On Florida International University Week: Ads want you to believe their product is for you, but what if they told you the opposite?
Jaclyn Tanenbaum, faculty director at the Master of Science in Marketing program and associate teaching professor, examines what happens.
Jaclyn Tanenbaum earned her Bachelor of Science in Business and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Central Florida and her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Marketing from Florida International University. Before FIU, Jaclyn worked at advertising and branding agencies to design and implement marketing plans and strategies for clients in various industries, including Travel, Tourism & Hospitality, Casino Gaming, Health & Beauty, and Fashion & Retail. She was the market research manager for a major cruise line, where she developed brand, advertising, product development, customer experience, distribution channel, and employee research studies. Her findings shaped the cruise line’s brand positioning, messaging, marketing strategy, and product offerings. She is considered an expert in corporate marketing research and maintains strong industry ties with top-level executives from her prior employment.
Since joining FIU, Jaclyn has had a significant impact on the Marketing department. She revamped the three undergraduate Marketing Research courses, took the lead on the Marketing Research & Data Analysis Certificate program for undergraduate Marketing majors and minors, created a new Marketing Research course, and co-developed another course for the department’s Master of Science in Marketing (MSM) program, the program which she currently serves as the Faculty Director. She was awarded the department’s Award for Teaching Innovation in 2018 and MSM’s Best Professor Award by three consecutive cohorts. Jaclyn’s five-year average on the Students’ Perceptions of Teaching Survey (SPOTS) is 4.5 out of 5.
In addition to being one of the top-rated faculty members in the Marketing department, Jaclyn completed her Ph.D. in Business Administration at FIU. As a doctoral student, she was awarded the prestigious AMA-Sheth Fellowship and presented some of her work at the Winter 2017 AMA conference. Her research interests include luxury branding and luxury product consumption, advertising and framing effects, sales strategy, and marketing education management. Jaclyn’s scholarly work has been published in some of the top journals in the marketing field, including the Journal of Consumer Research and Marketing Letters. She has appeared in several FIU Biz News articles and video segments. She continues to serve as a marketing, marketing research, and luxury branding expert for the college and in the industry.
This Academic Minute Isn’t For Everyone
Marketers spend billions trying to persuade consumers that a product is the right fit for them. But our research shows that sometimes the most effective way to sell something is to say who it isn’t for, or in other words, to dissuade them by letting them know the product may not be a fit for them.
We call this “dissuasive framing.” Instead of telling people directly that a product is perfect for them, we highlight who might not be the right match. Surprisingly, that simple shift can make a big difference.
In a series of experiments, we compared persuasive and dissuasive messages across a wide range of products—everything from coffee and salsa to mattresses and toothbrushes. Take dark roast coffee, for example. One ad says, “If you like dark roast, this is the coffee for you.” Another says, “If you don’t like dark roast, this isn’t the coffee for you.”
Most marketers assume the first version would work better. But among people who actually prefer dark roast, the second message consistently outperformed it.
You might think it’s about fear of missing out, or reverse psychology, but we ruled out those explanations and found that what really drives the effect is the perception of a stronger match between personal preference and product attributes.
Why? People assume that if a product isn’t meant for everyone, it must be more specialized. That sense of specificity makes those in the target audience feel the product was designed just for them.
We even saw this play out in a real-world Facebook ad campaign for a toothbrush brand, where the dissuasive frame generated higher engagement than the persuasive one, despite using the exact same image and copy.
The takeaway? In crowded marketplaces, telling the wrong customers “this isn’t for you” can actually help the right ones feel that it is.
Read More:
[Journal of Consumer Research] – This Article Is Not for Everyone: The Impact of Dissuasive Framing on Consumer Response to Product Messages
[LinkedIn] – New Florida International University – College of Business research finds that saying a product isn’t for everyone can actually attract the right customers.
[FIU Business] – Meet the Experts: Professor Jaclyn Tanenbaum on Marketing Research
[FIU Business] – Meet The Experts: The Art of Presenting Data Research with Jaclyn Tanenbaum
[FIU Business] – Office Hours: The Benefits of Sports Marketing & Stadium Partnerships
[FIU Business Now Magazine] – Return Policies Become a Balancing Act for Retailers
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