A couple weeks ago, my mom and I were peacefully walking
through the mall when a lady at the Lancôme counter stopped us and said they
were giving away free gift packages. Each package had a bunch of little samples
of some of their products. Of course, my mom wanted to stop and look at
everything. That’s how it begun… the saleswoman got her foot in the door. The
foot in the door technique is when someone asks for a small initial request
(stopping to pick up a free gift package) that sets the stage to get the target
person to comply with a larger request (Freedman & Fraser, 1966). After my
mom got her free gifts, the lady then asked her to look at their new line of
skin lotions. This was the larger request. She wanted my mom to buy a new product.
In addition to using the foot in the door technique, the
norm of reciprocity also came into effect. The norm of reciprocity states that
we treat other people as they have treated us. (Gouldner, 1960). In this case,
the saleswoman had given my mom a free gift and had spent a good chunk of her
time being friendly and chatting with us. Subconsciously, my mom felt like she
needed to buy one of the Lancôme products in return for this lady’s time and
for getting the free gift package. From the beginning of this whole ordeal, I
was irritated that we had stopped at all and I could see how this was
unfolding. I tried to be like hey mom… you don’t need any of that. But she
started coming up with all kinds of other reasons she needed the products to
justify her behavior.
Of course, she ended up buying some of their products. After
we left, I asked if she really needed any of that. Her answer was no and she
couldn’t explain why she’d bought them anymore. A couple days later, she ended
up taking all of it back. That lady had been very persuasive, taking advantage
of the foot in the door technique and the norm of reciprocity. My mom couldn’t
help it but comply with her requests. Next time, she needs to defend herself by
not accepting the free gift package at all and if she does, know that its free
and she doesn’t owe that saleswoman anything (Cialdini, 2009)!
References:
Cialdini, R. B.
(2009). Influence: Science and Practice
(5th edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Freedman, J. L.
& Fraser, S. C. (1966). Compliance without pressure: The foot-in-the-door
technique. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 4, 195-202.
Gouldner, A. W.
(1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25, 161-178.
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I have had experiences like this so many times! I feel like the people who sells things at kiosks and counters in balls have gotten really persistent. I usually try to look as unfriendly as possible but they are not easy to detour.
ReplyDeleteMy mom on the other hand doesn't give them the time of day. It always embarrasses me because I feel like she is being rude but now that I realize all the manipulative techniques they use I don't feel so bad.
I'm glad I'm taking social psychology now, because I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've fallen for the "foot-in-the-door" technique or experienced "norm of reciprocity" while shopping. I remember one instance that still upsets me to this day; similar to your mom, I had walked by the Chanel counter at Dillard's to by my absolute favorite perfume, Chanel, Chance. I guess I might have set myself up for the foot-in-the-door technique, but dang, she was a good sales woman! We talked for a little bit, I told her about the date I was going on (the reason why I was buying the perfume), and then she convinced me to buy BLUE waterproof eyeliner and hot pink blush. She convinced me to buy them! Am I living in the 80s?? Why did I just spend $150 on make up I had no interest in buying before I went into the store? Having a lot of pride, I, unlike your mom, couldn't bring myself to return the make up. I still can't believe I bought that make up, and I'm sure there are under my sink at home. After that experience I just order my perfume online because I had such buyers remorse.
ReplyDeleteSalespeople really understand how to get people to buy stuff they don't need, but think they need. Through the use of their silver tongue they are able to put you into situations that make you feel responsible, maybe even guiltily enough to buy their products because they treated you so nicely. I remember one time going to the store for a very specific item. I only needed one little old cable, max cost $20 bucks. When I got their however, they had run out of stock and I would have to wait for them to ship in more products. They guy felt so "terrible" that he showed me to similar (albeit extremely overpriced: $40) products and said maybe because we weren't able to get exactly what I came for he could give me a 10% percent discount on the item. Wow I thought, what a great deal. The guy was so nice, so clever in his speech patterns that he was able to make me feel like I owed him something because he was able to find a suitable replacement component and was going to give me a discount. So I bought the item I didn't even need, nor came to the store to get. I wanted to spend 20, I spent 30. Damn salespeople really know their tactics.
ReplyDelete