Tuesday in UK: Home is Where Google Is

There's the moment, probably no more than one Earth second, in which you know something is good.

It's the sweetness of  caramel shortbread after long diet, it's the sound of the sea after long working months.. it's the self-conscious storyteller in the beginning of this ad.

Say hello to more Google at home.

And more you there as well.

Not a zero cool ad, but great.

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: This Makes Me Unquestionably Jump for Joy

Let me just say that this DBS Bank's campaign "Chilli Paneer 2" received a Gold and Silver at the Midas Awards 2015 a moment ago.

And there is a real steak not just some sizzle.

It's the most engaging campaign for the banking services that I've ever seen.

Superb innovative storytelling with a pinch of genius selling.

Warning: the film is 20 minutes long!

But you have permission to be blown away, trust me.

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: Lower My Spirit And I'll Donate?

You thought:   

Really strong negative emotions in charity ads is the best way to persuade people to donate.

New facts:  

Donation ads that combine the sadness and strength emotions are more likely to inspire donors and induce positive ad evaluations than ads using sadness-dominating emotions.

Donation ads that combine the two types of emotions could lead to not only more inspiration but also more actual donations than ads using just sadness-dominating emotions.

What Marketing Doctor orders:

If you run a charitable organizations, you can craft more effective donation ads. Don't just limit yourself to using negative-dominating emotions to make people more empathetic towards your issue.
Think strategically and design donation ads which combine the discrete positive emotion of strength with sadness. It may not only cause less distress to the viewers but also be more effective than sadness-dominating or strength-dominating emotions.


Source: Jianping Liang, Zengxiang Chen, Jing Lei. Inspire me to donate: The use of strength emotion in donation appeals. Journal of Consumer Psychology, available online 3 October 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!

Tuesday in India: A Word Beginning with ‘F’ comes to mind? Here, Out Loud!

In the coming 33 seconds we follow Andy who goes on a search to answer the question "What’s there to eat today?" (hindi - "Aaj khane mein kya hai?").

At work he is told that lunch is over and there is only tea and biscuits left.

When he calls his home cook, she pretends to be unwell.

Eventually he tries to question his rommate but he reminds Andy he isn't his mother.

Frustration is high and F word is close. Check out which one.

Nice idea conceptualised by Lowe Lintas.

  

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: 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: Trick Of Letting Customer Get All Lovey-Dovey With Your Product

When Will You Use This?  

Planning product launches and promotional campaigns.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Theodore: I've never loved anyone the way I loved you. 
Samantha: Me too. Now we know how. 

This quote from the movie Her (2013) wouldn't sound odd until we knew that this dialogue actually happens between a real man and his operating system Samantha. And maybe even then it's not so weird afterall, in today's lonely world people start bonding with various products on deeper and deeper levels.

Current research* suggests an idea that people might be “bonding” with products without even realizing it, and examines whether physically interacting with products in an affectionate manner (e.g. hugging, stroking) might lead people to grow attached to those products.

This research finds that when people performed the affectionate gestures, they grew more attached to the products, and accordingly liked the products more and were more willing to buy them. Authors note that "this was only the case when the designated product had some visual human-like traits (e.g. a human face on the packaging). That’s because affectionate gestures like hugs are usually reserved for human-to-human interactions, and thus the products must be somewhat humanlike for the gesture to result in affectionate feelings." Also, lonely people were even more likely to get attached to a specific product in consequence of performing an affectionate gesture towards it.

Am I So Fond of You Because I Can't Stop Hugging You?

*Hadi, Rhonda and Valenzuela, Ana,"A Meaningful Embrace: Contingent Effects of Embodied Cues of Affection". Journal of Consumer Psychology: 2014. {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with nurturing customer's attachment? 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: What's The Real McCoy Behind Luxury Shopping?

When Will You Use This?  

Developing promotional campaigns for your luxury brand or products.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

The luxury goods market has been increasing for many years.

There are many reasons why consumers purchase luxury goods - a sense of status, wealth, and exclusivity being a few of them.

Current research* investigates psychology of pride in luxury goods shoppers and shows that there are two ways pride operates: there is Authentic Pride (feeling which motivates a desire for luxury purchases as a signal of accomplishment) and there is Hubristic Pride ("feeling that one derives from displaying those same products" or snobbery).

This study reveals that consumers purchase luxury brands' products in search of heightened feelings of accomplishment, however, other people perceive it as a signal of arrogance (rather than accomplishment).

Luxury Goods: Sign Of Arrogance or Accomplishment?

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

 

If you're selling luxury goods, there are a few tricks to add to your bag. As authors note, "luxury brands are sometimes positioned in a manner associating them with snobbery, for instance contrasting their wearers with laborers of lower status professions. Others, such as Rolex’s “A crown for every achievement”, suggests its product is a marker of accomplishment. Our research shows that although consumers indeed associate luxury goods with both accomplishment and snobbery, the former is more motivating in creating consumer desire. Beyond purveyors of luxury goods, the growing obsession among some consumers to acquire luxury brands, particularly when they cannot reasonably afford them, is also a concern. For those interested in helping consumers better regulate their expenditures and avoid additional debt, our results speak to the psychological factors that motivate consumers to buy products that may make their lives economically precarious."

*McFerran, Brent, Karl Aquino, and Jessica L. Tracy. Evidence For Two Facets of Pride In Consumption: Findings From Luxury Brands, Journal of Consumer Psychology: April, 2014. {Thanks for the material}

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

Sunday Video: Warm Your Customers' Hands and You'll Have Their Warm Hearts

All the self-respecting Marketer needs to know this.

