Reinforce a Desired Attitude

Attitudes are plagued with uncertainty.

Customers are unaware how they truly feel in many scenarios, often determining their attitudes by judging their behavior: Hmm, I'm eating. So I must be hungry.

You can influence attitudes by orienting attention toward these behaviors. For example, Netflix provides three ratings for their content:

• Not for me
• Like this
• Love this

All ratings are positive because any negative sentiment (e.g., Dislike This) would create a self-fulfilling prophecy: Hmm, guess I hate Netflix content. So why am I subscribed?

Replace Sorry With Thank You

Imagine that a contractor is 1-hour late. You might hear:

• Sorry for for the wait.
• Thank you for waiting.

Sorry reduces satisfaction because customers infer that something negative has happened to them, whereas thank you implies that customers are forgiving and patient. So they act forgivingly. This example has been replicated across dozens of scenarios (You et al., 2020).

Frame New Customers as First-Timers

WiderFunnel boosted conversions for a nonprofit by asking visitors to select an option. I'm a:

• Regular donor
• Occasional donor
• First-time donor

New visitors affirmed their identity as a first-time donor, which compelled them to donate. An option like "I've never donated" would have reinforced this passive inaction.

Rationalize Negative Behaviors

You always hear: It doesn't hurt to ask.

Well, it can hurt. If you reject or ignore a call to action, you might convince yourself that you dislike this brand: Hmm, why didn't I share their message? Guess I don't like them (Gvili & Levy, 2024).

Always rationalize inaction with a positive spin. If customers scroll to the end of your catalog without clicking any products, show a link to your Product Quiz. Blame their inaction on indecisiveness, not apathy.

Same with skipping behavior. Users who skipped an option to contribute to their savings account were less likely to contribute in the future because contributions seemed less important. Users needed to see a follow-up message that reinforced the importance of savings (Reiff et al., 2023).

Highlight a Customer's Loyal Behavior

Customers feel loyal to a brand if their actions resemble a loyal customer. Perhaps mention competing alternatives they've ignored:

...if a salesperson identifies a consumer who is likely to purchase an Apple iPhone, making them aware of a Samsung promotion could cause them to experience resistance toward that offer and result in the purchase of supplemental services like insurance as well as branded accessories (Pratt et al., 2023).

• Gvili, Y., & Levy, S. (2024). Vive la résistance: a boomerang effect of resisting incentivized eWOM on consumer trust. International Journal of Advertising, 1-23.
• Pratt, A. B., Robinson, S. G., Voorhees, C. M., Wang, J., & Giebelhausen, M. D. (2023). Unintended effects of price promotions: Forgoing competitors’ price promotions strengthens incumbent... Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 51(5), 1143-1164.
• Reiff, J., Dai, H., Beshears, J., Milkman, K. L., & Benartzi, S. (2023). Save more today or tomorrow: the role of urgency in precommitment design. Journal of Marketing Research, 60(6), 1095-1113.
• You, Y., Yang, X., Wang, L., & Deng, X. (2020). When and why saying “thank you” is better than saying “sorry” in redressing service failures: The role of self-esteem. Journal of Marketing, 84(2), 133-150.