Predictably Irrational

Some ideas for tomorrow's presentation in class:

• Society is driven by social norms and market norms.  Increasingly so, as we drive toward individuality and specialization we readily swap out social norms for market norms.  However, sometimes social norms are more effective in creating desired behavior.  Example, setting prices for a yoga class versus donation based yoga.  More often, people will end up paying more than if you asked them for specified amount.  The idea is that the social norms surrounding that market drives willingness to pay, whereas if you tell people a quantifiable amount there is a solid number upon which customers place and generate perceptions of entitlement or disentitlement.

• Pre-commitments are tools driven by both social and market norms that can be used to drive certain behavior and attitudes.  Pre-committments influence how we act, think, and feel about certain products, services, and people.  
• Regular service schedules for new cars are commitments that shape the perception of customers over the quality of a car.  If they had to come in whenever one of several thousand parts needed maintenance, it would make the car seem like a lemon.  However, by creating the commitment to 10K, 25K and 60K service schedules, the consumers think their car is a good purchase.
• Keep-the-change is a program installed by Bank of America that rounds off purchase to the nearest dollar and takes the "change" into another account which accumulates and is deposited into a savings account.  This commitment targets behavior and customers don't think about it.  Rather, it is a product that is just done and "done."
• Relief efforts for disasters are meant to affect consumer attitudes by appealing to their feelings about a cause.  Consumers are meant to just feel its a worthy cause.

• Pre-commitments also serve as self-control mechanism.  Technology is capable of allowing us to save automatically for goals that we set for ourselves (ex. Smartypig.com).  Car systems are set so that if a teenager's car goes above a speed limit, the car can automatically be slow down, or a parent can be notified.  These are examples of "commitments"   

a bit on "Pride" (before I forget)

http://books.google.com/books?id=joIPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA68&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U13rdUh9piY_wPWlAnOKoXFK9rsbw&ci=536%2C977%2C422%2C416&edge=0

--
Amos Jesse Cruz
Graduate Student
MBA/MPP, International Development
University of Maryland, College Park

More is less...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: amos cruz <amosjessecruz@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 10:08 PM
Subject: More is less...
To: blogger.com


I attended the career services event tonight, where Dr. K gave us the 411 on what was going on with the office of career services and what we, as a community and school, needed to do together to improve our "brand" and our success in developing our careers and future opportunities.

One of the challenges he pointed out was the fact that even candidates who seemingly were well qualified for a position ran into roadblocks and rejections. He emphasized that it was important to remember that the interview process was a dialogue, and it was important to maintain a level of self-awareness. By not having this self-awareness and dialogue, he pointed out, recruiters were intimidated and essentially, the candidates over-sold themselves and tried too hard.

Similarly, I had recently had a similar discussion with a classmate about how some of the others in our classes sometimes get so focused on a point in the class conversation, that, even after the professor has moved onto a new topic, they insist on sharing their point from 10-minutes ago, despite the obvious irrelevance. Obsolescence in class discussions is sometimes hard to distinguish, but given the 8-week class term, concision and relevance are key.

All this resonates to a point of intuition that I shared with a friend recently. It seems intuitive that in the classroom, in the interview, or life in general, when we have a set goal of making an impression, that we would do whatever we can to make a good impression and achieve that goal. It would seem counter-intuitive to stay silent or hold back and not unload one's arsenal of knowledge. However, it is often the counter-intuitive action that produces the more desirable result. If the content is irrelevant, then what purpose does it serve?

There is a saying: "More is less"

It is a title of one of the readings in my Consumer Behavior class, and though I am conscious of drawing too many parallels between business-speak and real life, there is sense to the point. In the face of "more" or too much information in this case, the audience, or consumer, or interviewer, is put in the position where they have to do more work than they may have expected. Consequently, walls go up, the consumer decides to hold of on a purchase, the interviewer withdraws and in so doing overlooks the interviewee.

I remember the first time I went to a grocery store after 3 years in the South Pacific and limited cereal options. I stood gazing down the aisle filled from top to bottom with cereal boxes all the colors of the rainbow. I couldn't decided and bought nothing. Eventually, I came back, but the initial shock stuck with me.

Self-awareness and consciousness of an audience (in every sense) is vital to deciding where one lies on the spectrum between "more" and "less." One can talk too much, but can also talk too little. Patience and a commitment to an exchange produces much more value than any over-excited or indifferent approach.

I am constantly humbled by these reminders and can only hope/strive for a level of self-awareness that generates mutual benefit for everything and everyone in my life...

--
Amos Jesse Cruz
Graduate Student
MBA/MPP, International Development
University of Maryland, College Park