Good posture has been shown to affect more than just height: it increases mood, power, confidence, memory, and physical wellbeing. But could it also affect consumer behavior? Our research has shown that making customers feel good results in increased sales, so maybe if stores could subliminally encourage customers to straighten up, sales will go up, too.
Researchers at San Francisco State University looked at how body posture affects depression, asking subjects to rate their energy level after walking in a slouched position or or skipping in an opposite arm and leg pattern (a.k.a. “cross crawl skipping”). The subjects felt less energetic after slouched walking and much more energetic after skipping.
“Almost all participants reported that the subjective experience of opposite arm/leg skipping felt more energetic, happier, positive, or evoked happy childhood memories,” the researchers noted in an article published in Biofeedback. “They reported that the subjective experience of slouched walking often felt sad, lonely, isolated, sleepy, accompanied by a feeling of ‘wanting to just sit down,’ or ‘zombie-like.'”
This got us thinking about a study we recently performed in partnership with Ipsos to assess how giving customers a flower would affect their shopping behavior. We found that giving a shopper a gerbera daisy positively changed mood, decreased price sensitivity, shifted focus to products instead of price, increased the number of products put into the basket, and increased basket size. Perhaps giving shoppers subtle hints to improve their posture would result in similar changes in behavior.
Cues could be added to in-store signage, with copy like “skip into savings” to bring skipping to mind or “savings stand tall” to encourage standing tall. Accompanying images of happy people skipping along or standing up straight would reinforce the visual signal.
Another way to encourage good posture and improve mood would be to play upbeat, happy music that makes people want to move. A study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that dancing and music both “enhanced positive affect, decreased negative affect and reduced feelings of fatigue.”
When people have good posture, they feel good. When people feel good, they buy more. Retailers that help their customers to stand up straight may also help their bottom line.
Tags: Behavioral ScienceConsumer BehaviorDecision MakingExperiencing SelfEye TrackingGroceryMass MerchantsRetailShopper Research