December 4, 2011
Supersize is a very large portion of fast food. At McDonald’s it once referred to the largest size of French fries (7-ounce) and soft drinks (42-ounce). After taking a customer’s order, employees would ask, ‘Would you like that Supersized?’
The 2004 documentary ‘Super Size Me’ is often credited with associating the term with obesity and unhealthy portions sizes. The movie followed one man’s month-long McDonald’s diet. McDonald’s began to phase out the Super Size option from their menu in the spring of 2004, and by the end of the year it was gone completely.
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December 4, 2011
Upselling is a sales technique whereby a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. Upselling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products but can also be simply exposing the customer to other options that were perhaps not considered previously.
Upselling implies selling something that is more profitable or otherwise preferable for the seller instead of, or in addition to, the original sale. A different technique is cross-selling in which a seller tries to sell something else.
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December 4, 2011
The Ben Franklin effect is a psychological finding: A person who has done someone a favor is more likely to do that person another favor than they would be if they had received a favor from that person. Similarly, one who harms another is more willing to harm them again than the victim is to retaliate.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, who famously observed the effect and for whom it is named, ‘He that has once done you a Kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.’
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December 4, 2011
The door-in-the-face (DITF) technique is a persuasion method whereby a persuader attempts to convince someone to comply with a request by first making an extremely large request that the respondent will obviously turn down, with a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader’s face. The respondent is then more likely to accede to a second, more reasonable request than if this second request were made without the first, extreme request.
Psychology and marketing professor Robert Cialdini suggests this as a form of reciprocity, i.e. the (induced) sharp negative response to the first request creates a sense of debt or guilt that the second request offers to clear, and the reduced second request is interpreted by the receiver as a concession which is reciprocated by compliance with the request. Alternately, a reference point (or framing) construal may explain this phenomenon, as the initial bad offer sets a reference point from which the second offer looks like an improvement.
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