Posted on : 2022-12-30 03:06:54
Article : Good evening, Friday Management TASK - Gift-giving is universal across cultures and fundamental to the fabric of society. Gift giving enhances brand bondage to consumers and thereby increase in sales.
Brands should take note that the views of the giver and not just the recipient strongly influence how people perceive gifts as do the price and packaging. Gift-giving is universal across cultures and fundamental to the fabric of society. Psychologists have long been fascinated by the practice: why do we give, what makes a good gift, and how much should we spend? Well, it turns out that there are certain consistent psychological characteristics linked with gifting. These insights can help the marketer to work in alignment with human behaviour – so you can help the givers keep giving, while you grow your brand.
Giving makes us happy- Giving to others seems to boost our own happiness more than spending on ourselves. There is plenty of academic evidence to support this. For example, University of British Columbia and Harvard ran a study to explore this. The researchers gave 46 participants a small sum of money ($5 or $20) and asked them to spend it that day. Half were told to spend it on themselves, half on someone else. When asked at the end of the day, those who had spent their unexpected windfall on others were measurably happier than those who had spent it on themselves. Interestingly, the amount they had been given did not impact their happiness. This is just one of many studies showing the same thing – giving makes us happy. Brands can spread joy by helping people to be generous. This will benefit everyone not only the giver and receiver, but of course, marketers brand image.
Doing is better than having- In one study from Cornell University explored this. The researcher asked participants to describe their most recent experiential purchase or material purchase over $100, and to rate how happy the purchase made them. There was a clear winner: experiences made people 13% happier than new stuff. So, a gift of tickets, a day out or a spa treatment will be well-received and deliver genuine joy. But there is something important to keep in mind. While recipients will be delighted with an activity or event, the giver also needs to get something out of the exchange.
Brands can do this way-- First, do not underestimate the value of offering experiences as well as products. If your brand does not naturally lend itself to this, are there any smart ways you could combine product and experience? – what about after-hours shopping, taster sessions, launch events or influencer talks? Anything that needs an exclusive invitation, which would make a nice gift. Amazon offers various choices for their shopping vouchers, including eye catching gift boxes as well as instant print-at-home and email options.
Another option is when it comes to gifting, more is more- Gift-givers believe that the more they spend on a gift, the more it will be appreciated. There’s academic evidence for this from a study at Stanford University. They examined gift-givers’ and gift-recipients’ feelings about price and gift appreciation: 237 participants were randomly assigned to the role of either gift-giver or gift-recipient. Both were asked to estimate the value of a recent birthday gift they would either given or received and answer several questions about their experience.
Givers predicted that the more a gift cost, the more joy it would bring, assuming that pricier presents convey a higher level of thoughtfulness. Interestingly, for recipients, price did not predict appreciation. Linked with this, research has revealed that people are less price-sensitive than normal when it comes to purchasing gifts.
What brands cand do for this is, Gift-givers believe that a gift that is perceived to be expensive will be appreciated more. This, of course, was harnessed by DeBeers in the 1940s, when the brand explicitly related the amount, a man spends on a diamond engagement ring for his fiancée with the degree of his love for her.
So, despite our current economic climate, it may be wiser to use discounts with caution if you are in the gifting market. Otherwise, you risk making your product less appealing. Taken together, the tactics discussed here can help grow your brand, while spreading generosity and joy. Post your perceptive with this topic related comments and your experiences to enhance reading and utility interest of this article’s useful contents by the readers. Our management views with certain brand examples will be posted on our Good Morning Management solution for the article 223 on 2nd Jan 2023.
Log on to www.wingsofmanagement.com to know more about our “Strategy Management consultancy’s” versatile capabilities, global clients and to read our weekly posts and our projects.