THE GENIUS OF REPARATIONS:

Envy: Research suggests giving preferential treatment to a few generates demand from everyone (Robert Weisman, April 8, 2007, Boston Globe)

Envy is a powerful force in the human psyche -- and a tool to be exploited in marketing.

While marketers have long been aware that consumers clamor for products endorsed by celebrities or people with whom they identify, new research suggests businesses can stoke the enthusiasm of some potential customers by giving preferential treatment to others.

The promise and perils of this slight-the-customer approach are explored in a recent Journal of Marketing Research article titled "How to Attract Customers by Giving Them the Short End of the Stick."

It draws on a half dozen experiments conducted at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, where student volunteers from the master of business administration program were presented with a range of products and scenarios. The authors conclude that, under the right circumstances, "consumers judge the same offer to be more attractive when a seller offers a better price or more benefits to another group than when the seller treats everyone equally."

Which is why giving blacks a package that included O'Neill accounts, HSAs, education vouchers and personalized SS would be good politics for the Right.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 8, 2007 8:43 AM