Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [95]
Evidence on the effects of asking customers to generate reasons to buy
This lab experiment supports the value of asking for easy-to-think-of reasons to take the action suggested in an ad:
Subjects who were asked to provide easy reasons for buying gave higher product ratings. Each of 160 male subjects saw one of four print ads, each headlined, “BMW or Mercedes?” Some ads asked subjects to develop either one or ten reasons for buying a BMW. Other ads asked subjects to develop either one or ten reasons not to buy a BMW. For the easy task (generate one reason), 49 percent of the subjects attempted the task, while only 30 percent did so for the difficult task. Even when subjects did not develop an entire list, they saw that the task was either easy (developing one reason) or difficult (developing ten reasons). In the easy task, their evaluations of BMWs were more favorable than when they were given the difficult task (5.8 versus 4.2 on a seven-point scale). When asked for reasons against buying, their ratings for BMWs were less favorable for the easy task at 4.5 than for the difficult task at 5.7 (Wänke, Bohner, and Jurkowitsch 1997).
When people create their own reasons, they find them to be more convincing than the reasons generated by others. There is much research to support this conclusion (e.g., Greenwald and Albert 1968).
5.11.2. Consider asking customers to imagine their satisfaction with a product
This principle might be useful for high-involvement products; otherwise, people are unlikely to devote much effort to the suggestion. In addition, it is best suited for products that are new to the target market.
Rather than asking customers to think about making a choice, encourage them to first think about their potential satisfaction with a product, such as how happy they will be in their time-share condominium in Barbados.
It is common for people to be overly optimistic about how much they will enjoy a new product. For example, when thinking about purchasing a sailboat, most people will be optimistic about the number of days they will use it.
If customers have difficulty imagining how the product would lead to a satisfying experience, and many do, the request to imagine can have a negative effect on product preferences. The solution would seem to be to make it easy to imagine the product experience—and test your ad to ensure that this is so. In addition, I suspect that the product should be new or different, so people have not previously thought much about this experience.
Evidence on the effects of imagining satisfaction
Consider this study on what was, at the time, a new product. Field experiments provided stories about cable TV with residents of two middle-class neighborhoods. This appeal included:
Take a moment and think of how, instead of spending money on the babysitter and gas, and then having to put up with the hassles of “going out,” you will be able to spend your time at home, with your family, alone, or with your friends.
Compared with the control group (who were not asked anything), those asked to imagine future situations were twice as likely to sign up for cable TV service (Gregory, Cialdini, and Carpenter 1982).
Here is another high-involvement decision that is new to the subjects:
Imagine that you have just graduated and are moving to the city where you have accepted a job. You would like to rent an apartment and are considering the following: A: Rent: $490 per month; view: poor—back of another building; atmosphere: a bit dark and dreary, or B: Rent: $810 per month; view: excellent— cityscape and river; atmosphere: bright and sunny.
When people made a choice quickly, they picked alternative