Hot shoppers reject cute kid and animals
How well advertising works on you may depend a lot on how warm you are. That’s the finding from new research from Massey University, which has shown the effectiveness of advertising that tugs on the heart strings is closely linked to how warm or cold the viewer is.
Massey University’s Valentyna Melnyk, conducted the research alongside two colleagues from the University of Cologne. She said there was lots of evidence that emotionally warm advertising appeals - such as campaigns that show families and the reuniting of cute kids, and cold appeals - such as the shock tactics of drinkdriving campaigns, could both be effective.
But she said there was little research to show how the body temperature of the person viewing the advertising affected their response.
Her research used laboratory experiments and field data. It concluded that when a person was feeling cold, they would view emotionally cold ads less favourably. But when someone was hot, they would have less time for emotionally warm appeals.
Melnyk said it was unrealistic to suggest shops alter their temperature to change consumer behaviour, but she said marketers could still use the research to good effect.
She said businesses could choose cold advertising appeals in summer and opt for warm ones in winter.
Social marketing campaigns should also be tweaked for the seasons, she said. ‘‘Speeding campaigns often use fear, but things like that in winter would almost be counterproductive. People would try to ignore it.’’
In Germany, marketers had adapted well with a winter antispeeding campaign that instead of depicting the consequences of an accident, featured a woman lovingly encouraging her husband to take his time driving home.
Melnyk said even the colder aisles of a supermarket could be affected.
She said shoppers would respond to refrigerated goods more favourably if they displayed emotionally warm images on their packaging.
Greg Harford, spokesman for Retail NZ, said it was not something retailers had thought much about.