The Daily Stat from Harvard Business Review

August 17, 2015     Product Information Seeps Slowly into Consumers’ Minds Research participants who rated the taste of gum immediately after chewing it were unaffected by whether it was labeled “5% artificial” or “95% natural,” but after a delay of less than an hour, the “95% natural” group rated the gum 11.1 points higher on a 100-point scale. These and other findings by Mathew S. Isaac of Seattle University and Morgan Poor of the University of San Diego show that consumers rely more on emotions from firsthand experiences when making immediate judgments but on cognitive information from labels, advertisements, or product reviews when making judgments after a delay. Given that secondhand information can influence later consumer decisions even if it doesn’t affect immediate judgments, marketers must make sure they measure ad effectiveness retrospectively to fully assess the impact of their ad spending, the researchers say. SOURCE: Seattle University Research Shows How Consumers Integrate Marketers’ Messages with Firsthand Product Experiences to Make Decisions

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