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what my colleague and I have been
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interested in is understanding what
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types of products people like to buy
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when they're pursuing different goals so
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for example you're trying to lose weight
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you want to get fit you have different
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professional goals and in particular we
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want to know do you want the product
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that tells you hey we'll do it all for
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you we'll make this very easy for you or
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do you want the product that says will
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help you will be a nice compliment will
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help you down this path but you have to
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work really hard as well and so that's
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our question so which do you want the
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kind of the hero or more of just the
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helper and we think that one important
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determinant of this is your feeling of
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control over outcomes in your life so
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the extent to which you feel as if you
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can make positive things happen and
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avoid negative things in your life and
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we find that when people feel low
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control over different aspects of their
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lives they actually want the brand
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that's more of the helper not the hero
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so they want the brand that says you
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have to work hard and we'll be here to
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help you but we're not going to do all
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of the hard work for you so they'd
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rather nike come in and say you put on
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our shoes if you work really hard will
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help you towards this goal of losing
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weight or getting fit they don't want
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nike to come in and say put on our shoes
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and it'll do all the work for you so
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they want to feel as if they have to put
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in the work because this gives them a
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sense of empowerment and makes them feel
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as if eventually they can actually
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control outcomes in their lives again so
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that's what we've studied over a course
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of several studies and have found this
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same effect very reliably
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now we focus on two different groups
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consumers and marketers and for
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consumers you know the one thing we'd
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want people to take away is the idea
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that you may not want the product with
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all the bells and whistles of the
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product that says it will make things as
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easy for you as possible you may
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actually be more satisfied by picking up
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the product that you believe you have to
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put in a little more of the effort to
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see the same outcome and for marketers
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it's a similar idea is that your
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consumers may not want you to tell them
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that your product is so fantastic that
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it will do everything for them and that
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they don't have to put in so much work
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you may not want to emphasize so much
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ease in using your products or getting
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the benefit from your product you may
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want to instead focus on the idea that
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consumers have to put in a little bit of
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the work as they use your product and
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then they'll get the desired outcome
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for example if you know that you are
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dealing with consumers that have low
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control instead of automatically telling
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consumers that hey our products will
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make this as easy for you as possible
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let's say cleaning for example you have
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a Swiffer instead of focusing on how
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easy it is to clean with Swiffer for
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your low control consumer you may want
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to say hey this is a very effective
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product but it needs you so if you put
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in the hard work our product is there to
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help you along the way to make sure you
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gain these fantastic cleaning outcomes
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in your home and so in both cases you're
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talking about the product being great
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and getting a quality outcome but in one
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situation you're focusing more on the
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value of the consumer there so you're
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saying that the consumer has a role in
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delivering this outcome that they're
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looking for
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you know so marketers we already do a
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lot of psychographic research and so to
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your point we can understand who our
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targets are in general and we can start
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by you know throwing in questions about
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personal control just very basic
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questions to see how much control our
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target consumer feels over their
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outcomes in life and so that will give
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you a general sense a place to start
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when you're focusing on your particular
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target consumer we also know that there
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are different demographic trends that
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predict feelings of control so for
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example the lower you are in income
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oftentimes the lower your feelings of
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control or the more elderly in our
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population often have lower feelings of
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control or others who don't have as much
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control over their health or just
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physical abilities and mobility in
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general often have lower feelings of
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control so some of those trends can give
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you cues and clues as to whether or not
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you may be dealing with consumers that
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have low feelings of control but it does
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require more targeted psychographic
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research to really understand your
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particular target consumer to see if
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this is important for them
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that's our research you know over
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several different experiments we focused
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largely on manipulating people's
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feelings of control so I'll have people
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write about a time when they had low
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control to make people feel this sense
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of local control or you know I looked at
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intramural basketball players and I
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would recruit people after they won and
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after they lost and I get a sense of
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control based on you know whether or not
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you want to lost your game and so in all
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of these cases I'm making people feel
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low or high control or using natural
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environments to test this but we know
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that there are lots of situations where
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people just chronically feel lower high
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control and I think our research is
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particularly applicable to those groups
