the Power of Free Samples
Here is a question that has bothered me for quite a long time. Why have I always found myself in possession of unwanted beauty products or magazine subscriptions? As long as I can recall, I have always been an easy mark for the pitches of peddlers, sales operators, and fund-raisers. Is this because I’m really an easy push-over or there are some super effective strategies to persuade people say YES and end up buying things we don’t really need/like?
On Tuesday’s class,Elaine mentioned the effectiveness of various kinds of free samples offered by Costco as a method to influence consumers’ purchase decision. Waite a minute, I was offered a cute little pocket book when I subscribed the magazine called Golf for the whole year (I’ve never played golf in my entire life). It seems that almost every time when I felt the pressure that I probably should buy this product, there was always a nice salesperson with a sample (which sometimes is not attractive to me at all) saying “take it. it’s just a gift for you”. There must be some connections between those free samples and the successful sale.
As we discussed on Tuesday’s class, consumer decision making process can be influenced by psychological factors such as motives, attitudes, and perceptions. Those internal factors shape the way consumes receive marketer’s message. However, experienced compliance practitioners understand people’s mind so well that they know how to trigger and engage consumers in the way of thinking they want. In Dr. Robert B. Cialdini’s super interesting book called Influence: the psychology of persuasion, he described the rule of reciprocation. In effect, we are often prompted to repay what someone has given us. When given the pocket book, I felt indebted to the giver. This indebtedness made me feel compelled to cancel the debt even when it against better judgement. I told myself maybe I should learn golf to cover the fact that I didn’t want the magazine. The rule of reciprocation assures that someone can give something away first, with the relative assurance that this initial gift will eventually be repaid–nothing is lost.
