Tuesday in India: Indian Humour Done Right

It's oh-so full of beans!

ZopNow, the e-grocery space, has rolled out 3 TV ads and they are damn fun!

For those of you, who don't get the language, long story short: the maid Kanta Bai enjoys herself and isn't doing household chores since there is nothing to work with at home, the materials are lacking. ZopNow says, "No more excuses!" and speedily delivers everything what is needed.

This campaign is built on some very thoughtful insights. Bang on!

P.S. When you’re done reading and watching, I’d love for you to share your favourite campaign this year? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

Tuesday in India: Fortune Favours The Bold

When was the last time you saw men wearing bright make up and heels and being adored?

You'll see now.

My mumbaikar friend sent me this new Jabong campaign with a subject line "Check out what my friends are CRAZY about!".

Jabong continues being bold and visionary with rule bending, bright ads that celebrate experimental fashion.

Quite a fresh breath of air for Indian market.

And as Goethe once said "Boldness has genius and power and magic in it."

Keep that magic up, Jabong!

P.S. When you’re done reading and watching, I’d love for you to share your favourite campaign this year? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

Tuesday in India: It's a Winning Game for Amazon

Flattery will get you everywhere.

Amazon India explored well the essential nature of Indian shopper and rolled out a multi-film campaign, riding on some typical Indian traits.

Check out how enjoyably Indians and Amazon connects through "asli", "jaldi" and "friendly" characteristics.

P.S. When you’re done reading and watching, I’d love for you to share your favourite campaign this year? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!>

Tuesday in India: Amazon Grabs Attention With Those 3 Little Words

After not a very good start this year, Amazon India together with Ogilvy & Mather remind us that they know what moves and captivates people.

Simple, beautiful and #celebratingendlesslove.

It is that kind of an ad that my Indian friends stop everything in order to watch.


P.S. When you’re done reading and watching, I’d love for you to share your favourite campaign this year? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!>

Tuesday in The UK: Jingle Those Bells with 5 Best Christmas Ads!

No snow outside yet but it has been blowing and snowing with Christmas ads in full steam.

The multi-billion pound battle for customers is up and tough in the UK and here are my 5 most favourite ads for this Christmas.

Ho ho ho!

The most popular and hyped about Christmas ad - John Lewis:



The most cheeky truth-telling Christmas ad - Currys PC World:



The most adventurous cat-involving Christmas ad - Sainsbury's:



The most cosmopolitan Christmas ad - Body Shop:
 

The most educational Christmas ad - Lidl:
 


P.S. When you’re done reading and watching, I’d love for you to share your favourite campaign this year? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

Tuesday in India: You Might Not Want to Marry After Seeing This

PepperTap has rolled out an advertising campaign (conceptualised by Option Designs) that might send the shivers down your spine about marital life.

Jokes aside, these ads are great.

They ride on a oh-so-well-felt fact that wife usually finds her husband to be lazy and apathetic about grocery shopping.

Baaaaammmm- here comes the hero - PepperTap app.

P.S. When you’re done reading and watching, I’d love for you to share your favourite campaign this year? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

Friday Research: Make It Rain - The Bliss of Coupons

You thought:   

Consumers only crave coupons for the thrill of knowing that they discovered a good deal. But is that it? Check some fresh insight into consumers' psychology below.

New facts:  

As per just produced research, people who received a coupon had a 14% increase in oxytocin, an 8% decrease in the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin, a 4% decrease in heart rate, a 27% decrease in respiration, a 4% decrease in skin conductance levels, and a 90% increase in high-frequency heart rate variability. These factors showed almost no change for those who did not receive a coupon.

Mamamia! There is a real, measurable change in people‘s bodies and mental state from using coupons. Better mood. Happy high. Sweet relaxation. Do you know that oxytocin (which increased by 14% in coupon-holders blood) is also known as the love hormone and it profusely floods the systems of new lovers during the first six months? 

What Marketing Doctor ordered:

Short and simple - coupons is cheap, easy and nontoxic high for your customers so.. keep them coming, folks!


Source: Veronika, A., Tripp, S., & Paul J. Zak, P. J. Preliminary evidence for the neurophysiologic effects of online coupons: Changes in oxytocin, stress, and mood. Psychology of Marketing, 32, 2015.

