Want to make a product appear more luxurious? Depict it in slow motion. That’s according to research published in the Journal of Marketing Research. When participants were shown a video depicting a product in slow motion they perceived it as being more luxurious or premium. This was reflected in their willingness/expectation to pay more for the product compared to those that saw the same product depicted at normal speed. Try watching another premium chocolate or liquor commercial now without noticing this. The same product can be perceived differently, not by changing anything about the product, but by changing the speed at which it's presented.
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When you Google something you’re essentially raising your hand to ask for information, services, products, etc. Searches like “restaurants near me” or “best running shoes” reveal a transactional state of mind. The searcher is actively looking to solve a problem and perform a transaction.
In contrast, advertising on many social media platforms is different. Users are typically not searching for anything in particular. They’re scrolling through a feed, messaging friends, and consuming the content they’re presented with. In this context, you are interrupting the user and hoping they take action.
For example, LinkedIn is a place where people go to promote themselves and their services. But if everyone is on LinkedIn to promote themselves, how many people are there to buy something at that moment? Advertising in these settings can yield results, but it will take additional nurturing because the consumer is not yet in a transactional state of mind.
The difference is summarized by the user’s intent. Understanding where you are meeting your prospects can help you create a more effective strategy.
Where can you find more of your prospective customers in a transactional state of mind?
What are your exceptional abilities? Even if you think you’re only exceptionally good at one thing, does that one thing have additional utilities that you have yet to realize?
In 1953 the creators of WD-40 “set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry.” Today, the resulting product WD-40 is found in 4 out of 5 American homes and has a list of 2,000 uses generated by users of the product. It turns out that a water displacement solution has an incredibly broad utility beyond what the original creators apparently imagined.
Do your products, services, and talents have a broader utility than you realize?
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