Scent, power & consumer behaviour

Madzharov et al writing in the January 2015 issue of the Journal of Marketing explain how ambient scents can affect consumers' spatial perceptions in retail environments. Their thesis, draws on the negative relationship between social density and perceived control. They also rely on existing research which shows that:

“Powerlessness is typically an aversive state that people work to change through activities and consumption that restore their sense of power. People in a state of low perceived power place greater value on products and attrib­ utes that can satisfy their active goal of power restoration (Rucker, Galinsky, and Dubois 2012)”

— Madzharov, Block & Morrin (2015:85)

Using an experiment with undergraduate students, the authors find that: 

“in a warm scented and perceptually more dense social environment people experience a greater need for power and an increased preference for and purchase of premium products and brands”

— Madzharov et al (2015:83)

How big will the Ricoh Theta be?

Well it attracts some significant coverage in the Ricoh annual report.

“RICOH THETA, launched in November 2013, trumped prevailing ideas that cameras merely shoot or record clipped scenes within a frame. This device captures two-dimensional images, incorporating all the space surrounding the photographer with just one click. ”

— https://www.ricoh.com/about/sustainability/report/pdf2014/all.pdf

The following video does not do a lot for me from a consumer perspective:

But the annual report does mention various other uses as well:

“RICOH THETA can be used to check on routine movements, behavior and actions of patients and the elderly, and steps can be taken immediately if something unusual or dangerous is dectected. In the safety and security fields, RICOH THETA could help in the early discovery or complete prevention of criminal activity through application in crime-prevention and surveillance systems.”

— https://www.ricoh.com/about/sustainability/report/pdf2014/all.pdf

What reviewers get in exchange from Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is a good example of an organisation relying on the free input of its users. The question is what do they get in return. This blogpost gives the answer:

“Maybe a week later, I received an email from Trip Advisor saying that someone found the review helpful.
Very nice touch. Without that email, I might not have gone back to the site or posted another review. Now I am starting to see some signs of encouragement.”

— http://www.jeffsetter.com/trip-advisor-travel-blog/

There are more reasons given, together withe examples of the emails and badges that Tripadvisor uses. 

Caspar's Disintermediated Mattresses

Caspar have a nice little video showing their disintermediated approach to selling mattresses. There is also another interesting aspect to their business model, which is their restriction of the product range to just one model - rather than taking a more differentiated approach. The video contains an explanation for this strategy.

Promoting modularity

Phonebloks promotes the concept of modularity, whose adoption by manufacturers could lead to a reduction in waste, as people update their existing consumer goods, rather than replacing them entirely.

23andme

23andme provide a genetic testing service and the advertisement below sounds innocuous indeed heart-warming enough. It's claimed that paying for the test (it's around US$100), enables individuals identify medical conditions.

The following paper in Scientific American, however, points to an unforeseen risk with the service. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/23andme-is-terrifying-but-not-for-reasons-fda/

Having paid for the test, individuals may not realise that 12andme then has access to the individual's data and this can be used both for research and marketing. To explain the nature of the risks in a pithy way - one of the founders of 23andme is married to one of the founders of Google. As the Scientific American article says:

It is a mechanism meant to be a front end for a massive information-gathering operation against an unwitting public.

Dynamic pricing

Premier Inn, a British mid-market hotel chain uses 'dynamic pricing. The video below contains a presentation by one of their executives about how this type of pricing is used and the benefits to the organisation of this pricing mechanism. The term revpar is used in the video and it refers to 'revenue per available room'.

The following video has another explanation of the concept:

High prices, affordability and social responsibility

Watching the commercial below you'd think that the company in question was all about enabling people to consume.

The small print below the cheery images, however, suggests that that may not necessarily be the case - well not after the consumer had paid 65% interest to the shop.

There are attendant questions around whether or not the products being sold represent utilitarian purchases or conspicuous consumption - for the consumer demographic shopping at Brighthouse. Arguments for the former classification are based on the idea that poorer people may get more of their entertainment at home and therefore may need large televisions more than the well-off.

The paradox of publicity

Kovacs and Starkey (2014) investigate how an increase in status can lead to less favourable quality evaluations. They study reader reviews on goodreads.com and focus on books that either won prestigious awards or were shortlisted. Prizewinning books 'attract more readers once an award has been announced and readers ratings tend to fall faster compared to books that were nominated, but did not win. The authors identify two causes for this effect. Winning a prize can attract a more diverse audience to the book and the fact that a book has won may be off-putting to some readers and thus elicit negative reviews.

Kovacs, B and Sharkey, A. J. (2014) The paradox of publicity: how awards can negatively affect the evaluation of quality. Administrative science quarterly 59 (1), 1-33.

How networking can make us feel dirty

This paper deals with an interesting and little considered aspect of networking, but one which on reflection is all too real. Whereas the positive effects of personal networking have been extensively covered, e.g. emotional support, this paper deals with individuals' more negative perceptions of professional-instrumental networking i.e. climbing the greasy pole. As the authors say, 

““A survey study of lawyers in a large North American business law firm offers correlational evidence that professionals who experience feelings of dirtiness from instrumental networking, relative to those who do not, tend to engage in it less frequently and have lower job performance”. ”

— Casciaro, T., Gino, F., Kouchaki, M. (2014) The contaminating effects of building instrumental ties: how networking can make us feel dirty. Administrative Science Quarterly. 59 (4) 705-735.

How LinkedIn turns us into products

There's the contemporary adage that, 'if you are not the customer, you are the product'. This video shows how LinkedIn turns its users into products for one of its paid-for services.

Customers for everyone

This is a good example of geographic segmentation. This start-up British washing machine manufacturer had initially targeted hotels in America and specifically those located in states where water is expensive, the choice seemed odd. The video explains the benefits of the washing machine and why customers located in certain geographic areas would have a greater need for it.

Emotions and sales promotion

One of the challenges with using sales promotion is that consumers may feel that they are simply being given a financial incentive to make a purchase and there is no emotional engagement with the brand.

This latest McDonalds promotion addresses that head-on:

Starting this week until Feb. 14, McDonald's will be accepting a new form of payment. An ad that aired during the Super Bowl promotes "Lovin,'" a program in which customers can buy their meals with selfies, calls to Mom, hugs, high fives, and more feel-good actions.

 

Priya Raghubir writing in the California Management Review explains the 'Affective route of promotion effects' in the following way:

“Affective influences of a price promotion are the feelings and emotions aroused by exposure to a promotion, purchase on a promotion, or missing a promotion. In the affective routes through which promotions affect sales, the positive effects are either general or specific. The general effects include the ambient effects of the shopping experience due to the hedonic entertainment and exploration effects as per CWL. More specific effects include the inferences consumers makes about themselves, such as feelings of being smart or lucky.24 Promotional communications can highlight these affective states in the manner in which they communicate a deal to a customer.”

— Raghubir, P., Inman, J. J. and Grande, H. (2004) The three faces of consumer promotions. California Management Review. 46:4

Tile

Attach it to things like keys and you can find them via a smartphone app. Phones owned by other users who also have Tile can help locate your stuff. So 'crowd-finding' becomes a positive network externality. But it does beg the question from prospective buyers as to how popular Tile is in their neighbourhood.

Precision

A product communicating brand values to do with precision, humorously.