Influencing Consumer Decisions
Influencing Consumer Decisions
By Silas Cutler
The ways in which consumers are influenced are countless. Many times, consumers aren’t even aware that they’ve been influenced to make a certain decision. From the every-day interactions with advertisements, to the creation of retail experiences, to the ways in which we present choices, all of these things influence consumers in one way or another.
Situation influence is loosely defined as temporary conditions that affect how buyers behave. These conditions could include things such physical factors, time factors, social factors, and many other things. In a retail setting, this can be particularly intriguing. Atmospherics, or the way a physical retail environment is manipulated to create a specific mood or response, is a little thought about topics for consumers, but it can have some big implications for businesses. If a retail store’s atmospherics don’t align with its perceived image by shoppers, the store will suffer.
There are countless different ways in which consumers can be influenced in a retail environment. For example, cool colors, such as blue, increase customer satisfaction whereas warm colors, such as orange, can create feelings of excitement and draw a customer's attention to certain areas. Even what one can’t see is influencing decisions. Environmental fragrancing is a billion-dollar industry that creates ambient scents. Many studies have shown connections between scents and time spent in a store, money spent, and intent to return.
Music is perhaps one of the biggest aspects of atmospherics, possibly because it is the easiest atmospheric choice to implement and tweak. Take for example a restaurant. A 1986 study by R. E. Milliman titled “The Influence of Background Music on the Behavior of Restaurant Patrons” concluded that slow-tempo music increased the amount of time patrons spent at a table. This, in turn, also increased the amount of high-margin beverages purchased from the bar. While slow-tempo music might seem like the best choice for restaurants, restaurants that operate with high customer turnover might wish to implement fast-paced music. Music in retail settings can be crucial to sales. Studies show that playing music that matches the target market can increase satisfaction, enjoyment, time spent, and perceived service quality.
Of course, the physical aspects to an environment are not the only ways in which consumers can be influenced. A book titled Nudge by economist Richard Thaler and Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein begins by presenting a simple scenario. A school cafeteria manager has to decide how to arrange some snacks, both healthy and unhealthy. Sales data indicates that whatever items are placed at eye level will have the greatest sales. The manager then must decide how to arrange the items. Should they be arranged to encourage the most healthy choice or should they be arranged to generate the most revenue for the cafeteria? This type of decision creation is called choice architecture. It is another way in which consumers can be influenced. One interesting bit that relates to retail environments was the invent of the credit card. Here’s an except from the book:
“When credit cards started to become popular forms of payment in the 1970s, some retail merchants wanted to charge different prices to their cash and credit card customers. (Credit card companies typically charge retailers 1 percent of each sale.) To prevent this, credit card companies adopted rules that forbade their retailers from charging different prices to cash and credit customers. However, when a bill was introduced in Congress to outlaw such rules, the credit card lobby turned its attention to language. Its preference was that if a company charged different prices to cash and credit customers, the credit price should be considered the “normal” (default) price and the cash price a discount—rather than the alternative of making the cash price the usual price and charging a surcharge to credit card customers.”
This is an example of “framing” or how something is presented. This is a great example of how consumers are influenced because choices depend, in part, on the way in which problems are stated. By simply changing the language associated with credit purchases, consumers have fundamentally changed the way they shop (with their cards, of course).
The lesson here is that influence is all around us. Whether it’s your favorite song playing in a store, a familiar scent that entices you to make a purchase, or the items at eye level that you purchase, the influences around us are not always noticeable. Clearly, however, they play an integral role in the way retail experiences are shaped. As online shopping becomes increasingly popular, brick and mortar locations will need to further analyze their atmospherics and create reasons for shoppers to visit the physical locations. Regardless of where consumers are being influenced, it is clear that influence will be consistently present.
All information in this piece was obtained from Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy, Twelfth Edition (Hawkins & Mothersbaugh) unless otherwise indicated.
