The findings suggest that, for example, if
a product mainly attracts present-oriented
people, there's no use advertising release
dates far in advance.
Image: iStockphoto
A researcher at Queensland University of Technology has found out how advertisers can appeal to different types of people, based on whether they live for the moment or plan ahead.
Professor Brett Martin, from QUT's School of Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations, said marketing depended on the "temporal orientation" of potential customers, that is, whether they were future-oriented people who focused on the long-term or present-oriented people who focused on the short-term.
"Businesspeople need to be aware of how their customers view time so they can market to them in a way that maximises sales," Professor Martin said.
"This means 'time marketing' - presenting information that consumers value and which will capture their attention, and being aware of how time preferences affect consumers. This also has implications for publicity efforts."
Professor Martin, who specialises in researching the psychology of advertising, conducted experiments with 882 consumers to determine what types of information appeal to people with different views of the future. The results were published in the Journal of Advertising.
"Future-oriented people pay attention to key product features like the performance of a BMW, whereas present-oriented people can be influenced by secondary features, like the location of the nearest car dealer," he said.
Professor Martin said prior research suggested future-oriented people planned for their future, while present-oriented people adopted a more reactive approach to life.
"Present-oriented people are more likely to buy on impulse, (for example) the chocolate bar in the check-out queue at the supermarket, the clothing on sale, splashing out on the credit card," he said.
"Whereas a future-oriented person may deny themselves to save for something."
Professor Martin found that present-oriented people are more susceptible to advertising that was set close to the present but disregarded future product releases set more than a few days in the future.
"The implication is that advertisers are wasting their money publicising some product release dates if their target consumer is present-oriented," he said.
"In today's time pressured society, time marketing is the key."
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
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