Nowadays people avoid meeting others. We could buy products through mobile phones and order food at screens inside restaurants. A recent virus outbreak even encourages us to stop shaking hands with strangers.
Ironically, the more we avoid meeting others, I believe, the easier others sell their products to us. When I visited Prezzemolo & Vitale, a local grocery store in Notting Hill in London, an employee brought a lump of meat on a board, cut it into thin slices, and passed them over to passers by. Interestingly, most of those who tried samples bought several pieces of different types of meat. I was not exception.
When he looked at me with a slice of meat, I inferred, he made an effort to approach me. This inference is rarely made when I stand in front of machines such as mobile phones or kiosks. I conclude that when we meet people and machines, we may have different inference: people make effort to come close to us whereas machines do not. This inferred effort may play a critical role in determining our next behavior such as buying a product.
This research shows that consumers reward firms for extra effort. More specifically, a series of three laboratory experiments shows that when firms exert extra effort in making or displaying their products, consumers reward them by increasing their willingness to pay, store choice, and overall evaluations, even if the actual quality of the products is not improved. This rewarding process is defined broadly as general reciprocity. Consistent with attribution theory, the rewarding of generally directed effort is mediated by feelings of gratitude. When consumers infer that effort is motivated by persuasion, however, they no longer feel gratitude and do not reward high-effort firms.
Effort not only dictates our behavior. It helps us enjoy what we do.
In four studies in which consumers assembled IKEA boxes, folded origami, and built sets of Legos, we demonstrate and investigate boundary conditions for the IKEA effect-the increase in valuation of self-made products. Participants saw their amateurish creations as similar in value to experts’ creations, and expected others to share their opinions. We show that labor leads to love only when labor results in successful completion of tasks; when participants built and then destroyed their creations, or failed to complete them, the IKEA effect dissipated. Finally, we show that labor increases valuation for both “do-it-yourselfers” and novices.
2 thoughts on “If people avoid meeting with others, do marketers sell products online only?”
I chose this post at the beginning of the semester when preparing for self-introduction. I will talk about the changes in my thoughts then and now.
First of all, this post was written in 2020, when social distancing due to COVID-19 began. The author of the post said that people at the time were reluctant to meet other people due to the outbreak of the virus. Ironically, however, he said he thinks the more people avoid meeting with others, the easier it would be to sell their products. This is because people value more on the efforts of sellers who meet face-to-face interactions. He argued that the direct promotion of goods by sellers has a greater impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions compared to ordering through machines, as machines such as mobile phones and kiosks cannot convey the ‘effort’ put into selling. In other words, he claimed that consumers’ desire to appreciate or acknowledge the seller’s efforts in approaching them significantly influences their decision to purchase goods.
At the time, I did not agree with this argument. I thought that if consumers were more likely to buy things offline, it was just because they had only one option. I considered ordering through machines as online orders such as “Coupang” and “배달의 민족,” but when ordering online, I thought it would delay consumers’ choices because there are countless comparison products unlike offline. There may also be situations in which you wander in too many options and eventually give up the choice itself. On the other hand, I thought that ‘offline selection’ made consumer more likely to be purchased because other options are blocked when standing in front of a specific product or in front of a specific seller, not especially with the seller’s efforts in mind.
Second, if people buy goods because of the seller’s efforts, the online commercial area where the seller’s efforts are unknown should be smaller than offline. But the online transaction rate has increased significantly since COVID-19. This result led consumers to think that when purchasing goods, they considered ‘online convenience’ more than the seller’s ‘effort to approach’. And rather, I opposed the author’s ocpinion because I felt that the seller’s approaching behavior was a burden to consumers, so I thought that I preferred non-face-to-face orders such as mobile phones or kiosks order.
However, after taking the ‘marketing’ class, this idea changed. When learning about the field of “behavioral economics” during marketing classes, it was interesting that the “effort mechanism” of behavioral economics was specially applied well in Korea, consistent with the contents of the poster above. After learning to this part, I could recall my experience. While eating in Insa-dong and looking around the street, the owner of ice cream store talked to my party. He introduced the ice cream, “ice cream is delicious, the color is pretty, and you become Instagram celeb when you eat this.” And I was naturally taking out the card for calculation. Normally, I would have thought I purchased it because I was originally planning to eat dessert. But because I learned the mechanism of behavioral economics, I realized that I didn’t exactly consider ‘the store’s ice cream’ in the consideration of my dessert at the time. In other words, it can be seen that the decision was made by accepting the efforts of the owner of the store when I did not predict what dessert I would eat. Through this experience, I was able to look at my thought at the beginning of the semester from a different perspective.
