Is Status Quo the Way to Go?
You’ve just been paid, and you’re feeling pretty flush what with all that cash in your pocket (so to speak). So the next time you’re in CVS, you go ahead and do it: you pass over the cavity-fighting toothpaste for the whitening toothpaste that’s going to turn your teeth into dazzling instruments of seduction!
If you’re thinking that doesn’t sound quite like a splurge, you’re right. For one thing, it’s subconscious.
I recently came across a University of Utah study that found that consumers’ motives—and their responses to advertising messages—change depending on “payday proximity.”
When we’ve just been paid, we’re more likely to buy “promotion-focused” products and services: those that ostensibly make our lives better in some way. Such as toothpaste with a whitening message. Or a slab of cake (fun!). As payday fades in the rearview, we’re more likely to buy “prevention-focused” things: those that preserve or maintain. Such as toothpaste with a cavity-fighting message. Or a double serving of bean sprouts (sensible!).
Just to be clear, we’re talking about the time that has passed since your last paycheck, not how much money you’ve actually got in the bank. And we’re talking about the underlying promise of the product, not how much it costs.
Admittedly, this information might be a bit tricky to make use of, since not everyone is on the same pay cycle. But I find myself wondering: In a down economy, with unemployment claims still rising and wages falling, is every day a prevention-focused day? Should we give more of our messaging a prevention slant?
We might even speculate that prevention-focused products/services and messaging always have an edge. The prevention focus, after all, sounds very much like loss aversion, the very well documented tendency to perceive loss much more strongly than gain. Losing what we have is really painful—every day.
Tip: In the study, consumers were asked whether they had “aspired to buy” (promotion) or felt they “ought to buy” (prevention) their purchases. Take that as your cue if you want to look at your marketing through the promotion/prevention lens. I aspire to/would like to buy this; it will improve my life, make it more fun: that’s promotion. I should buy this; this is the smart, responsible thing to do: that’s prevention.
Follow us on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
Subscribe
Biological Roots of Art and Design
It is not all subjective
The book talks art, but everything is applicable to design: what we prefer and why. He talks about balance, emotions, and ornamentation—my favorite. Charlie explains why the mind prefers variety in unity, which is to say we are attracted to what we know and like, but there has to be enough variation to keep us interested.
Scientific American Mind has a similar feature in its latest issue called “Thinking by Design.” Here we learn that people prefer:
• Big objects to small ones
• Round forms to sharp ones
• Symmetry
• Prototypes as the most attractive, but “average” examples can easily bore us, which gets back to Charlie’s “variety in unity.”
• More novelty within an area of expertise–less so with nonspecialists (an argument for knowing your audiences)
• Looks…at the beginning, but visual appeal is less important after a month of ownership. This is a reminder for businesses to play up the non-visual aspects of their products to help combat buyer’s remorse, or a consumers doubts after a purchase.
All of this is to say the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it is not as subjective as we might think, or want, it to be.