This is the third in a series of “Happy Hour” events produced by the Creative Council on bringing researchers, creatives, and strategists closer together. Rory Sutherland, a strong proponent of behavioral science, shared his perspective on the ways that behavioral science thinking can potentially unlock solutions to creative and marketing problems that might not be apparent to “rational” business thinkers.
Member Only Access
A product’s shape, packaging or logo contributes to consumer understanding and reactions to that product, previous research has found. But what impression does the perceived weight of a product convey and how can this be used for advertising and marketing purposes? Researchers Priya Raghubir, Lu Yang and Dengfeng Yan looked into this and discovered that consumers use a stability heuristic for weight judgements. Shorter, broader objects are judged to be heavier and thus are considered more stable. And when it comes to food items, weight also plays on such things as calorie assessment.
Today, advertisers have the power to control media scheduling and increase the frequency of individual-level display-advertising exposures. But is it always a good idea to draw consumer’s attention this way? The popularity of ad-blocking software suggests not.
Member Only Access
Consumers increasingly make purchase decisions based on online product reviews and rankings. Meanwhile, advertising is often designed to inform about a product or service’s benefits. Within both of these scenarios, consumers learn how to dovetail new understandings into what they already know about a brand, product or service. In this study, researchers looked to quantify the impact prior information (e.g. information obtained from past purchases or use) on consumer search and purchase decisions.
