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Previous insight: Give tours of your company (100+ more insights here)

🥳 Ariyh turns 2 

A quick word about the first 2 years of Ariyh and where it’s going. Scroll down if you want to skip to the goodies 😉

Ariyh turns 2 years old this week! 

The first ever insight went out to 232 people on 25th August 2020 (I like to think insights have improved a lot since then, but let me know if you disagree).

Today, we are 12,310 evidence-based marketers and I couldn’t be happier with what Ariyh has become.

Growth has been almost exclusively organic. In other words, Ariyh is where it is today because you recommended it to your friends and colleagues. If you had not done that Ariyh would not exist today (it’s completely bootstrapped, with $0 funding). I can’t thank you enough for that.

What’s next is even more exciting. Slowly but steadily, Ariyh is starting to generate surplus revenue (thanks mainly to Ariyh’s fantastic sponsors - make sure to check them out).

This means that in the coming months I will gradually have more time and money to make science even more useful for you. For example, through new playbooks, a better website to make past insights more useful, or even by working with scientists to produce research that is more practical and relevant for us.

And once Ariyh is even better established, the possibilities are infinite. Many will require some heavy lifting, but that just makes it even more fun.

After all, that’s what the entire vision of Ariyh is. To get Academic Research In Your Hands. This newsletter is still only the start.

P.S.: For this special moment, I’ve teamed up with 3 fellow marketing newsletters I admire to offer a special sweepstake.

Subscribe to all 4 of us here for the best marketing news and insights, and you’ll get the chance to win a $1,000 Amazon gift card.

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📝 Intro

For today I wanted to do something special.

I’ve prepared short executive summaries of the top 5 science-based recommendations of the past year.

I’ve chosen them based on your feedback, their impact, and their ease of application. So you can apply them in no time if you haven't already.

Let’s dig in.

Note: These summaries are simplifications. When applying an insight make sure to use the full 3min Ariyh summary. If you like this style and want to improve your pricing, you’ll love Ariyh’s Pricing & Promotions playbook.

Insight #5 - Space out your products

Full 3min practical research summary

📈 Recommendation

• Increase the empty space between your products.

🎓 Findings

• People will like and value your products more and will be more likely to buy them.

• For example, sales at a jewelry stand almost doubled from 13.5% to 26.7% and people rated a chocolate 10.3% tastier.

• Note: the study only tested physical retail environments. The effect should work with websites too, but proceed with caution.

🧠 Why it works

• We perceive plenty of space between products as a signal that they are prestigious and valuable.

• Objects that are spaced out are better delineated so they are easier to mentally process and look more beautiful.

📖 Research

• The space-to-product ratio effect: How interstitial space influences product aesthetic appeal, store perceptions, and product preference. Journal of Marketing Research (October 2016).

• Researchers

  • Julio Sevilla. Terry College of Business, University of Georgia

  • Claudia Townsend. School of Business Administration, University of Miami

Insight #4 - Praise your competitors

Full 3min practical research summary

📈 Recommendation

• Occasionally praise a competitor publicly (e.g. on social media, in ads)

🎓 Findings

• People will like you more and be more likely to choose you. It benefits you much more than your competitor.

• For example, CTRs of a Facebook ad were 64% higher and KitKat sales were 34% higher when a Tweet praised a competitor, compared to typical self-promotion.

🧠 Why it works

• We perceive the brand as genuinely warm and kind.

• It breaks through our skepticism because we know that praising a competitor is a risky and costly action.

📖 Research

• Befriending the Enemy: The Effects of Observing Brand-to-Brand Praise on Consumer Evaluations and Choices. Journal of Marketing (January 2022).

• Researchers

  • Lingrui Zhou. Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

  • Katherine Du. Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  • Keisha Cutright. Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

Insight #3 - Reply to all reviews

Full 3min practical research summary

📈 Recommendation

• Write replies to all public reviews you receive, both positive and negative, on platforms that allow it (e.g. Google, Trustpilot, G2, TripAdvisor).

🎓 Findings

• Increases the number of positive and total reviews, and reduces the number of negative reviews.

• Star ratings increased 0.12 on average and total number of reviews by 12%.

🧠 Why it works

• We’re more likely to leave a positive review because we see that the company listens.

• We’re less likely to leave a negative review because we know we may be challenged.

📖 Research

• Online reputation management: Estimating the impact of management responses on consumer reviews. Marketing Science (August 2017).

• Researchers

  • Davide Proserpio. Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

  • Georgios Zervas. Questrom School of Business, Boston University

Insight #2 - Use quantity-focused CTAs

Full 3min practical research summary

📈 Recommendation

• Change your product purchase CTA from a ‘Whether to buy’ focus (e.g. “Add to cart”, “Buy”) to a ‘How much to buy’ focus (e.g. “Buy 1”, “Buy 2”, or “Buy 3”). 

How a product page on Walmart should look like

🎓 Findings

• People were 14% more likely to buy on average, and total sales increased 28% because people bought more items.

• Note: only works for products normally bought in multiples.

🧠 Why it works

• The technique shifts us from a “Should I buy?” to a “Which option should I buy?” mindset.

📖 Research

• The Importance of Selling Formats: When Integrating Purchase and Quantity Decisions Increases Sales. Marketing Science (May 2022).

• Researchers

  • Kristen Duke. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

  • On Amir. Rady School of Management, University of California San Diego

Insight #1 - Show a hand touching your product

Full 3min practical research summary

📈 Recommendation

• Show a hand touching or holding your product from a first-person point of view (e.g. in ads, social media posts, product pages).

• Use it in images, videos, or even VR.

A great example from Starbucks’s Instagram page

🎓 Findings

• People like the product more, are more likely to buy it, and will pay more for it.

• For example, when a GIF showed a hand touching a sweater (vs lying next to it), people liked the sweater 9.4% more, were 16.3% more likely to buy it, and were willing to pay 14% more for it.

🧠 Why it works

• We experience the hand touching the product as if it’s our own, so we feel that we already own the product and value it more.

📖 Research

• Observing Product Touch: The Vicarious Haptic Effect in Digital Marketing and Virtual Reality. Journal of Marketing Research (February 2022).

• Researchers

  • Andrea Webb Luangrath. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa

  • Joann Peck. University of Wisconsin–Madison

  • William Hedgcock. University of Minnesota

  • Yixiang Xu. University of California, Berkeley

Special sweepstake 💰 Subscribe to the Marketer’s Bundle and win $1,000

• In case you’ve missed it, I teamed up with 3 of my favorite marketing newsletters for a special offer.

• Subscribe to all 4 of us before 31st August for the chance to win a $1,000 Amazon gift card.

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Bonus - Parallel shopping cart handles

On LinkedIn (you can follow me here) I write about studies that I don’t cover in the newsletter (e.g. because they are only relevant for a marketing niche, but still interesting). Here is one about shopping carts that got quite some traction.

📈 Recommendation

• Use parallel handles (wheelbarrow-style) shopping carts to increase sales.

🎓 Findings

• Parallel handle shopping carts activate our biceps so we are more likely to grab objects and buy them.

🧠 Why it works

• Parallel handles activate our biceps. Traditional horizontal handles or vertical handles activate our triceps.

• We use our biceps muscles to bring food and objects towards our body, to eat or secure them. On the other hand, we use our triceps to push objects away.

📖 Research

• Getting a Handle on Sales: Shopping Carts Affect Purchasing by Activating Arm Muscles. Journal of Marketing (February 2022).

• Researchers

  • Zachary Estes. Bayes Business School, City University of London

  • Mathias Streicher. University of Innsbruck

Remember: These are scientific discoveries. In the future they will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). They may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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