The Power of Touch

You are here >

For advertising information, please contact
Richard Swayze

Marketing - Archives
The Power of Touch


		Leave a comment

You need to get touchy! Seriously. Some recent studies show how touch can make an impression on results.

First, a woman’s touch is all it takes for people to throw caution to the wind.

A University of Alberta study (May, 2010) explored how touch affects risk-taking. If a female experimenter patted a participant on the back, they'd risk more money than if she just talked to them. A gentle shoulder tap from a woman made people more likely to gamble their money.

In a Globe & Mail article Dr. Jennifer Argo says the finding demonstrated how easily choices about money are influenced by subtle cues and body language.

Okay, a “touch” unethical for gaming. Besides, casinos typically forbid staff from touching customers, but there are some marketing opportunities worth exploring. Another study makes sheds light on some other touchy cues.

Joann Peck (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Suzanne B. Shu (UCLA) discovered that when we hold an object (like a shirt or a pair of glasses, that we are considering to purchase) the touch will influence our buying decision.

The Science News quoted them saying, "In four studies, we find that merely touching an object increases the feelings of ownership a person has for the object. This, in turn, results in a person being willing to pay more for most objects that they touch versus objects that they cannot touch," the authors write. "We also find that when touch is unavailable, such as shopping online, having people imagine owning a product increases their perception of ownership and how much they are willing to pay for a product."

How can that apply to marketing?

This summer our agency did research for a client, testing a couple direct mail samples. One direct mail piece was quite a bit larger than the other. When the groups were first shown the samples, the vast majority chose the larger piece. Participants were attracted to its big pictures. However, when they held the direct mail pieces, they all chose the smaller piece. Why the switch? The smaller piece was printed on a nicer, heavier stock of paper. The larger piece was printed on glossy newsprint. Participants commented that the cheap newsprint cheapened the message. The message didn’t seem as important on cheaper paper.

That is the power of touch.

A casino client of ours held an extremely successful direct mail promotion by mailing two playing cards—your hand for a game of Texas Hold ‘Em. Recipients were told to come in and see if their hand could beat the casino’s hand. The promotion was wildly successful in large part because customers were touching actual cards.

The touch in their hand made it more valuable.

Savvy retailers do this with scratch cards, mailing them to customers and inviting them to have them scratched in-store. It’s hard to resist when its in your hand. That is the power of touch.

Now before you take an all “hands-on” approach to marketing, remember what the second researchers said, "We also find that when touch is unavailable, such as shopping online, having people imagine owning a product increases their perception of ownership and how much they are willing to pay for a product."

Imagination is also a powerful tool. Lotteries have us imagine being a millionaire. You can have people imagine a night out having fun at the casino!

Think about how you could use touch to improve your marketing—physically or with imagination.