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Keeping Current
statements. For example, a tagline for
a pen was presented as, “The Pen For
You” and “The Pen For You?”
The Power of
Punctuation
“Got Milk?”
The popular catchphrase used by
the California Milk Processor Board
and uttered (no pun intended) by
dozens of celebrities successfully
encouraged Americans to drink more
cow’s milk. Promotional taglines
consisting of questions are at the
center of many high-profile marketing
campaigns, but are questions more
effective than declarative statements at
convincing consumers?
Henrik Hagtvedt, a marketing professor
at the Carroll School of Management
at Boston College, set out to answer
that question with his research into
whether using a period or question
mark affects consumer behavior. His
study is forthcoming in the Journal of
Consumer Psychology.
6
Coaching World
“I’ve long been interested in ambiguity
and uncertainty,” Hagtvedt said. “And
raising a question has that kind
of connotation to it—a little bit of
uncertainty because you’re asking
the consumer to think about this—to
reach his or her own conclusion.”
Hagtvedt measured consumers’
preferences for questions or
statements when they were excited
or nervous, and again when they were
calm, to determine if their state of
arousal influenced their responses.
He used either exciting or dull
photographs, as well as various kinds
of music, to induce high or low arousal
in participants.
He then measured how the participants
responded to promotional phrases
that were presented as questions or
Statements were more effective if
the consumer was stimulated or
excited. High arousal was correlated
with a preference for the kind of
straightforward communication a
simple statement provides.
“If you are highly aroused, you tend
to want clear information and know
exactly what’s going on—you don’t
really want to think about it; hence a
statement does better. Under high
arousal, the statements led to more
purchases than the questions did,”
Hagtvedt said.
Conversely, calm participants preferred
the promotional phrases framed as
questions because they provided
something engaging to think about.
“A question mark can pique interest
because you’re asked to think about
things on your own,” Hagtvedt said.
“You’re so used to getting all these
statements that being asked to actually
think about it on your own might be
slightly more interesting. Under normal
circumstances, where consumers
might be relatively relaxed or calm,
marketers may therefore benefit from
framing their promotional phrases as
questions rather than statements. “
When deciding how to structure
promotions, someone doing marketing
should be aware of the emotional state
the consumer is likely to be in when
she sees the advertisement. A banner
on a flashy or busy website may be
more effective if it contains simple
statements. The title of a white paper
may benefit from the use of a question
to engage the consumer.
—Lisa Barbella
Framing the Past,
Shaping the Future
Is there a relationship between our
perception of the past and our desire to
improve the future? According to a recent
study from Northwestern University, the
way we frame our life stories may have
a powerful effect on our impact in the
world later in life.
Psychological scientists Dan McAdams
and Jen Guo sought a connection
between generativity (defined as “a
concern for and commitment to
promoting the well-being of future
generations”) and a life story containing
the themes of personal redemption. Their
study focused on middle-aged residents
of the United States.
McAdams and Guo’s research team
interviewed 157 adults aged 55–57 in
intensive two- to three-hour sessions.
Each interviewee was asked to share
his or her life story as if it were a novel,
distilling it into a set of important
characters, key scenes and dominant
themes. The interviews were then coded
and screened for the presence of the five
themes of a redemption narrative.
As defined by the study, the protagonist
in a redemption narrative “(a) enjoys
an early advantage in life, (b) exhibits
sensitivity to the suffering of other people,
(c) develops a clear moral framework, (d)
repeatedly transforms