Taste sensation: Ads engaging all senses more effective
Corporations spend billions of dollars each year on food advertising - Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, and McDonald’s each spent more than $1 billion in advertising in 2007. A new study suggests those advertisers are missing out if their ads only mention taste and ignore our other senses.
Naturally, most food ads mention the taste of the food being marketed. But researchers Ryan S. Elder and Aradhna Krishna (both of the University of Michigan) explain that taste is generated from multiple senses (smell, texture, sight, and sound) and ads mentioning these senses will have a significant impact on taste over ads mentioning taste alone.
The researchers demonstrate that tapping into our other senses can actually increase consumers’ taste perceptions. In the experiments, participants were randomly assigned to view one of two ads. One ad was designed to appeal to multiple senses (for example, a tagline for a chewing gum read “stimulate your senses”), while the other ad mentioned taste alone (”long-lasting flavor”). After sampling the gum, the participants listed thoughts they had regarding the item and then rated the overall taste.
The multiple-sense ad led to more positive sensory thoughts, which then led to higher taste perception than the single-sense ad. The differences in thoughts were shown to drive the differences in taste. The results were repeated with potato chips and popcorn.
So how can you use this? The researchers believe their research can help advertisers reword ad copy to lead to significant differences in taste. “These results are of great value not only to food advertisers, but also to restaurants, as the descriptions contained within menus can actually alter the taste experience,” they say. “Further, companies can implement the findings into product packaging information to alter the taste of products consumed in the home. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, ensuring positive consumption experiences is critical to success.”
Now, what would happen if this was applied to healthful eating?
Positive ads aren’t always the most effective
Ads that feature positive emotions, like happiness, are not always the best way to reach consumers, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Authors Loraine Lau-Gesk of the University of California, Irvine, and Joan Meyers-Levy of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, investigated consumer attitudes toward emotional ads. They discovered that people’s responses are affected by factors such as the amount of mental energy or attention they are able to devote to the ads as well as the physical layout of the advertising.
“Although under some circumstances consumers may respond more favorably to ads that feature positive rather than negative emotions, this is not always the case,” the authors explain. “Instead, how favorably consumers respond to ads depends on whether the amount of mental resources they devote to the ad is comparable to the amount of such resources that are needed to optimally appreciate and understand key aspects of the ad.”
When consumers are interested in an ad, they are better able to devote mental resources to thinking about it. Therefore advertising aimed at interested consumers can tap into more complicated emotions, such as bittersweet nostalgia, anxiety, and guilt.
“Ads that convey positive emotions by depicting uplifting events, outcomes, or people will not always enhance persuasion more than ads that feature downhearted or agitated emotions,” the authors write. “While more upbeat ads may be more persuasive among consumers who lack much interest in and expend few mental resources considering the ad, this may not hold true for more interested and involved consumers who invest considerable mental resources thinking about the ad or its product.”
3 things you need to use to protect and grow your money
No matter what financial state you are currently in - whether you are struggling to make ends meet or you are having one of the most financially abundant periods of your life - there are 3 simple things you need to continually apply to not only protect your money and investments, but also to grow them.
1. Your Psychology
This is the foundation of everything. If you don’t manage your emotional state and your beliefs about money, the economy, etc., you will not realize the opportunities available to you. It is in the moment you decide that no matter what, things will be okay because you are resourceful enough to handle any situation life hands you, that opportunities will begin to appear. Focus on your strengths, those qualities that make you you, the qualities that produce success in other areas of your life. When you come from a place of strength, instead of weakness and thinking about all the things you can’t control, you begin to create value for yourself and others. This is the value that will create opportunities and money.
2. Your Knowledge
There are unlimited strategies for creating money, from starting a business to real estate investing to internet marketing. Once you know your strengths, use your knowledge to find the right vehicle for you. However, even if you have the right vehicle, there is a science to achieving success. The fastest and easiest way to learn this science is by modeling someone who has already done it successfully. A mentor can save you the pain of learning things the hard way or reinventing the wheel. You can find mentors through networking, using the internet, or attending seminars, especially those which incorporate multiple experts. Check out the recent blog post Learn how to recession-proof your retirement and investments to see two events in May that will give you the knowledge you need to apply successful strategies for growing and protecting your finances.
3. Your Creativity
To create extraordinary results, you need to add creativity with the right psychology and the proper strategies. This is where your being resourceful, thinking innovatively, and coming up with new or different ways will help you reach your financial goals. For example, generate a list of ways you can increase your income, decrease your expenses, leverage your time/money and combine resources, update your strategy for the current conditions (especially in this quickly changing economy), etc. The more creative you are, the better you will position yourself.
