Efeito Primazia III

Why First is Best
Roger Dooley
Forbes
22/08/2012


If you sell products or services, you probably have a product that you’d like to sell more of. Maybe it’s the one the produces the highest level of customer satisfaction or the fewest returns. Maybe it’s more profitable than other items in the line. Maybe it represents a great value for your customers but they overlook it. Here’s one key to selling more of that item: be sure your customer sees it FIRST!

New research from Berkeley and Harvard scientists underscores what we know from past research: humans have an inherent preference for the first choice they see. This phenomenon is called the primacy effect.

It’s fascinating that this effect occurs across many different domains. The first experiment in the latest batch had subjects evaluate photos of “salespeople” – pairs of males, females, and teams. When the subjects were asked about their preferences in a questionnaire, they showed no difference in their evaluation of each pair. But, using an implicit association test, a technique to measure subconscious preferences, there was a significant difference in favor of the first-viewed person or team. (For more on implicit association, see The Secret Voter in Your Brain.)

The second experiment showed subjects two similar brands of bubble gum. When given a chance to think about their choice, the subjects chose each brand about half the time. But, when instructed to choose quickly, 62% chose the first-viewed item and only 38% chose the second.

Both experiments indicate a bias toward the first item seen. This bias doesn’t overwhelm all other considerations, and the more a person thinks about a choice the less significant it will be. Still, to use my pet terminology, it’s a NeuroNudge that could help a customer finalize a choice.

As I described in Order Effect Affects Orders, primacy has been shown to be important in comparing similar products. Austrian researchers studied “recommender systems,” i.e., systems that help consumers choose the best product for their needs. Subjects were shown images and descriptions of tents that had various differences in configuration, closures, waterproofing, etc. The tents were displayed in random order. What they found was startling: the subjects did indeed prefer one tent over the rest, by a factor of 2.5 times. The surprise was that this preference wasn’t for one particular tent design; rather, the subjects greatly preferred whichever tent they saw first.

Brainy Takeaway

The lesson from all of this research is that leading with your most attractive product will help nudge customers toward purchasing that product. You can accomplish that with showing the products sequentially, by placing the desired product first on a multi-product display, or by drawing visual attention to that product so that it is viewed first.

Note that this is a nudge, not a big shove. The more the customer deliberates, the weaker the effect will be. And, sometimes, other strategies may work better – showing a customer an expensive product first to produce a price anchor, then a product that is similar but less expensive that will seem more of a bargain and be the likely choice. There’s also the recency effect, which can cause a preference for the last item seen if there’s a delay between viewing the items and the choice is made immediately after seeing the last one.

Still, purchase decisions often come down to small differences and subconscious leanings – in most cases, you should lead with your best option.