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

Friday Research: Pick Customer's Brains in Your Ads But Thoughtfully

You thought:   

The question in an ad ("This car is for you?") influences your customer more than a statement ("This car is for you.") because it invites him to think about something and reach his own conclusion, hence, he gets more involved in the whole "process" and perhaps more likely to buy.
Remember the success of "Got Milk?", "Did somebody say McDonald’s?“ or "Where’s the beef?”? It’s a question, again.

New facts:  

If the stimuli around the consumer are dreary and dull (ordinary visuals, boring music, etc.), they stimulate low arousal, and unaroused consumers respond favorably to questions.
If stimuli around the consumer are exciting and flashy (thrilling visuals, dramatic music, etc), they stimulate high arousal and aroused consumers respond more favorably to statements.

What Marketing Doctor ordered:

Use your logic for when to ask questions and when to give statements. Aroused consumers want clarity, they want simple information so they can act on it. Calm, relaxed consumers want stimuli that peak their curiosity.

Simple statement will probably be more persuasive in your ad if it is demonstrated in an exciting event, during energetic speeches, during an intermission of an action movie, in some stimulating, visually attractive website, near a thrilling story in the magazine, during supermarket‘s holiday sale and so on. As the author of the research says, "If the ad itself or the material in which it is embedded involves topics of a sexual, competitive, dangerous, or thrilling nature, the current research suggests that a statement style is likely to be more effective, even if a question style could appeal to consumers' curiosity under other circumstances..".

Under normal circumstances your promotional phrase might be more persuasive as a question, especially during slow-moving speeches, relaxing TV programmes, typical shopping days..well, you get the idea.


Source: Henrik Hagtvedt. Promotional phrases as questions versus statements: An influence of phrase style on product evaluation.Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2015.

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with promotional phrases in your marketing? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

Friday Research: Desire for Product vs Non-indulgence

When Will You Use This?  

Developing tactics in order to maximize customer behavior.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

We all have gone through this while studying or simply being on a diet. Gathering strong determination, setting goals and exercising strong self-control. But temptations are never too far..

Current studies* investigated the possibility that individuals may distort memories of past behavior in order to allow for indulgence in the present. In authors words, "people may trick themselves into thinking something like, ‘I’ve been good on my diet lately, so I can have this piece of cake."

Results revealed that people who distort past memories of their indulgences are more likely to indulge in the future. Across four studies involving eating, spending, and studying, the authors found that people distort their memories of past indulgences when faced with an opportunity to indulge. This, in turn, leads to greater levels of indulgence.

'I deserve this piece. I've been following a strict diet for past two days!'

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

As authors suggest, "this information can help banks, health clubs, and companies looking to maximize customer behavior and the choices people make on a day-to-day basis. For example, gym managers might send out emails reminding people how long it has been since their last workout—encouraging impulsive people to come in to exercise and ultimately increase their satisfaction with their gym membership. "

*May F., Irmak C. “Licensing Indulgence in the Present by Distorting Memories of Past Behavior.” 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 customer indulgencies? 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.

Friday Research: Breath Fire into Your Retail Pricing Strategies

When Will You Use This?  

Creating retail pricing and discount strategies.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

We all love good deals and low price. So can one retail pricing strategy be better than the other?

Current research* looked at the impact different pricing strategies have on the stores people shop at when they do not know the product prices unless they visit the store. Results revealed that when trying to maximize savings, consumers will choose retailers they believe offer the lowest prices the majority of the time.

 As authors explain, “to simulate 100 weekly purchases from a retail store, study participants were asked to purchase products from one of two competing retailers 100 different times. Participants were given a monetary incentive to minimize their total spending and were instructed to base their selections strictly on price. On each shopping trip, participants first selected a retailer before they were shown the store prices for that week. The authors manipulated the pricing strategies, but in most cases, one retailer used deep-discount pricing while the competing retailer used everyday low pricing or frequent (but small) discounts. While the average price of the two retailers was the same for most experiments, results showed that people consistently tend to choose the retailer they believe is less expensive more often than the retailer they believe is cheapest on average. This pattern held whether or not the retailer used frequent discounts or an everyday low price guarantee."

Discount rule: many little ones are better than banging one!

