Friday Research: Imagine All The Consumers Imagining Your Products

When Will You Use This?  

Developing marketing and promotional campaigns.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

It was noticed long time ago that majority of consumers tend to imagine themselves with a product (in specific future situation) before making a purchase.

Current study* looks into the obstacles that suppress a consumer’s imagination (or "imagining the consumption of a yet-to-be-purchased product in a future situation"). Authors suggest an idea that the consumer imagination combines sensory information about a promoted product with relevant prior experiences from memory. For example, Ann is reading a magazine and spots an ad of a dress she really likes. She first imagines how she will appear at work's coctail party wearing an advertised dress. Moreover, information from memory about similar, relevant prior experiences is used to create a mental rehearsal of that future event. This information from memory includes not only relevant prior experiences but facts related to those experiences, such as type of clothing worn or food served at such an event.

This study highlights that the consumer imagination, rather than considering product features, increases purchase intentions because consumers are more likely to feel a sense of ownership.

Give your customers space for imagination race...

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks  

 

You might find it really useful to know when your customer's imagination should be tickled with your campaigns. This study particularly suggests that "clothing, sports/exercise equipment, electronics, and furniture are product categories in which touching before purchase is important. Thus, in an online shopping site for such products, a promotional emphasis on considering product features may be more convincing than stirring the imagination, especially for those consumers who like to touch products before buying. Likewise, marketing efforts designed to stir the imagination should be more fruitful for occasions that are likely to have an element of ambiguity, such as holiday parties or perhaps job interviews. On the other hand, ad appeals for products purchased for unambiguous occasions, such as going to work, may not benefit from efforts to evoke the imagination and do just as well with an emphasis on showcasing product features and attributes."

*Spears N.,Yazdanparast A. Revealing Obstacles to the Consumer Imagination. Journal of Consumer Research:01/2014.{Thanks for the material}
 
P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with rankings and evaluations, how do they help to sell? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

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