Social proof has been shown to influence consumers in so many different circumstances that marketers should consider using it within their messaging, says ZenithOptimedia’s Richard Shotton.
There are so many opinion polls being produced in the run up to the general election that it’s hard to keep track. However, there will be a brief respite on Thursday.
It’s actually illegal to publish forecasts based on exit polls whilst voting is still going on. This is no ancient piece of legislation but an Act from 2002. There have even been calls by Labour peers to extend the ban to include all polls in the run up to the vote. This type of restriction already exists in Italy, Spain, India and France. According to a ComRes poll 30% of MPs would support such a ban.
So why do these restrictions exist? It seems ridiculous to suggest that voters could be influenced so easily. However, there’s academic evidence that majority opinion can sway voters.
In 1994 Goidel and Shield published a study of 180 University of Kentucky students in the Journal of Politics. Participants were randomly assigned to one of nine groups with each group receiving different information about which candidate was most likely to win.
The researchers found that the supposed popularity of candidates significantly influenced voters. Undecided voters, the most impressionable group, were twice as likely to vote for a candidate if they were expected to win.
Robert Cialdini, professor of marketing at Arizona State University, has shown that ‘social proof’ works in situations beyond politics. In a classic experiment he worked with an American hotel chain to encourage guests to re-use their towels.
His control message, which reminded guests of the environmental benefits, was successful amongst 35% of guests.
The social proof message, in contrast, simply stated that most people re-used their towels. This version, shorn of any rational message, boosted uptake to 44%. This is not a one-off finding. The results from this experiment have been duplicated in environments ranging from restaurants to iTunes, from weight gain to tax returns.
Social proof has been shown to influence consumers in so many different circumstances that marketers should consider using it within their messaging. Luckily it’s easy to apply. Messages which communicate being a market leader, the absolute volume or rapid growth of sales or even the scale of Facebook fans – all of these tap into the phenomenon.
However, before marketers rush to brag about their size they should heed the final twist to Cialdini’s experiment. He ran a third message asking people to re-use their towels because most people in their room had done so. This tenuous link boosted re-use rates up to 49%. Just like in this election local issues are often key.