To explain more about the opinions at the beginning of the semester, it seems that the focus was on dividing purchases into “online” and “offline” because I didn’t know behavioral economics at that time. In the past I thought that other options were easier to buy because they were blocked when purchasing offline, but now I find that this opinion itself has already left only one option according to the behavioral economics mechanism.
The field of ‘Promotion’ that I learned during the marketing class came to mind. Personal selling, one of the types of “Promotion,” seemed to reflect a lot of the “effort mechanism” of behavioral economics. I learned that personal selling, along with advertising, account for about 80% of Promotions, but recently, I wondered if personal selling were less important at market than before. This is because through COVID-19, prices and labor costs have risen significantly, and more stores use kiosks than employees, and non-face-to-face orders have increased to the extent that it is more difficult to see kiosks in almost all stores. In March 2023, Lotte Members Lime’s “Kiosk Survey” also found that teenagers and thirties prefer kiosk orders. Therefore, I thought about the difference between a store that sells products non-face-to-face and a store that sells them face-to-face.
I thought kiosks were effective only in franchise stores that were mostly aimed at purchasing products, not at fast food stores or stores. For example, fast food restaurants and franchise cafes. Already, places where the brand itself is strong tended to value customer convenience rather than bonding with customers, and in the case of so-called “Instagram sentiment” cafes and prop shops, customers thought to sell face-to-face to not only purchase products but also enjoy and use the atmosphere of the store itself. This is because personal selling can increase buyers’ intimacy with the brand and store and form royalty. Pop-up stores, which are often seen in Korea recently, are just looked once around if there is no interaction with employees, but if the employee greets them and acts with a simple explanation, you can get to know the brand more and feel familiar. So, in order to give intimacy to people who use the Pop up store, I thought that the store that mainly focuses on ‘experience’ as well as exhibitions was opened.
In conclusion, depending on the effort mechanism of behavioral marketing, there is a tendency to reflect the efforts of sellers when purchasing products, so it can be seen that the influence of human sales still accounts for a large proportion. In addition, while writing the Reaction Paper, I realized that the marketing I encounter in the market cannot be fully explained by one concept. I still don’t know much about behavioral economics or marketing, so it was difficult to figure out what mechanisms worked for the cases I knew entirely. However, I found that the influence on face-to-face sales, which I had not previously felt, was much stronger than I thought. It is likely that we will look at how each company and store uses these aspects in the future. Forward I make up my mind to study more about marketing and I want to do marketing that benefits both people and businesses.
“A Small Effort Towards Customers Can Contribute to Sales”
Virtual services has increased. Consequently, people now prefer to order using kiosks in stores or purchase items through smartphone apps rather than face-to-face services. Communicating with an employee requires emotional investment, whereas interacting with a machine does not. This is why I believe people have recently been favoring machine-assisted purchases. However, according to a post, it is stated that even in situations where contactless services are preferred, a small effort by employees can actually promote purchases. I strongly agree with this view because of a personal experience I had. Recently, a major sale event started at Olive Young, a large beauty store in Korea. As someone interested in cosmetics, I visited the store over several days. On the first day, I selected the promotional products through the app beforehand and purchased only those items when I visited the store. On the second day, I visited the store spontaneously, but was startled to see my basket filled with too many products, so I put some of them back. The last day was a bit special. While testing various foundations, a store employee approached me and asked, “What is your skin type?” Although I was a bit surprised, I explained my skin type to her because of her kind demeanor, and she described the products she personally used at work. Although I didn’t really need a foundation, I felt like I should buy the product she recommended.
After experiencing this, I became more empathetic after reading the post. In addition, I started to think that this psychological phenomenon was not just my thing, and I began to wonder about it. And while researching ‘the psychology of reciprocity for a specific behavior’, I came across Robert B. Cialdini’s book, Impact: Psychology of Persuasion’. According to this book, the principle of reciprocity makes people want to repay the favor they received. Cialdini explains that this principle is a psychological phenomenon that is deeply rooted in us and difficult to change through socialization. It can be explained that the small favor of an employee leads to a form of purchase in return by instilling a sense of mission in the customer.
