Today in Digital Marketing

Get Your Science Out of Here: Consumers

Apr 14, 2023 | Industry Articles

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Today in Digital Marketing

The endless pursuit of we marketers is to convince consumers that our product or service is the answer to their problems. 

Need a pick-me-up in the middle of the day? Try our chocolate bar. 

Rats in your crawl-space? You need our remediation service.

There are lots of tactics we use:

  • comparing ourselves to competitors
  • telling people we have the best price
  • promising better customer service…
  • and lately, using science to try to convince prospects

But is that the right play? Especially in a world where some media have been convincing people that science is just opinion?

Aviva Philipp-Muller is an assistant professor in marketing at the Beedie School of Business, at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver — she and her colleagues recently published a paper in the Journal of Consumer Research called “Get Your Science Out of Here: When Does Invoking Science in the Marketing of Consumer Products Backfire

DR. PHILIPP-MULLER: What we found was that [if the product being marketed] is one where consumers are trying to indulge, or seek some sort of pleasure — like a really gooey chocolate chip cookie — consumers really hate it if there's any mention of the science behind creating that type of product.

It doesn't have to just be food; things like a sensual bodywash or rich and moisturizing lotion that's described in a really indulgent way, or if consumers are really looking to indulge or get some sort of pleasurable experience out of the product, They really don't want to hear about the scientific process behind it.

TOD: Science often uses the phrase “hedonistic” for that category, is that right? Would we consider these hedonistic products where science might backfire if used in marketing messaging?

DR. PHILIPP-MULLER: Yes. For hedonistic products, where you're just trying to gain pure pleasure from the product, you're not trying to get some sort of functional use out of it and it's not serving some sort of practical purpose in your life… for those types of products, [talking about] science is likely to backfire.

Our full conversation goes into much more detail, including what marketers can do to mitigate this backfire and whether she thinks consumers are becoming anti-science. 

The full unedited interview is available on our Premium Podcast Feed, which you can sign up for at TodayInDigital.com/premium

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Tod Maffin is a veteran tech-business journalist. He spent a decade as the National Technology Reporter for Canada’s public broadcaster, and has written for major publications like the New York Times, Globe and Mail, and more.

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