Please Squeeze the Charmin

In an earlier post, we mentioned once a consumer touches a product, it increases the likelihood of its sale. Now researchers are saying that touching a product also increases the amount of money customers are willing to pay for the item, and that even imagining how it feels can have a positive affect on sales.

A recent article from Time Magazine explains why "Don't Squeeze the Charmin" might have been the worst marketing message of all-time:

“According to a new study to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of
Consumer Research, consumers who touch products in the aisles will pay more
money for them than those who keep their hands off the merchandise. So in the 21
years Procter & Gamble ran the iconic television advertisements for its
Charmin toilet paper brand, Mr. Whipple, the uptight grocer with a secret
squeezing fetish, should have encouraged his bubbly shoppers to fondle
away.”

Behavioral economists have labeled this phenomenon the "endowment effect" which posits that consumers value a product more once they own it. "When you touch something, [it] stirs up an emotional reaction - 'yeah, I like the feel of it, this can be mine',” says Suzanne Shu, a marketing professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, and co-author of the study. “And that emotion can cause you to buy something you never would have bought if you hadn't touched it." Joann Peck, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin's business school and the study's other co-author, describes herself as an expert in haptics, the science of touch. "Touching something gives you that little sense of control," she says, "and that alone can increase your feeling of ownership."

Just another way in which Sensory Research can help you gain an edge over the competition.