I believe the principle of reciprocity can be used in product marketing. I would like to introduce Pulmuone’s Earth Meal as an example. In the domestic vegan market, vegetarians had limited options. There were hardly any vegan products available, and it was difficult to find vegan options at franchise restaurants. Thus, the only way for domestic vegetarians to enjoy consumption was to share delicious vegan restaurants or recipes through communities and make the food themselves. Pulmuone identified this inconvenience for vegetarians and launched a vegan meal kit. Pulmuone’s goal was ‘to make vegan food taste good.’ They didn’t just create vegan products; they aimed to incorporate the goals that vegetarians aspire to into their products. Pulmuone’s efforts elicited a positive response from the vegetarian community, increasing its market share in the vegan market. Even afterward, when launching new products, Pulmuone often considered vegetarians’ needs, leading to successful market responses for each new product. Vegetarians are very discerning, carefully choosing products to maintain their principles. Outsiders might frame this behavior as ‘vegetarians being picky.’ Contrary to this, Pulmuone understood and met vegetarians’ needs. I believe this effort by Pulmuone prompted a reciprocal reaction from vegetarian consumers, leading to the growth of the vegan food market.
I chose this post at the beginning of the semester when preparing for self-introduction. I will talk about the changes in my thoughts then and now.
First of all, this post was written in 2020, when social distancing due to COVID-19 began. The author of the post said that people at the time were reluctant to meet other people due to the outbreak of the virus. Ironically, however, he said he thinks the more people avoid meeting with others, the easier it would be to sell their products. This is because people value more on the efforts of sellers who meet face-to-face interactions. He argued that the direct promotion of goods by sellers has a greater impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions compared to ordering through machines, as machines such as mobile phones and kiosks cannot convey the ‘effort’ put into selling. In other words, he claimed that consumers’ desire to appreciate or acknowledge the seller’s efforts in approaching them significantly influences their decision to purchase goods.
At the time, I did not agree with this argument. I thought that if consumers were more likely to buy things offline, it was just because they had only one option. I considered ordering through machines as online orders such as “Coupang” and “배달의 민족,” but when ordering online, I thought it would delay consumers’ choices because there are countless comparison products unlike offline. There may also be situations in which you wander in too many options and eventually give up the choice itself. On the other hand, I thought that ‘offline selection’ made consumer more likely to be purchased because other options are blocked when standing in front of a specific product or in front of a specific seller, not especially with the seller’s efforts in mind.
Second, if people buy goods because of the seller’s efforts, the online commercial area where the seller’s efforts are unknown should be smaller than offline. But the online transaction rate has increased significantly since COVID-19. This result led consumers to think that when purchasing goods, they considered ‘online convenience’ more than the seller’s ‘effort to approach’. And rather, I opposed the author’s ocpinion because I felt that the seller’s approaching behavior was a burden to consumers, so I thought that I preferred non-face-to-face orders such as mobile phones or kiosks order.
However, after taking the ‘marketing’ class, this idea changed. When learning about the field of “behavioral economics” during marketing classes, it was interesting that the “effort mechanism” of behavioral economics was specially applied well in Korea, consistent with the contents of the poster above. After learning to this part, I could recall my experience. While eating in Insa-dong and looking around the street, the owner of ice cream store talked to my party. He introduced the ice cream, “ice cream is delicious, the color is pretty, and you become Instagram celeb when you eat this.” And I was naturally taking out the card for calculation. Normally, I would have thought I purchased it because I was originally planning to eat dessert. But because I learned the mechanism of behavioral economics, I realized that I didn’t exactly consider ‘the store’s ice cream’ in the consideration of my dessert at the time. In other words, it can be seen that the decision was made by accepting the efforts of the owner of the store when I did not predict what dessert I would eat. Through this experience, I was able to look at my thought at the beginning of the semester from a different perspective.
To explain more about the opinions at the beginning of the semester, it seems that the focus was on dividing purchases into “online” and “offline” because I didn’t know behavioral economics at that time. In the past I thought that other options were easier to buy because they were blocked when purchasing offline, but now I find that this opinion itself has already left only one option according to the behavioral economics mechanism.
The field of ‘Promotion’ that I learned during the marketing class came to mind. Personal selling, one of the types of “Promotion,” seemed to reflect a lot of the “effort mechanism” of behavioral economics. I learned that personal selling, along with advertising, account for about 80% of Promotions, but recently, I wondered if personal selling were less important at market than before. This is because through COVID-19, prices and labor costs have risen significantly, and more stores use kiosks than employees, and non-face-to-face orders have increased to the extent that it is more difficult to see kiosks in almost all stores. In March 2023, Lotte Members Lime’s “Kiosk Survey” also found that teenagers and thirties prefer kiosk orders. Therefore, I thought about the difference between a store that sells products non-face-to-face and a store that sells them face-to-face.
