Consumers' ability to exert control or
regulate their attention is taxed every day. Gruelling work, demanding
relationships or even following a diet can conspire to leave consumers rundown.
In the academic world, prior research has shown that efforts to exert control in
one area of life impair subsequent efforts to exert control in other areas of
life. Psychologists Kathleen Vohs (University of Minnesota) and Roy Baumeister
(Florida State University) put a name on this common phenomenon: depletion.
Conventional wisdom might dictate that it is best to advertise to bright-eyed
and bushy-tailed consumers. One goal of advertising is often the precious
encoding of a product's features. If consumers are feeling mentally and
physically wiped out, one might suspect that their ability to grasp advertising
messages would be hindered. With this in mind, advertisers face the
challenge to find situations where consumers have their full faculties available
for processing advertising messages, while avoiding situations where their
resources have been taxed.
In recent work from a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Marketing Research, my
colleagues Echo Wen Wan (University of Hong Kong), Zakary Tormala (Stanford
University) and Joshua Clarkson (University of Florida) and I examined the
possibility that depletion could actually benefit advertisers. Our
reasoning: If consumers who were depleted actually did choose to devote their
precious resources to attending to an advertising message, they might become
more certain of their attitude toward a product.
Here's our logic. When individuals are worn out, engaging in subsequent
tasks requiring more effort should be even more straining than if they were at
the top of their game. Depleted, compared to non-depleted, consumers
should feel that they have invested even more of their resources in subsequent
tasks. As a result of perceiving to have invested more effort into
processing an advertisement, we reasoned that depleted consumers should feel
more certain of the attitude they formed. Furthermore, being more certain
of a favourable attitude should lead to a greater inclination to buy the
product.
To test this idea, participants first completed a task that was designed to
either create a state of depletion or not. In the non-depleted condition,
participants wrote about whatever entered their minds. In contrast, the
depleted-condition participants were told they could write whatever thoughts
entered their mind except those of a white bear. Prior research by
Kathleen Vohs and her colleagues has shown suppressing thoughts can reduce a
person's regulatory resources. Next, participants were given 30 seconds to
read a print ad for a new snack. We assessed participants' attitudes,
certainty and choice to purchase a sample product.
Both groups of participants expressed equally favourable attitudes toward the
products. But the "depleted" participants reported being more certain of
their attitudes and, as a result, were significantly more likely to express
interest in purchasing a sample. Subsequent experiments showed that the
increased certainty resulted from depleted participants feeling that they had
been more thorough in processing the message. A final experiment
demonstrated that if consumers respond negatively to an ad, they become more
certain of their negative attitude.
For media planners, this work suggests that scheduling advertising when
consumers are likely to be rundown would work well, assuming the creative can
pull consumers in. Of course, the question then becomes, how do you
identify when a target segment is likely to be fatigued? Bear in mind that
consumers are likely to be more depleted in the evening as opposed to the
morning. In addition, certain times of the year might be naturally associated
with consumer depletion, such as tax time or finals week for college students.
Here are some examples of when this strategy might be effective. First, let's
say Ford is planning on premiering one of its new 2011 truck models.
Should the brand advertise at the beginning, middle or end of a sporting event?
One concern among advertisers might be that consumers will be worn out by the
end of a sporting event. But these findings would suggest that - if the creative
execution is compelling enough - Ford should value later advertising in the
event more than earlier advertising.
Indeed, some brands, such as Apple's iPod, have already demonstrated that they
can successfully generate creative and attention-grabbing campaigns, signalling
an opportunity to use consumer depletion to their favour. Apple might
ironically benefit from increasing advertising during, as opposed to after, tax
time, when consumers might be depleted from financial ruminations.
Finally, during political campaigns, it is necessary that voters not only like a
candidate, but that they are sufficiently confident to vote in favour of the
candidate. Choosing to advertise later in the evening, when consumers
might be fatigued, could increase certainty and, provided the consumers'
response is favourable, increase consumers' likelihood of voting. Even the
difference between advertising at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. might provide the
knowledgeable marketer with a strategic advantage.
If advertisers can engage consumers during these times, either through strong
creative and/or message relevance, consumers might become more certain of their
evaluations and thus more motivated to purchase. Of course, the challenge
is to make sure depleted consumers can be engaged. One possible solution
is to use integrated marketing efforts such as broadcast media to create enough
interest for consumers to visit a website, even in a depleted state, where
consumers could then work through information in a self-paced fashion.
Internet-based advertising might also be sensitive to the time when different
types of websites are visited. For example, websites on which ads receive
only casual attention might be preferred if they have high traffic in the
morning, when consumers are still feeling fresh, but websites with advertising
that is likely to be engaging might be preferred if they have high traffic in
the evening, when consumers are at the end of their day.
This research also reinforces the value of attitude certainty as a marketing
metric. Despite holding similar attitudes, participants who were certain
of their attitudes were more likely to select the option of purchasing the
product. Indeed, reducing consumers' certainty in a competitor's brand
might be a first step in the conversion process. At the same time,
increasing the certainty among one's existing users might be a strategy for
strengthening brand loyalty. Given the added value of attitude certainty,
advertisers should consider it as another tool for assessing advertising
effectiveness.
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