Friday 14 November 2014

Friday Research: Your Customer Wants It The Hard Way

When Will You Use This?  


Developing your products and creating consumers experience.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 


Traffic jams make me feel helpless. Then I think, how important is it to be in control as a consumer?

Current research* explored how feelings of control influence selection of products that require either high or low effort.

For example, in one study, basketball players who had either just won or lost a game were asked their opinions about a new basketball shoe. Players saw a photo of a shoe with either the tagline “Work less, Jump higher” or “Work harder, Jump higher.” The players who had just lost the game were more likely to purchase the shoe with the “Work harder, Jump higher” tagline. Players who had just won did not favor one shoe over the other.

Results revealed that when a person’s sense of control is threatened, they are more likely to seek out products that require hard work to restore their belief that they can drive their own positive outcomes. However, when progress feels too slow for someone already in a low-control situation, they are likely to switch their product preferences toward lowering effort— succumbing to things like “get rich quick” schemes and “lose weight without trying” campaigns.

"Did They Just Say I am a Looser? I'll Show Them in a Year!"


Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    


As authors suggest, "with the plethora of low-effort products on the market today, a brand’s intuition might be to provide consumers with the easiest, most high-tech routes to achieve their goals. However, our research reveals that the more consumers experience threats to their sense of control with respect to health or fitness goals, the more desirable a structured, high-effort program where consumers drive their own outcomes."


*Cutright K.M., Samper A. “Doing It the Hard Way: How Low Control Drives Preferences for High-Effort Products and Services.” Journal of Consumer Research: October 2014 {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with increasing customer's self control? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

P.P.S. Need some help on crafting your marketing message? Let's do this together.

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