a purchase. You could present a surprise gift for participation in your store loyalty program. On the other hand, you could offer a gift when a shopper enters your store, with no consumer action required. Such a tactic of unconditional gifts can nicely complement your existing programs of promotional rewards,
How marketers frame a time span will influence how consumers respond to what’s offered. A research team at The University of British Columbia, Tilburg University, and Cornell University explored a specific example of this regarding the age of whiskey. A whiskey distilled for longer time is considered better. But what difference does it make if the marketer says “
The way in which a brand name is pronounced influences the brand’s personality. In a study at University of Dundee and Nanyang Technological University, a toilet bowl cleaner given the name Goz was rated by study participants as stronger than one given the name Pas. A skin conditioner named Pota was rated as gentler than one named Vig. More generally, brand names
To broaden availability for financially constrained consumers of offerings like museum visits, dance workshops, and online courses, the provider could feature a “Pay What You Want” (PWYW) policy. Then to maintain financial viability of the offering, the provider would want purchasers to pay as much as they could. Findings by a set of researchers at University of Surrey, WU Vienna University of
When persuading others or when others are attempting to persuade you, a valuable skill is you accurately perceiving the beliefs, emotions, desires, and intentions of the others. Findings from researchers at University of Turin and University of Udine suggest that this skill—called Theory of Mind (TOM)—fades as we enter our senior years. In the studies, participants
When seeking desire fulfillment, a gently vibrating massage often brings bonus pleasure. A set of University of St. Gallen studies applies that truth to ecommerce. A medium-duration vibration on a shopper’s mobile phone while the shopper is looking at attractive alternatives leads to more item purchases and higher shopping basket totals. In the studies, addition of a
Digital signage—electronic screens showing video ads to shoppers in a retail store—increased likelihood of purchasing the advertised items by an average of about 8% in a study by researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Babson College. The study covered 237 advertising campaigns and 30 million shoppers. Because of the size of the sample and use of techniques
Femvertising is advertising perceived as promoting gender equality and as challenging stereotypical portrayals of women as primarily caregivers, decorative objects, or passive observers. According to researchers at Macquarie University and The University of Newcastle, femvertising helps a brand build stronger loyalty and advocacy among female consumers. When reinforcing the power a woman has or