Whether you want to create extraordinary results or just maintain what you have, the new economy demands you apply your skills and will put you to the test. I invite you to share your strategies in any of the three areas above for how you protect and/or grow your money.
Learn how to recession-proof your retirement and investments
If you watch the news, every day you’ll see reports about how the market has dropped, how many people have lost their jobs, and how we are entering another Depression. But few news sources are telling you about the opportunities - opportunities like in no other time in history.
Contrary to popular belief, we have what some are calling “the greatest financial opportunity in history.” You can choose to participate in this recession - or - you can choose to participate in your progression.
There are things you can do, strategies you can apply, ways you can position your portfolio, to not only keep your money, but to also create wealth.
Strategies for Conscious Living is all about sharing resources that you can use to consciously create your desired results. Two events are coming up in May to teach you strategies that you can apply immediately to not only recession-proof your investments, but to also take advantage of one of the many opportunities that may not occur in your lifetime again.
Dynamic Market Analysis System (DMAS)
The first resource we came across speaks for itself. Watch the video below:
I’ve been lucky enough to know Steve Linder since 2003. He is a man who walks his talk and applied his knowledge of developing trading systems to create the DMAS trading system. It wasn’t until only a few years ago that he began teaching this strategy to help others minimize their risk in trading stocks and to be in control of their financial lives. Just watch the testimonials from previous students on the DMAS site to find out the types of results they’ve created in such a short time. They prove - it’s never too late.
Only taught twice per year, the DMAS course is finally coming to the east coast May 2-3 in Orlando, FL. There is no better time than now to learn these trading strategies. If you wait until next year, or when the time is right for you, it will probably not present the same opportunities as when the time is right for the market.
Click the DMAS button below for details on the course and to register now. Spaces are limited and going fast.
Wealth Builders Summit - New York City
If you also want to immerse yourself in the best financial tools and strategies from some of the world’s most knowledgeable financial experts, then the second resource we found is for you.
In just two days in New York on May 16 & 17, you can learn about how to navigate through this “New Economy” using:
- 401k and options trading strategies from Aussie Rob Wilson
- Persuasion and influence strategies from Joel Bauer
- Creating opportunity strategies from Loral Langemeier
- Joint venture and marketing strategies from Ken McArthur
- Psychology strategies from Marshall Thurber
- Real estate investing strategies from David Lindahl
- Investment and retirement strategies from Ephren Taylor
And the best part? It’s only $97 to attend the whole weekend if you register by April 16! Normally these types of seminars cost in the thousands.
On April 17 the ticket price increases to $197.
Now what if even the $97 is a stretch for you right now? The summit has an amazing affiliate program that allows you to earn 50% commission on each ticket sold. So if you have 2 friends sign up, you get to attend the whole event for free. In addition, you can start earning another unlimited revenue stream by selling as many tickets as you want.
For further details, you can also sign up for the FREE “Wealth Builders Success Secrets” teleseminar series that starts on April 2nd. To sign up click here.
Opportunity is Knocking - What Will You Not Have if You Don’t Answer?
Take advantage of these incredible opportunities that are present NOW. There is no reason anyone should be participating in this recession. No matter what your income level or savings are, you have the resourcefulness to create the quality of life you need and desire. Start participating in your progression now.
UPDATE!
Important update - As if it couldn’t get any better, the Wealth Builders Summit in NYC is now offering a limited supply of complimentary tickets. You can lock in a free ticket now by using the code “DESTINY” to register yourself and your loved ones.
They are first come, first serve, so if you are serious about changing your own financial destiny this year and beyond, stake your claim now and get on and register. If you want change, then there is truly no excuse not to. See you at the summit!
Financial security, more than money alone, may be key to happiness
A study of the mental state of the modern American woman by a Princeton University psychologist has found a powerful link between concerns over financial security and satisfaction with one’s life.
In looking toward the future, women who concentrated much of their thinking on financial matters were much less likely to be happy with their lives, according to Talya Miron-Shatz, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. And, contrary to expectations, many of those with such worries had plenty of money by conventional standards, she said, suggesting that there is more at play in obtaining peace of mind than simply having cash.
“Even if you are making a hundred grand a year, if you are constantly worried that you are going to get fired, that you are going to lose your health insurance or that you are simply not sure you are going to ‘make it,’ you are not going to be happy,” Miron-Shatz said. Such concerns, she found, affected a wide variety of women at all income levels.
