Research

Heroes or helpers? Which product types do consumers prefer?

Adriana Samper studies how companies aim their products at consumers. People equate greater effort with greater control, and consumers who are feeling low control choose products that can help them regain control through their personal exertion. Which marketing standpoint garners the most buyers?

2014-03-25

On any given day, you’re likely to encounter a wonderful world of astounding antidotes. This week alone, how many ads have you seen that promise weight loss without calorie counting, easy steps to financial freedom or any number of gizmos that chop, steam, purée and turbo roast supper with remarkable ease? Considering all the pills, plans and gadgets that promise miracles, you’d think consumers were always on the lookout for products that can effortlessly remedy woes. But many aren’t, says Adriana Samper, an assistant professor of marketing at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Samper teamed with the Wharton School’s Keisha Cutright, to see if and when consumers would pick products that support their own exertions versus those that eliminate the need put in much effort at all. According to research conducted by the two scholars, products that do it all don’t necessarily appeal to all. Often, a consumer’s feelings of personal control impact product preferences, usage behavior and satisfaction. The urge to endeavor Samper and Cutright maintain that consumers frequently partner with the products they buy in efforts to do things like get fit or improve their golf swings. Given that partnership, the scholars wondered what role a product should play in delivering desired outcomes. Should the product be the hero, the one that delivers amazing results with limited effort? Or should it be positioned as a helper, something that supports people in achieving their goals provided they put in diligent effort? Which type of product — hero or helper — is likely to appeal most to consumers? Marketers offer up both approaches, the researchers note in a recent paper: “Consider how Reebok asserts itself as a hero with its EasyTone shoe, instructing you to ‘simply walk and let the shoe do the rest,’ while Nike takes pride in being a helper and suggests that its Trainer One shoe ‘works if you do.’” Building on prior research that indicates people believe hard work leads to greater control, Samper and Cutright hypothesized that feelings of low control would create consumer preferences for helper products over heroes. To test their hypothesis, the scholars had consumers perform a series of seemingly unrelated tasks, such as recalling a memory, reading a press release, answering questions and evaluating products or advertisements. So, for instance, in a study involving athletic shoes, the researchers first had participants write about an episode in their lives where something positive happened to them because of something they did (and had control over), or that happened to them not because of something they did (or had no control over). Participants placed in the “high control” group often wrote about things like earning good grades or getting promoted while those in the “low control” group wrote about things like finding money on the street or benefiting from a stranger’s kindness. The essay was designed to manipulate consumer feelings of high or low control over their lives and experiences. Once the researchers had people in the right frame of mind, participants were shown one of two “Nike Trainer One” ads in which the shoe in question would either improve athletic performance with limited effort on the wearers’ part or help wearers perform provided they did the heavy lifting. Then, participants answered questions about their likelihood of purchasing the shoes, as well as anticipation of how owning and using the shoes might make them feel. As expected, the researchers found that study participants did respond to the manipulation. Those who were asked to write about experiences in which they had little control indicated feelings of low control, while those who wrote about high feelings of control revealed feeling greater control over their lives. Most importantly, those who were in a state of low control when they saw the ad wanted the shoes that required more effort to be effective. They picked the helper product over the hero, and anticipated feeling more empowered by purchasing the product. In another study, the researchers showed consumers ads for fitness packages. This time, the scholars manipulated feelings of higher versus lower control via a press release each participant was directed to read: half read a release saying people have more control over their health than previously thought, and half saw a release with the opposite message, one that doomed people to their genetic fates. Again, those who felt they had low control picked the helper product, a fitness product requiring increased effort and investment to lose weight, as a means of taking control back. Proof in the putter Along with purchase preference, Samper and Cutright explored the effort that helper and hero products might inspire. For this study, they again used fake press releases to influence consumer beliefs about control and athletic performance. Then, the consumers were asked to evaluate a golf putter. For half of participants, the putter was described