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so for example the low-income
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populations or the folks who are older
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and age and have health issues I think
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for those groups who have these chronic
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issues with control issues with feeling
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as if they can really alter things in
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their environment I think for those
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groups is particularly important to
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think about the types of products that
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they want and how you can be more
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empowering in your products for them
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for people who always have a very high
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sense of control we find that they don't
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really care how you talk to them about
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their product so we didn't see much of a
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difference in their reactions as to
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whether another product was empowering
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for them or not so whether or not you
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said it required a lot of effort or not
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where it really mattered was for
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consumers when they experience low
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control so I mean it could be a consumer
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who typically feels high control but
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then they just had a very bad day and
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they you know turned on the news and
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read about or saw a story about a lot of
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violence in their neighborhood that
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would be enough to trigger a feeling of
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low control over their lives in that
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moment or maybe it's the recession
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that's making them feel lower control
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than they might normally feel so even
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those high control people if you can
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find moments in which they feel though
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control that's the place in which you
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can try to target them or you can try to
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manipulate even your communication with
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them to remind people that hey you may
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not have as much control over your life
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as you like so if you can get people to
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think about local control then they see
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this preference for the high effort
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products if you have consumers who never
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for some reason ever think about the
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fact that they may have low control then
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the results don't seem to differ much
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they don't seem to care
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yeah well you know I think there are a
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lot of interesting and tidbits and maybe
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buzz about high-intensity workouts
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nowadays so you know CrossFit programs
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or p90x and insanity all of these things
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where you see lots of people who love to
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work out to the point where they puke
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right and so it's very hard for many of
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us to understand this but I think that
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our research suggests in some ways that
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working so hard this high intensity type
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of training gives people a sense of
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control it's the one part of their day a
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part of their lives where even if
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nothing else is going right even if they
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have no control over anything else that
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happens when they step into the gym or
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when they turn on their video to work
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out this is the one thing they have
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control over this is the one thing that
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they say you know I can make my body do
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what I needed to do and so I think that
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in a lot of ways these are examples of
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people trying to reassert control
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through their effort
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on one hand I hope that it just allows
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people to see that we may all try to
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reassert control in different ways ways
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that we may not expect in ways that
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don't necessarily seem always logical or
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rational to others but it's our way our
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piece of kind of establishing control in
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life I think also there are sometimes
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stereotypes or beliefs that folks who
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typically have lower control so folks
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with lower income or physical
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disabilities we tend to think that they
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want us to make things very easy for
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them and that may not be the case they
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want to be able to exert some levels of
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effort so that they can empower
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themselves and achieve outcomes and so
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hopefully this research will help to
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shed a bit of light on that
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so there's been research done for a long
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time looking at low feelings of control
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and a lot of the research suggests that
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low feelings of control leads people to
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give up more quickly so if I give you a
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puzzle and you have low feelings of
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control you won't spend as much time on
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it or if I put you under certain amount
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of pain you'll be less likely to be able
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to deal with that pain or to endure and
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what our research is suggesting is that
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if you give people a tool or a prop like
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brands that just gives them the sense
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that there's someone here something here
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to help you that you can get low control
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people to actually want to put in the
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effort because now this is their chance
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they've got nike by their side right so
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now they have a chance to say let me put
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in his hard work I know I can do it I
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have support here and now i can feel
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empowered and so they're not as likely
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to give up as what we've seen in prior
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research
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so we've been thinking a bit about this
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idea of effort and we're wondering how
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feelings of control may impact things
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like cheating for example so you know
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both in an academic context but also in
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a more business-related context it could
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be cheating on taxes it could be
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stealing if flow control folks are more
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interested in effort when they feel as
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if they can engage in effort how does
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this impact cheating might we see
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differences between low and high control
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we think that'd be interesting we're
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also interested in learning more about
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what aspects of our environment
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particularly our shopping environments
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influence people's feelings of control
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so what is it about you know going into
00:10:57
a target or a Walmart that might inspire
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low feelings of control or high feelings
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of control so we think you know
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understanding more systematically about
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feelings of control and the retail
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environment would be interesting
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you