Conversely, those who didn’t fixate on finances like retirement savings, tuition for college or simply making ends meet, reported being the happiest of the group.
The study was published Feb. 25 in Judgment and Decision Making, a scholarly journal. Miron-Shatz is hoping the results might guide policy decisions, especially those being devised by President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress in the wake of today’s financial crisis. Her work would favor a focus on strategies that create social and financial “safety nets” over measures that would directly increase income.
To understand how income and concerns over financial security may relate to a person’s satisfaction with life, Miron-Shatz conducted two separate studies of a representative sample of nearly 1,000 American women of various ages and incomes. In one study, she showed that considerations of financial security were as important to the study subjects as their monetary assets.
She asked subjects in the second study to think about the future in an open-ended manner. Those who did so and mentioned financial concerns - retirement, college tuition, making ends meet, etc. - were less satisfied with their lives, she found, than those who did not raise such concerns. One of her participants said that when thinking of her future she wondered, “Will I be happy and financially stable?” The stability, Miron-Shatz says, is crucial. “It’s not about greed,” she added. “It’s about knowing whatever it is you have, be it your McMansion or your motor home, won’t be taken away from you.”
Discussions about wealth need to be expanded to include this notion of financial security, she said, and though valid and meaningful, this factor is “glaringly missing from economic discussions,” she said.
Psychologists have long sought to understand the connection between money and happiness.
Though the popular conception has been that “money can’t buy happiness,” studies have shown that wealth can play a role in enhancing happiness. Yet, wealth itself has been poorly defined in studies. And, contributing to this complicated relationship is what Princeton Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman has called the “satisfaction treadmill.” In pioneering studies of human happiness, Kahneman, the Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of Psychology, has found that satisfaction does not necessarily increase in a corresponding amount with an improved financial status.
‘Thinking like a trader’ may diminish emotional reaction and aversion to loss
The late 1990s saw the rise not only of the NASDAQ, the Dow, and the S & P 500, but also of amateur traders — individuals not formally trained to work in the unpredictable world of the stock market — to complement seasoned professionals. Beyond the differences in their credentials, a study led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and New York University suggests that taking the perspective of a professional trader may alter the emotional reaction to losing money and result in different choices.
The work examined correlations between loss-averse behavior and physiological arousal while subjects were asked to either focus on individual choices or take a portfolio perspective (”think like a trader”), which was hypothesized to reduce the emotional reaction to potential losses. The researchers combined methods from psychological and economic research, providing a detailed picture of how people make choices and how their perspective changes the mechanisms of decision-making.
Specifically, they asked subjects to complete a series of 140 choices between a risky gamble and a guaranteed amount of return. Subjects completed two sets of choices—one set using a strategy emphasizing each choice in isolation and one set using a strategy emphasizing each choice as one of many. Choices in isolation are analogous to those an amateur trader might make; choices made as one of many are akin to decisions a professional trader would implement because they simulate management of a diversified portfolio.
When making choices in isolation many of the subjects were loss averse. That is, they were more concerned about avoiding financial losses than in making financial gains. However, when subjects were asked to make choices using a strategy that emphasized these choices’ larger context as one of many decisions—such as the decisions one would make in managing a portfolio of investments—the vast majority of participants were less loss averse.
In an effort to examine emotional factors that may coincide with the behavioral expression of loss aversion, the researchers measured changes in subjects’ skin conductance due to increased sweating in response to learning the outcomes of their decisions. The results for choices made in isolation showed that subjects sweat significantly more, per dollar, to losses than gains. This “over-arousal” to losses was correlated with behavioral loss aversion, which suggests a specific role for emotions in choice. However, when subjects made decisions using the “portfolio” strategy mentioned above, the over-arousal effect disappeared — average levels of sweating per dollar were about the same for gains and losses.
The findings could be relevant to drawing distinctions between amateur and professional traders because the professionals are trafficking in portfolios and amateurs are not. Specifically, the findings support the conclusion that professionals have learned not just facts about investments, but also strategies for limiting the normal emotional response that might prevent amateurs from making the same decisions given the same information.
The research was conducted in the laboratory of NYU’s Elizabeth Phelps, one of the study’s co-authors.
“These results highlight how a simple shift in perspective can influence both the emotional reaction to a financial decision, and the decision itself,” commented Phelps, who is professor of psychology and neural science at NYU.
Peter Sokol-Hessner, the study’s lead author, added, “Though on average we may dislike losses more than we like gains, both in our behavior and in our physiological responses to them, it seems we have the power to change that.”
