Research Friday: Could Horoscopes Help You To Sell?

When Will You Use This? 

 

Creating your marketing messages, especially while marketing indulgent products.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today?

Most major newspapers and magazines publish daily/weekly/monthly horoscopes, and they are very popular because people are naturally driven to believe in their own fate. Although many consumers subscribe to the idea of fate and read horoscopes to learn about their fate, little is known about how fateful predictions and consumers’ belief that they can change their fate impact subsequent decision making. It is known that fateful predictions (such as horoscopes in the newspaper) impact consumers’ choice.

The current series of experiments* examine the existence and the effect of an implicit theory of fate on decision making after exposure to fateful predictions. This research provides evidence that people who believe fate is malleable and can be changed more often choose an indulgent option (e.g. chocolate cake and not fruit salad, partying and not cleaning) compared to the ones who think fate is preordained and outside of individual influence. This might be individual’s deliberate strategy to compensate for an unfavorable day ahead.

I believe, therefore, I exist

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks  

 

There might be some interesting implications of beliefs in malleable fate. As authors suggest, “<..> if people’s belief in malleable fate can be manipulated, such that marketers can strategically design their messages to influence indulgent choice. For instance, marketers of indulgent products may want to prime the malleability of fate (e.g., “Life’s what you makeit!”) in order to increase sales, especially if the target consumers are avid readers of fateful predictions (e.g., young women; Burrus and Roese 2006). Similarly, marketers of indulgences, such as chocolates, ice cream, or cake, might advertise in close temporal or spatial proximity to horoscopes published in newspapers, magazines, or online, so that consumers who believe their fate to be malleable, or those who have been primed with malleable fate, respond more favorably to the advertised indulgent product.”

** H. Kim, K. Kulow, and T. Kramer (2014), “The Interactive Effect of Beliefs in Malleable Fate and Fateful Predictions on Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming. {Thanks for the material}


P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with the play of words? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

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