as capable of improving performance when accompanied by diligent practice and effort, while the other half were told the putter would improve performance with limited practice or effort. As part of the evaluation, consumers were invited to practice with the putter before making their judgments. Those who felt low control put in more time practicing with the golf club, regardless of whether they were led to believe it would help them or not, showing that low control causes people to want to work harder to regain feelings of control. But, they also preferred the helper putter — the one that required practice and effort to improve a user’s golf game -- as it gave them more credit for their hard work. According to the researchers, the fact that people feeling low control chose helper products emphasizes how important it is for people who are experiencing feelings of limited control over their lives to be responsible and empowered by their own effort. Such findings showed up in a real-world study, too. The researchers left the lab to look at natural changes in control that occur in consumers’ lives. They went to the gymnasium to interview basketball players who had just won or lost a game. Those who had won reported feeling higher control than those who had lost. The basketball ball players were then asked to evaluate a new Nike product. As predicted, the players were more likely to purchase a high-effort helper product when they were in a low-control state after having lost a game. Profiting from powerlessness “I think marketers underestimate how hard people actually want to work,” Samper says. “There is a place for these hero products but, based on our results, it seems like there are many contexts in which consumers truly want to put in hard work.” She points out that feelings of low control hit everyone from time to time. “A lot of times, low control is associated with limited resources or lower socio-economic status,” she explains. That might create chronic feelings of low control but, absent those conditions, Samper says most people experience a variety of things that can create situation-based feelings of low control. Some are as horrific as devastating natural disasters or terrorism. Others are as mundane as getting passed from one customer service representative to the next when calling a company with a complaint or getting stuck in a traffic jam on the way to work. “Prior research has said that when you feel low control over a situation or outcome, you’re just going to give up,” Samper says. “What we found is that if there is some avenue to help you exit the situation, such as through a product or brand, feelings of low control are actually going to help you work harder.” On the flip side, Samper says that there are situations where low control breeds a preference for hero products, like get-thin-quick pills or get-rich-quick money making schemes. “When low control consumers don’t feel they are progressing quickly enough to their goals, that’s when they want the easy-cure products.” How can marketers capitalize on these findings? One way is to simply give people information that emphasizes whether people have low or high control over a specific outcome. “This is realistic and not hard to do,” Samper says. “There are always contexts — especially in something like health — where you can find information saying our health outcomes are determined largely by genetics versus lifestyle, or how hard you work at being healthy.” Or, marketers can present consumers with examples that threaten their feelings of control. Samper points to Allstate Insurance Company’s ads featuring an actor who identifies himself as “Mayhem.” “The ads emphasize all sorts of crazy things that could happen to anyone,” she notes. So whether you’re driving behind someone who didn’t latch down that mattress on top of his car, or your dog takes a boney bribe and lets burglars in the house or a teenage girl in a tantrum sideswipes your car, the ads successfully convey the message that you might not be able to control others, but you can be in good hands with Allstate. “Those types of campaigns are quite successful,” Samper says. In light of Samper and Cutright’s research, that success is likely due to more than the “Mayhem” actor’s roguish charm. It could well reflect what the research team found about how people want to escape feelings of low control through their product preferences. “Don’t be afraid to present consumers with a product where they have to put in some effort,” Samper advises. “Consumers are definitely willing to do that if they believe that your product can help them achieve their goals.” Bottom Line

• Prior research suggests that people who experience feelings of low control are more likely to give up on goals than fight to pursue them.
• Researcher Adriana Samper of the W. P. Carey School of Business found the opposite was true when consumers were given the choice of a product that could help them reach goals.
• Not only did consumers experiencing feelings of low control prefer products that required effort to bring about desired outcomes, these consumers also worked harder than consumers who had feelings of high control over desired results.
• Samper says marketers underestimate how hard consumers are willing to work when given the option to buy products that make hard work pay off.

Consumer Behavior Marketing