Co-author Colin Camerer, a Cal Tech professor of economics, added, “The role that emotions play in economic choices is not well understood. Showing that emotional reactions can be turned on ‘mute’ shows both that those emotions are genuine and that they can be controlled, which gives a fresh perspective on the role emotional control may play in the economy.”
Happy employees are critical for an organization’s success
One’s happiness might seem like a personal subject, but a Kansas State University researcher says employers should be concerned about the well-being of their employees because it could be the underlying factor to success.
Thomas Wright, professor of management at K-State, has found that when employees have high levels of psychological well-being and job satisfaction, they perform better and are less likely to leave their job — making happiness a valuable tool for maximizing organizational outcomes.
“The benefits of a psychologically well work force are quite consequential to employers, especially so in our highly troubled economic environment,” Wright said. “Simply put, psychologically well employees are better performers. Since higher employee performance is inextricably tied to an organization’s bottom line, employee well-being can play a key role in establishing a competitive advantage.”
Happiness is a broad and subjective word, but a person’s well-being includes the presence of positive emotions, like joy and interest, and the absence of negative emotions, like apathy and sadness, Wright said.
An excessive negative focus in the workplace could be harmful, such as in performance evaluations where negatives like what an employee failed to do are the focus of concentration, he said. When properly implemented in the workplace environment, positive emotions can enhance employee perceptions of finding meaning in their work.
In addition, studies have shown that being psychologically well has many benefits for the individual, Wright said. Employees with high well-being tend to be superior decision makers, demonstrate better interpersonal behaviors and receive higher pay, he said. His recent research also indicates that psychologically well individuals are more likely to demonstrate better cardiovascular health.
Wright said happiness is not only a responsibility to ourselves, but also to our co-workers, who often rely on us to be steadfast and supportive. In addition, Employee well-being affects the organization overall. Studies have shown that after controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, job tenure and educational attainment level, psychological well-being still is significantly related to job performance, according to Wright.
Wright said psychologically well employees consistently exhibit higher job performance, with significant correlations in the 0.30 to 0.50 range. Not only are these findings statistically significant, they are practically relevant as well, he said. A correlation of 0.30 between well-being and performance indicates that roughly 10 percent of the variance in job performance is associated with differences in well-being, while a correlation of 0.50 points to a substantial 25 percent of the variance.
In some of Wright’s academic and consulting work, he has used a form of utility analysis to determine the level of actual savings tied to employee well-being. For example, in a sample of management personnel with average salaries in the $65,000 range, he found that being psychologically distressed could cost the organization roughly $75 a week per person in lost productivity. With 10 employees that translates to $750 per week in performance variance; for 100 employees the numbers are $7,500 per week or $390,000 per year.
When employees have low levels of well-being and job satisfaction, they are more likely to quit their job. Wright said employee turnover could be extremely costly for an organization losing a disproportionate share of its better employees. In one study, Wright found that the possibility of turnover was 0.57 times smaller for any one-unit increase in well-being. As with job performance, the knowledge of an employee’s well-being can be highly useful in helping human resource personnel determine cost-effective employee retention strategies, he said.
Well-being has shown to be stable over time, though it can be influenced by situational circumstances through psychological-based interventions, Wright said. Methods to improve well-being include assisting workers so they fit their jobs more closely, providing social support to help reduce the negative impact of stressful jobs, and teaching optimism to emphasize positive thought patterns.
Wright said one controversial approach to improving well-being in the workplace is by seeking and hiring employees who have high levels of well-being.
Thinking vs. feeling: A new marketing approach
Consumers approach problems, products, and websites differently according to distinct thinking styles, rational or experiential, says a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Authors Thomas P. Novak and Donna L. Hoffman (both of University of California, Riverside) say consumers tend to think either rationally or experientially and marketers should design experiences for consumers that allow a good fit between the style and the task.
The authors describe rational thinking as “logical, effortful, and analytical,” and experiential thinking as “associative, lower effort, and holistic.” Examples of rational activities include work, carefully considered decisions, and goal-directed tasks, while experiential activities include playing, browsing, and impulse buying.
Marketers can’t read consumers’ minds, but they can offer opportunities for different thinking styles to be utilized. “One approach is to design a store or website in a way that provides opportunities for consumers to think either way, and let the consumers choose what to do,” the researchers suggest.
“Since some people tend to think more rationally and others tend to think more intuitively, different people will have greater success and happiness with different activities. However, everyone is capable of thinking both ways, and sometimes just nudging yourself to think in a different direction can help you be more successful and feel more satisfied,” the authors conclude.