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

Authors suggest that this research offers great insight "for companies regularly using deep discounts or pricing their products lower than their competitors’ average prices. The authors suggest a more effective strategy is to simply offer prices that are generally always lower than their competitors’ prices. <..>One reason consumers find these retailers so attractive is that their product prices tend to be cheaper than those of their competitors on the majority of shopping trips. Consumers seem to prefer many small discounts to a few large ones."

*Danziger S., Hadar L., Morwitz V.G. “Retailer Pricing Strategy and Consumer Choice under Price Uncertainty.” 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 discount strategies? 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.

Friday Research: Nostalgia Shopping - Remind Them Something and They'll Buy

When Will You Use This?  

Creating promotions and product lines, raising funds.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Once I purchased a pretty expensive chair only because it reminded me of a beautiful chair from my grandma's house where I used to play as a kid. I bought that chair because I wanted to feel like that playful kid again.

How useful nostalgia is in marketing?

Current research* looked at how much people were willing to spend, donate, and value money when feeling a sense of nostalgia-evoked social connectedness.

Results revealed that people are more likely to spend money when they’re feeling nostalgic. One reason could be that feeling nostalgic weakens a person’s desire for money.

For example, in one study, consumers asked to think about the past, were willing to pay more for a set of products than consumers asked to think about new or future memories. Also, there was an increased willingness to give more money to others after recalling, reflecting, or writing about a nostalgic past life event.

'Where is my wallet?! I feel like doing some Nostalgia-Shopping!'

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

As authors suggest, "this information is useful to brands looking to elicit feelings of nostalgia in their promotions and product lines as well as charitable and political organizations looking to raise funds for others. During times of recession, the authors note that consumers are more reluctant to part with their money and add that nostalgia could be used to help stimulate a dwindling economy."

*Lasaleta J.D., Sedikides C., Vohs K.D. “Nostalgia Weakens the Desire for Money.” 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 nostalgia in marketing? 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.

Friday Research: Holymackerel, Don't Let Your Customer Buy and Avoid Buyer’s Remorse

When Will You Use This?  

Developing tactics in order to increase customer satisfaction.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

We all know this feeling: it’s the last day of the month, your wallet is light as a feather.. Suddenly, you get seduced by a very attractive ad and buy a new pair of beautiful pumps. Just like that. They are really beautiful but you suddenly get mixed feelings: satisfied and guilty.

Current studies* measured satisfaction from purchases made with the last of participants’ financial resources. Results revealed less satisfaction with a purchase if someone thinks it will be difficult or take a long time to replenish their budget.

On the other hand, if someone comes into money without any effort—like winning cash from a contest or a lottery—they are more satisfied with their purchases if funds were running low compared to if they already had plenty of financial resources.

So Happy, So Broke!

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

As authors suggest, "brands looking to increase customer satisfaction can run product promotions during times of the month when they believe consumers have more money in their budgets. Additionally, to reduce the pain of spending one’s last dollar and increase product satisfaction, brands can use coupons and special pricing incentives at times of the month when they believe consumers have exhausted their budgets."

*Soster R.L., Gershoff A.D., and Bearden W.O. “The Bottom Dollar Effect: The Influence of Spending to Zero on Pain of Payment and Satisfaction.” 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 satisfaction? 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.

Friday Research: Take Driver's Seat to Impress Your Online Shopper

When Will You Use This?  

Developing your website and creating a better online experience for your customers.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

In recent years the Internet has become the main channel for consumers in search for products and services. However, the field of online retailing needs more investigation to understand what’s really significant in this new virtual environment.

Current research* uses pleasure, arousal, and dominance (PAD) model, seeking to extend existing knowledge about consumers’ activities in online retail environments by focusing on the largely ignored role of perceived dominance. If you don't know much about PAD, the original model was created by Mehrabian and Russell (1974) and it suggests that the organism response reflects the individual‘s emotional states. All emotional reactions to an environment can be categorized into 3 dimensions: pleasure, arousal, and dominance (shortly, PAD). Pleasure-displeasure dimension refers to the degree to which an individual feels happy, satisfied, pleased with the situation; arousal-unarousal dimension refers to the degree to which an individual feels stimulated, excited, energetic in the situation; dominance-submissiveness dimension refers to the degree to which an individual feels control over or free to act in the situation.

