Help Customers Imagine the Purchase

Customers make decisions by simulating the outcome and process.

Buying a new suit? You imagine the outcome (e.g., looking good, getting hired), then you subtract the negative emotions of the process (e.g., spending time and money).

A surplus of positive emotions will affirm this decision.

Therefore, you can influence decisions by intensifying these outcomes and processes:

• Vividly imagining your suit will increase positive emotions
• Vividly imagining the purchase will make this behavior seem easier, thereby reducing the negative emotions

Try increasing this vividness by immersing readers into a narrative of buying.

Read this sentence:

• If you win the lottery, what would you do?

You just read an IF-THEN statement. Even though the IF portion is hypothetical, winning the lottery now feels more realistic because you imagined this scenario.

...if–then statements trigger a mental simulation process in which people suppose the antecedent (if statement) to be true and evaluate the consequent (then statement) in that context... evaluating a conditional will heighten belief in its antecedent more than in its consequent (Hadjichristidis et al., 2007, p. 2052).

It works in any scenario:

• If you [desired behavior], how would…

Examples:

• If you watch this course…
• If you work with our team…
• If you create an account…

But ideally, replace if with a stronger hypothetical:

• If is uncertain
• When is more certain, but not guaranteed
• After is most certain (and vivid) because it already happened

Other Applications

• Say You or Your. These pronouns increase engagement through heightened immersion (Cruz et al., 2017).
• Show the Unboxing. Show somebody opening a delivery with your product: Hmm, do I want these pans? I can see myself buying them. Guess I want them. These purchase simulations are more motivating than usage simulations (Zemack‐Rugar & Rabino, 2019).

Caveats

• Leave Something to Be Desired. Too much vividness can satiate desire. People eat less candy if they just imagined eating candy because they satisfied their craving (Morewedge et al., 2010).

• Hadjichristidis, C., Handley, S. J., Sloman, S. A., Evans, J. S. B., Over, D. E., & Stevenson, R. J. (2007). Iffy beliefs: Conditional thinking and belief change. Memory & cognition, 35(8), 2052-2059.
• Johnson, E. J., Hershey, J. C., Meszaros, J., & Kunreuther, H. (1993). Framing, Probability Distortions, and Insurance Decisions. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 7(1).
• Cruz, R. E., Leonhardt, J. M., & Pezzuti, T. (2017). Second person pronouns enhance consumer involvement and brand attitude. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 39(1), 104-116.
• Morewedge, C. K., Huh, Y. E., & Vosgerau, J. (2010). Thought for food: Imagined consumption reduces actual consumption. Science, 330(6010), 1530-1533.
• Zemack‐Rugar, Y., & Rabino, R. (2019). The impact of visualizing use versus acquisition of a product on the appeal of its complement. Psychology & Marketing, 36(4), 251-265.