The importance of expectations in the marketplace - blog 2

After reading the chapter from Predictably Irrational written by Dan Ariely I can point out that the primary lesson described in it is the fact that expectations have a strong influence on our life decisions. When we have a stereotype, or a knowledge that is previous to a decision-making, this one will be highly probable conditioned by these expectations. “When we believe beforehand that something will be good, therefore, it generally will be good” (Dan Ariely). The key is to find who creates those expectations.

This is really interesting and important for marketers if they want to gain valuable insights and consequently designing valuable experiences for them. Indeed, if they want to achieve this goal, they need to provide products or services according to their expectations, so marketers need to know how they think, their behaviours, who they would like to seem, what they expect in a service or a product. Nevertheless, knowing your customer is the most complicated part in a company. The empathy is one the most valuable aspect for being a good marketer. For instance, as Dan Ariely says we can not underestimate the power of presentation. How you place the food or the packaging of a product or the image of your campaign is essential because it is the first thing that your customers will see and with these issues, clients will begin to create their expectations.

Another thing that is remarkable to comment is that expectations also shape stereotypes. A stereotype is built on what it has seen before, this is the reason that I prefer to say that stereotypes shape expectations. One stereotype creates a set of expectations that make us acting differently. The good point for marketers is that some people are conscious of belonging to a stereotype and they buy according to it.

The main example that is provided in the chapter makes us realize of the importance of expectations. Two professors decided to investigate if a pre-knowledge of something has a power influence on the final result. They carried it out through a beer experiment.

The experiment consisted of tasting two different beers in different conditions and say which of those beers they prefer. The first beer was Budweiser and the second one was Budweiser but with balsamic vinegar (MIT Brew). The first part of the experiment was to give to taste the beers to some students without saying anything about the brands and about the added ingredient. The outcome was that people preferred the MIT Brew. The second part was to do the experiment again but saying before they taste that the first beer was a standard commercial beer and the second one contained balsamic vinegar. With this pre-knowledge people preferred the typical Budweiser. Even, it was demonstrated that people who did not know the first time what kind of beer they were having and afterwards they knew, they still preferred MIT Brew.

This experiment illustrates perfectly that marketers have to create knowledge and expectations before people evaluate their products or services. But an expectation is considered the most likely to happen so we cannot think that a good pre-knowledge will be the only thing to get a success.

The example that I would like to add is similar to the beer experiment. Some students of my University made a research about if people really distingue the quality of the clothes. Firstly, they showed two shirts without saying anything. One of them was an unknown brand, but the other was a Lacoste’s polo. The results of the study were not conclusive, so secondly, they decided to put the crocodile of Lacoste in the unknown shirt, and they took out the logo from the Lacoste’s polo. The results were incredible. The 85% of the students saw the fake shirt as the most quality shirt. It is surprising because it is a private school and people wear always brands.