The Own Zone

The concept of owning a product starts well before checkout. Businesses use perceived ownership to nudge consumers into making purchases. To begin our podcast Rachel shares news that she is leaving Shaduf to move to Crumbl Cookies. This rolls right into Westin’s grand explanation of the dad tax; hide your candy around him! We will miss Rachel and wish her well in her new adventure.

Perceived ownership influences our day to day lives and the decisions we make around these items. This is a correlated affect whether you own the product or not. A relatable feeling to not owning the product but still having a perceived ownership connection is when students have their specific spots in the classroom at school. They don’t own the room or the seat but still feel entitled to a specific spot inside the classroom. Like business professionals and their office space, they do not own the space but feel connected to the space.

just touching an item has a powerful manipulative effect on perceived ownership thus increasing the likelihood of consumers to buy.

“The Effect of Mere Touch on Perceived Ownership” shows that just touching an item has a powerful manipulative effect on perceived ownership thus increasing the likelihood of consumers to buy. Door to door salesmen practice this technique by having their potential consumers handle their products to increase the likelihood to buy. Once a person feels like they own the product then they value it much more and have a fear of losing it. This relationship is not universal with all products. Some products or commodities that are easily traded or given away don’t necessarily maintain the perceived ownership feelings.

Paper money falls under the perceived ownership category and it makes it harder for us to exchange paper currency for goods. On the opposite side, Venmo or digital purchases do not have that ownership relationship and makes it easier for all of us to spend frivolously.

Get your product into people’s hands, don’t talk their ear off and explain how it works. For business services that don’t have a tangible product, create a video from the perspective of the user. Without faces or of other customers, you don’t want your potential customers to think that they can’t purchase your service because someone else already has. The point of view from the consumer will help them latch onto the idea of buying the service.