It is revealed that perceived dominance or influence over oneself has direct effects on purchasing intentions, as well as indirect impacts through pleasure. The impact of perceived dominance on pleasure also is moderated by situational involvement. Moreover, whereas high task-relevant cues exert significant effects on perceived dominance, low task-relevant cues influence arousal.

Will She Respond to Website Atmosphere as to Real Life?

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

This research shares a few insights to help you develop a better online experience for your customers and of course, get more conversions. The results reveal the significant effect of high task-relevant cues on dominance, meaning, tasks that are directly related to shopping goals (verbal website content, pictures of products, navigation aids, etc) should help your customer feel totally informed and confident to make the right decision, your website should radiate power and soft authority to influence the shopper.

Moreover, this study found that low task-relevant cues have an effect on arousal, which means that such website elements as colors, background patterns, fonts, icons, music, etc should arouse, stimulate and excite your customers in order to influence their shopping behaviour.

  

*Jung-Kuei Hsieh, Yi-Ching Hsieh, Hung-Chang Chiu, Ya-Ru Yang,"Customer Response to Web Site Atmospherics: Task-relevant Cues, Situational Involvement and PAD" Journal of Interactive Marketing, August 2014 {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with creating great online experience for your customers? 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.

Friday Research: Months to Find New Customer, Seconds to Lose Existing One

When Will You Use This?  

Planning and developing acquisition campaigns.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Customer acquisition marketing campaigns can be your landslide victory if executed well.

Current research* examines the effect of attractively priced acquisition campaigns on existing customers' retention intention, retention and customer lifetime value (CLV).

The study reveals that customers who are aware of the acquisition campaigns (they know about the process of bringing new customers to the brand that they use) both have a significantly higher intention to stay and do actually stay longer with the brand than do customers who are unaware of these campaigns.

Moreover, there is a positive effect of campaign attractiveness on retention intention, which means that if the customer thinks the acquisition campaign is pleasing, appeals to the senses, has qualities which arouse interest, the retention intention will be higher.

What Are The Ways of Gaining New Customers Without Losing Existing Ones? There Are Many Answers..

  

*Lhoest-Snoeck, S., van Nierop, E., Verhoef, P.C., ‘For New Customers Only: A Study on the Effect of Acquisition Campaigns on a Service Company's Existing Customers' CLV' Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol 28 (08/2014) {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with customer acquisition campaigns? 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.

Friday Research: Why Your Shoppers Want to Consult Salesperson?

When Will You Use This?  

To improve your understanding of shoppers behavior, training your salespeople.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Most retailers believe in the value of salesperson consultation. But does it really increase store performance and, if so, what could motivate shoppers to seek salesperson's help?

Current research* investigates 425 shoppers and develops a model of four utilitarian and hedonic motivators of shopper consultation with salespeople. The results demonstrate that situational and individual influences, both utilitarian (i.e., shoppers’ purchase uncertainty and efficiency orientation) and hedonic (i.e., shoppers’ situation-related affect toward salespeople and shopping enjoyment) motivate retail shoppers to consult with salespeople. Moreover, salesperson consultation is found to be positively related to the amount of money spent by shoppers.

Don't Be Fooled: Purchase Uncertainty is Only One Possible Motivator Of Seeking A Salesperson

*Haas A., Kenning P. "Utilitarian and Hedonic Motivators of Shoppers’ Decision to Consult with Salespeople", Journal of Retailing (June, 2014) {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with motivating shoppers for salespeople consultation? 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.

Friday Research: Customers Enslaved With Freedom And Choice

When Will You Use This?  

Researching consumers’ decision process and developing further marketing activities.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

With so much freedom of choice and so many sources of information, today's consumer is empowered and overloaded at the same time.

Current review* investigates how consumer empowerment can make decisions more complex, make tradeoffs more difficult, or lead consumers to be less certain about their preferences. As authors explain “several key factors play a role in how consumer empowerment impacts decision difficulty including consumer knowledge and maximization tendencies, information type and organization, and consumers’ a priori expectations of a decision’s difficulty. Our review of these factors reveals that consumers are more likely to experience decision difficulty in an empowered consumer environment when they possess low knowledge or less developed preferences. Consumers who have a tendency to maximize or to seek the absolute best option rather than settle for one that is good enough face more challenges with choice freedom and expansion of information. Decision environments where choice options are presented one at a time in an alternative-based format or where options are distinguished by unique features are likely to exacerbate consumer difficulty. Additionally, consumers hold lay beliefs that decision difficulty = decision importance, and they display dysfunctional behavior when this expectation is violated. For example, when important decisions prove easier than expected, consumers complicate the situation as a way of enacting due decision diligence (Schrift, Netzer, & Kivetz 2011)."

