Tapping the Psychology of Fun for Sales and ROI
Tapping the psychology of fun for sales and ROI takes work, because sometimes we marketers are so close to the trees, we can’t see the forest. Such is often the case with building customer experiences and journeys. It’s easy to download the latest template for mapping out each response to potential questions or needs along the customers pathway to “yes” and lifetime loyalty. And while that is critical for maintaining consistent touchpoints with a brand, it’s not where customer experience stops — or starts, for that matter.
Consumers are drawn to brands that make them smile, giggle or feel something beyond the routine by surprising them with creative experiences beyond any expectations. It’s not just experiences — like Apple’s Genius Bar and concierge style of selling — it’s little things that truly are delightful, fun and memorable. And its these little things that have a big impact.
Consider something as simple as this:
Every year, the charming town of Frisco, Colo., holds it annual BBQ challenge — featuring dozens of chefs, all competing for the People’s Choice award for best BBQ dish served. Most restauranteurs roll their retail trailers onto Main Street and set up their mobile kitchens in hopes of luring the crowd and getting votes for best brisket, ribs, pork and more. And to all the thousands of visitors roaming the streets for tasting and fun, they all look and smell the same. Except for one: The Golden Toad.
Rather than just set up a food station and hope a colorful trailer and fun logo draw the crowds, the Golden Toad cooks up a crowd by making its food station about fun — not just food. Throughout the event, employees play fun, energizing music from their cook station, which is set up like a stage so people can see their chefs at work. And throughout each day, those same chefs take to the streets, playing air band with guitar-size spatulas, rallying attention — which quickly results in the longest line of all. They engage the crowd in their fun, too. They hand out those supersized grill spatulas to young kids and invite them to join their jam, sharing the fun and delighting parents who get to see their kids doing something beyond the routine, too. Its fun. Its contagious and it drives sales volume and People’s Choice votes, earning them this coveted honor many times over.
Golden Toad doesn’t stop there, either. Once its attention-grabbing dance band draws a crowd for the performance and the food line, the commitment to making the customer experience positive and entertaining continues at a place most marketers neglect: the line for products or services. It’s no new news that we consumers are impatient and tend to abandon a purchasing mission if we get bored or antsy waiting in a long line. Golden Toad owners, “Toad” and Sara Jilbert counter this very real issue by installing a TV camera in their trailer, next to the cashiers, tuned strategically to whatever local sports are in play at the time. As a result, Golden Toad minimizes line abandonment from the consumers it drew with its fun, entertaining experience.
The psychology of fun and entertainment is real and needs to be front-and-center in all customer experiences for all brands. Wikipedia’s definition of “fun” includes the following insights:
“Fun is an experience often unexpected, informal or purposeless. It is an enjoyable distraction, diverting the mind and body from any serious task or contributing an extra dimension to it.”
We consumers live stressful lives. We need diversions from the stress of daily routines and the stress of shopping; especially when there are many choices to make, such as a huge BBQ challenge that lines several blocks on Main Street, USA. Little things that entertain and free our minds of routine energy and help ease our choices through fun diversions work. They work for all brands and in all industries. And they can work for you. All it takes is some imagination. Volkswagen, a few years ago, created a series of experiments and corresponding videos, called The Fun Theory. showing how behavior is changed for the better by adding fun to routine activities, such as choosing stairs over an escalator and using a bottle recycling station over a landfill-bound trash can. For example, by turning stairs into a musical keyboard, there was a 60% increase in usage.
Imagine if you could make your online or retail store shopping experience more fun and increase shopping transactions by 60%!
So change your routine. Go for a walk instead of sitting at your desk and let your mind have fun observing people around you — what draws them, what makes them stop their routine to engage and just have fun!
