Despite its merits, online shopping has a severe disadvantage: Customers can't touch the products they find on the Internet. Is tactile sensation a concern, even if you don't sell products such as hand lotion or clothing, where feeling is a factor of quality? 

Surprisingly, yes. Researchers have discovered that many consumers use touch to gather information or make judgments, even when an item's physical form has nothing to do with its value. Some people have a high need for touch—feeling products and packaging creates a pleasurable or fun experience for them. For these people, a pleasant or even a neutral sensation creates a positive reaction that can carry over to their judgment of the product.

While product packaging and point-of-purchase displays can obviously benefit from a shopper's interest in touch, companies can also use tactile stimuli in direct mail and print advertising. "Recent trends in advertising have focused on the experiential and aesthetic aspects of communication," the report states. "Incorporating touch may be the next step in adding a hedonic or experiential aspect to advertising and other marketing communications." Even people who are not tactile can be influenced by touch because they can see its relevance to the message.

The Po!nt: The way your product feels can affect how much consumers like it, even when touch has no relevance in determining whether the product is good or not. Communications that incorporate physical sensation is a subject area ripe for experimentation.

Source: "It Just Feels Good: Customers' Affective Response to Touch and Its Influence on Persuasion" by Joann Peck and Jennifer Wiggins. Journal of Marketing, 2006. Click here for a PDF of the report.

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