I thought kiosks were effective only in franchise stores that were mostly aimed at purchasing products, not at fast food stores or stores. For example, fast food restaurants and franchise cafes. Already, places where the brand itself is strong tended to value customer convenience rather than bonding with customers, and in the case of so-called “Instagram sentiment” cafes and prop shops, customers thought to sell face-to-face to not only purchase products but also enjoy and use the atmosphere of the store itself. This is because personal selling can increase buyers’ intimacy with the brand and store and form royalty. Pop-up stores, which are often seen in Korea recently, are just looked once around if there is no interaction with employees, but if the employee greets them and acts with a simple explanation, you can get to know the brand more and feel familiar. So, in order to give intimacy to people who use the Pop up store, I thought that the store that mainly focuses on ‘experience’ as well as exhibitions was opened.
In conclusion, depending on the effort mechanism of behavioral marketing, there is a tendency to reflect the efforts of sellers when purchasing products, so it can be seen that the influence of human sales still accounts for a large proportion. In addition, while writing the Reaction Paper, I realized that the marketing I encounter in the market cannot be fully explained by one concept. I still don’t know much about behavioral economics or marketing, so it was difficult to figure out what mechanisms worked for the cases I knew entirely. However, I found that the influence on face-to-face sales, which I had not previously felt, was much stronger than I thought. It is likely that we will look at how each company and store uses these aspects in the future. Forward I make up my mind to study more about marketing and I want to do marketing that benefits both people and businesses.
“A Small Effort Towards Customers Can Contribute to Sales”
Virtual services has increased. Consequently, people now prefer to order using kiosks in stores or purchase items through smartphone apps rather than face-to-face services. Communicating with an employee requires emotional investment, whereas interacting with a machine does not. This is why I believe people have recently been favoring machine-assisted purchases. However, according to a post, it is stated that even in situations where contactless services are preferred, a small effort by employees can actually promote purchases. I strongly agree with this view because of a personal experience I had. Recently, a major sale event started at Olive Young, a large beauty store in Korea. As someone interested in cosmetics, I visited the store over several days. On the first day, I selected the promotional products through the app beforehand and purchased only those items when I visited the store. On the second day, I visited the store spontaneously, but was startled to see my basket filled with too many products, so I put some of them back. The last day was a bit special. While testing various foundations, a store employee approached me and asked, “What is your skin type?” Although I was a bit surprised, I explained my skin type to her because of her kind demeanor, and she described the products she personally used at work. Although I didn’t really need a foundation, I felt like I should buy the product she recommended.
After experiencing this, I became more empathetic after reading the post. In addition, I started to think that this psychological phenomenon was not just my thing, and I began to wonder about it. And while researching ‘the psychology of reciprocity for a specific behavior’, I came across Robert B. Cialdini’s book, Impact: Psychology of Persuasion’. According to this book, the principle of reciprocity makes people want to repay the favor they received. Cialdini explains that this principle is a psychological phenomenon that is deeply rooted in us and difficult to change through socialization. It can be explained that the small favor of an employee leads to a form of purchase in return by instilling a sense of mission in the customer.
I believe the principle of reciprocity can be used in product marketing. I would like to introduce Pulmuone’s Earth Meal as an example. In the domestic vegan market, vegetarians had limited options. There were hardly any vegan products available, and it was difficult to find vegan options at franchise restaurants. Thus, the only way for domestic vegetarians to enjoy consumption was to share delicious vegan restaurants or recipes through communities and make the food themselves. Pulmuone identified this inconvenience for vegetarians and launched a vegan meal kit. Pulmuone’s goal was ‘to make vegan food taste good.’ They didn’t just create vegan products; they aimed to incorporate the goals that vegetarians aspire to into their products. Pulmuone’s efforts elicited a positive response from the vegetarian community, increasing its market share in the vegan market. Even afterward, when launching new products, Pulmuone often considered vegetarians’ needs, leading to successful market responses for each new product. Vegetarians are very discerning, carefully choosing products to maintain their principles. Outsiders might frame this behavior as ‘vegetarians being picky.’ Contrary to this, Pulmuone understood and met vegetarians’ needs. I believe this effort by Pulmuone prompted a reciprocal reaction from vegetarian consumers, leading to the growth of the vegan food market.
(https://www.pulmuone.co.kr/en/main/Index.do)