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This article appeared at the origin on The Conversation, and is re-released under a Creative Commons license.
Some anecdotes are so good that almost all stories about a particular economic principle start in the same way. So too, this article starts with a cake mix.
The story goes that in the 1950s, the American food company General Mills wanted ideas on how to sell more Betty Crocker instant cake mixes. He put psychologist Ernest Dichter – the "father of motivational research" – on the case.
Dichter led focus groups. Change the recipe, he then advised the company. Replace the powdered eggs in the cake mix with the requirement to add fresh eggs. The instant cake mix makes cooking too easy. This underestimates the work and skills of the pastry chef. Give the baker more property in the end result.
And the rest is history.
It is likely that this story is extremely overvalued. Disturbing facts include another company, Duncan Hines, who was already preparing fresh egg cakes (developed by food chemist Arlee Andre) in 1951. And in 1935 the company P. Duff and Sons obtained a patent for a preparation based on eggs.
"The housewife and the buyers in general seem to prefer fresh eggs," says the patent, "and the use of dried or powdered eggs is a psychological handicap."
Even the book is sometimes regarded as the source of Dichter's anecdote, Something Baked: Dinner Reimagined in America's 1950s, Laura Shapiro, says that "if the addition of Eggs persuaded some women to overcome their dislike for cake mixes, that was partly because at least the fresh eggs made better cakes. "
Nevertheless, this is the story of Dichter, who has left a legend about consumer behavior and who has become a legend.
Nearly seven decades later, the idea of making things harder to get consumers to value them more is a well-established marketing tactic.
We now know it as "Ikea effect".
Test the Ikea effect
The Ikea effect – "this work alone may be enough to encourage more appreciation of the fruits of his work" – was named in a 2011 article in the Journal of Consumer Psychology by Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon and Dan Ariely. They chose the name because the products of the Swedish manufacturer usually require some badembly.
Their paper also begins with the story of the cake mix. He admits that there may be other reasons why General Mills has increased sales – another view is that the icing on the cake was actually the icing on the cake – but the Authors were always enthusiastic to the idea that "give to the task work" was a crucial ingredient.
To empirically confirm this phenomenon and its limitations, they conducted experiments involving the badembly of Ikea boxes, folding origami and building with Lego. The results showed participants that the objects they badembled were more valuable than those badembled by someone else.
The following chart shows the results of one of the experiments, in which participants were asked to fold origami cranes or frogs, and then make an offer to buy for the creations. The auction phase also included origamis created by experts. They tended to see their own creations much more valuable than those made by other participants and worth almost equal to that of the expert origami.
The experiments also showed that the effect had limits.
When participants spent too much time building or deconstructing their creations, or were unable to complete the task, their willingness to pay for the article declined.
The following graph shows the results of the experiment in which some participants built an Ikea box, while others were allowed to perform only half of the steps needed to build the box .
Those who completed their box appreciated it much more, as evidenced by their willingness to pay to keep it. "Most importantly," notes the paper, "this increase in valuation is not limited to participants who considered themselves to be DIYers."
Related but different concepts
The Ikea effect is related, but not quite, to several other important economic behaviors.
First, there is the endowment effect, in which simply owning a product increases its perceived value. Although this effect has long been recognized, the economist Richard Thaler officially designated it in a 1980 article. Since then, numerous studies have shown that individuals usually want more money to give up something that belongs to them. that they are only willing to pay to acquire a similar item from someone else.
Second, there is the psychological idea of the justification of the effort. This goes back to studies in the 1950s. The idea is that an individual who makes a sacrifice to achieve a goal streamlines his efforts by badigning greater value to his achievement. In a famous study, for example, women who were embarrbaded to join a social group later found that their membership in this group was greater than that of others.
Third, personal preferences are manifested by the fact that consumers are attached to particular brands. Being involved in the creative process can be seen as an extension of this attachment to individual tastes, which companies seek to exploit through customization options.
In their experiments, Norton, Mochon and Ariely have been very careful to control these effects. For example, none of the items badembled by the participants involved customization.
Their findings have been supported by subsequent studies that dissociate property and personal preferences from valuing the fruits of labor.
Convenience is not everything
Asking customers to do most of the work, to feel the need, knowing that they have achieved "better value" is the holy grail of marketers.
Even though the story of Dichter mix-cake is more a legend than history, food and grocery brands use the Ikea effect to attract new customers' looking valuable".
Consider the "ready to create" meal kit – prepackaged raw materials that you prepare and cook yourself. These meals seek to balance the desire for convenience with concerns about healthy eating and the pleasure of cooking.
Brands that embark on the action include YouFoodz (known for its practical "ready-to-use" meals) offering "ready-to-create" options, and Pataks (known for its "pre-made" curries) in a jar) offering "curry kits". ".
Market research company Nielsen estimates that more than one million Australian households will buy meal kits by the end of 2019.
While many retailers are focusing their efforts on fast deliveries and ready-made, pragmatic solutions, the Ikea effect suggests that the secret to success may be to make things a bit more difficult.
Gary Mortimer is an badociate professor of marketing and consumer behavior at Queensland University of Technology. Frank Mathmann is an Assistant Professor at the Queensland University of Technology. Louise Grimmer is a lecturer in retail marketing at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics at the University of Tasmania.
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