Overburden: Too Many Fish in The Sea to Miss One?

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

Current review can help you to better understand the “impact of expanding product lines, offering greater possibilities to customize, providing more product information, and enabling greater access to consumer and expert reviews.” Decision aids such as preference learning tools, product filtering and comparison tools, recommendations, defaults, etc, created to assist consumers and ease the decision process – can actually backfire and make everything more complicated. Check the review * for more details and specific suggestions.

  

*Webb A., Peck J., ‘Individual Differences in Interpersonal Touch: On the Development, Validation, and Use of the 'Comfort with Interpersonal Touch' (CIT) Scale. Journal of Consumer Psychology (2014 Forthcoming) {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with assuring consumers about their choices? 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.

Friday Research: When Customers Get Interuppted..

When Will You Use This?  

Researching your customer's decision process.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Today we get interrupted by calls, messages, emails, notifications and everything else every other minute. How does that affect us?

Current research* examines how interuptions affect the following decisions, more precisely, whether an individual’s desire to finish an interrupted activity depends on the timing of the interruption (specifically, whether an individual’s desire to finish an interrupted activity is heightened when an interruption disrupts the most intense, important ("climatic") moments of an activity or task).

This study found that people who were interrupted during a climactic moment of a television clip, and who were prevented from watching the end of it, were more likely to make unrelated purchase decisions than their uninterrupted counterparts.

It's observed that when a climactic interruption prevents individuals from achieving closure in the interrupted domain, the resulting unsatisfied need for psychological closure can cause individuals to seek closure in totally unrelated domains. That need for closure motivates individuals to make a decision rather than remain in a state of ambiguity. Research shows that climactic interruptions could increase the likelihood that individuals would make unrelated purchase decisions rather than continue examining product alternatives.

Hi, We Are Here So You Wouldn't Finish What You Started!

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

This research brings some insight for the marketers, as authors say,“ ..because our findings suggest that climactic interruptions can increase the likelihood of choosing to purchase a product rather than continuing to examine alternatives, it is possible that these closure-motivated choices may increase post-purchase regret. In fact, research indicates that insufficient thinking about decision alternatives in and of itself can increase post-decision regret, even when decision outcomes are held constant. To the extent that the current research suggests that need for psychological closure may increase hasty purchase decisions, it is possible that these decisions may increase post-decision regret.”.

  

*D. Kupor, T. Reich, and B. Shiv,"Can't Finish What You Started? The Effect of Climactic Interruption on Behavior", Journal of Consumer Psychology, Upcoming 2014 {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with unrelated purchase decisions and post-purchase regret? 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.

Friday Research: Feeling Down In The Dumps? Go Shopping!

When Will You Use This?  

Creating "retail therapy" campaigns and not feeling guilty about it.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

The so called “retail therapy” is considered wasteful and negative by majority of general public. But can an occasional episode of retail therapy help to alleviate distress?

Current research* explores whether making shopping choices could help to reduce residual (lasting for long time) sadness. The results reveal that making shopping choices helps to restore a sense of personal control over one’s environment, and thus helps to alleviate residual sadness (results based on hypothetical and real shopping). Shopping is all about choice (where to shop, whether to buy, what to buy), and previous research suggests that exercising choice can enhance one’s sense of control.

"I'll shop till I become happy as a flea in a doghouse!"

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

  

As a standing policy (“shop whenever your heart sinks”), retail therapy seems like a bad idea. However, don't be afraid to use the "retail therapy" card in your marketing on occasional basis. Based on the insights of current studies, shopping can help to alleviate sadness and no one has to feel guilty about it.

*Rick, Scott; Pereira, Beatriz; Burson, Katherine Alicia The Benefits of Retail Therapy: Making Purchase Decisions Reduces Residual Sadness. Journal of Consumer Psychology: December, 2013. {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with retial therapy? 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.