Temperature shapes your consumers' purchase decisions and affect their spending.

Get ready for the sunny summer and plan your warth-filled winter.

Watch the video below and take a leaf out of my book.


 
P.S. When you’re done watching, leave a comment or Tweet me how did you like it. Can't wait to hear from you!

Friday Research: Make The Most Of Your Customer's Touch

When Will You Use This?  

Developing your online and offline marketing and sales strategies for tablets, touchscreens and touchpads.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

The role of touch is increasing: touchpad laptops and touchscreen tablets continue to spread among consumers. Earlier it has been observed that touching something creates a perception of psychological ownership and ownership creates a perception of increased value (it’s called endowment effect).

Current research* aims to explore the effects of varying touch-based interfaces on consumers. The study reveals that touchscreens create stronger psychological ownership over chosen products in online shopping scenarios (when compared to touchpads or mice).

Researchers highlight that touch-based devices like tablets can lead to higher product valuations when compared to traditional computers.

Welcome to The New World: Touchscreen Wending Machine

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

 

Touch-based interfaces are not newbies in the market: restaurants are testing tablets as ordering systems, tablets are becoming common in product showrooms. As this research notes, consumer interactions on tablets are quite different from the interactions on a traditional computer and you might want to include it into your marketing too:

 - Create special interactive space in your store or venue and allow customers to use their own personal touchscreen devices to connect with your brand, to browse the products, to get some special momentary offers

 - High resolution photos, bright colours, product from different angles, presentation videos, etc – use vivid stimulus to enhance your customers experience with their touchscreen devices.

*Brasel, S.A. & Gips, J., Tablets, Touchscreens, and Touchpads: How Varying Touch Interfaces Trigger Psychological Ownership and Endowment, Journal of Consumer Psychology: April (2014) {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with marketing on touchscreen devices? 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: Oh Yes, Sex Actually Sells To Women As Well

When Will You Use This?  

Planning and developing your marketing messages for women.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Previous literature have established that women’s economic decision making, contrary to men’s, is virtually insensitive to the presence of sexual cues.

Wrong!

The current research* investigates female economic decision making after having touched sexually laden stimuli. Researchers found that after touching boxers, women expressed a higher preference for a smaller immediate reward rather than a larger delayed monetary reward; the same treatment led female consumers to be less loss averse for money and food and to be willing to pay more for the rewards. The authors explain these findings by showing that the closeness of an appetitive (or sexually energizing) item activates Pavlovian consummatory responses.  Remember good old Pavlov's experiments with dogs? We are actually so similar in our primary responses.

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks  

  

While marketing for females customers, keep in mind that tactile sexual stimuli enhance women’s reward seeking decisions, and exposure to sexually rewarding cues can lead to a non-specific craving for all sorts of rewards like money, food or drinks.

*What a feeling! Touching sexually laden stimuli makes women seek rewards.Anouk Festjens, Sabrina Bruyneel, and Siegfried Dewitte, Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming.{Thanks for the material}
 
P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with "sex sells" type of 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: Oh, You Keep Me Warm And I'll Pay More!

When Will You Use This?  

Planning and managing your shopping environment.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Is it possible that temperature affects consumer spending?

Current research examines whether warmth (warmth of one’s surroundings or the tactile temperature of the product) can be a buying incentive in the shopping environment. The researchers found that warm temperatures increase individuals' valuation of products. Furthermore, people in a warm room were willing to pay more than those in a cool room for a majority of consumer items shown to them, and other participants were willing to pay 36% more for items when holding warm, versus cool, therapeutic pads.

The studies suggest that exposure to physical warmth activates the concept of emotional warmth, evoking positive reactions and increasing product valuation.

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks    

It’s obvious that environmental factors influence people’s decisions in the shopping situation. Physical warmth can shape consumers’ purchase decisions and here are a few ideas how you can use it for your benefit:

• Optimize your shop’s temperature

 • Heat boosts attractiveness of your product so offer your products warm but only where it is an enhancement to the product.

• If your product has generally cool temperature and normally shouldn’t be heated, give your customer some other warm bonus, like a cup of tea or coffee.  

*Zwebner, Yonat, Leonard Lee, and Jacob Goldenberg. "The Temperature Premium: Warm Temperatures Increase Product Valuation." Journal of Consumer Psychology (forthcoming) {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with warm and cold stimuli in the shopping environment? 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.

Sunday Video: Moon On The Stick - Marketing Trends of 2014

I think you are ready for this.

My last video in the series of  Top 5 Marketing Trends of 2014.

Hold your breath, dearest Marketer.

The fifth video is on Emotional Engagement. Fresh-baked, right here:

P.S. When you’re done watching, leave a comment or Tweet me how did you like it. Can't wait to hear from you!

P.P.S. Missed the fourth video? Check it here.

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!

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

Thursday Video: Welcome On Board, Flight #Sensory Marketing

I recently had a lovely flight experience with a pinch of sensory marketing.

This might be something you want to consider for your 2014 marketing plan.

Trying something new is a step forward, isn't it?

P.S. When you’re done watching, leave a comment or Tweet me how did you like it. Can't wait to hear from you!

P.P.S. I always talk very spontaneously so please be kind and take my pauses and tongue slips as natural reaction trying to be myself while imagining you :)