In our Mind The Gap series, we share behavioural marketing insights to close the attitude/behaviour gap and boost FMCG sales, so your sustainability-focused challenger brand can break into the mainstream market. Today, we’re digging into the science that shows why sharing your flaws, or even negative reviews, might actually make your brand more appealing. It’s called The Pratfall Effect…
In 1959, American VW began running a print ad campaign for the Beetle with the headline “it’s ugly but it gets you there”.
Another referenced the size of the car using the line “Think Small”, and a third drew attention to the car’s slow speed in the body copy: “A VW won’t go over 72 mph. (Even though the speedometer shows a wildly optimistic top speed of 90).”
Day 1 of marketing school teaches us to focus on selling benefits, not features. So why would brands draw attention to their flaws?
Ad Age ranked the VW campaign as the best ad of the 20th century. In 1963, while the campaign was running, VW sold more vehicles in the US than any other imported car brand had ever sold.
The agency behind the campaign repeated the approach with car hire firm Avis, using the tagline: “When you’re only number two you try harder. Or else” – emphasising the car rental’s unpopularity compared to Hertz.
Within a year of the campaign launching, Avis made a profit of over $1.2 million – the first time they had broken even in a decade.
The approach was so successful it ran for more than 50 years. But why?
In 1966 Harvard psychologist Elliot Aronson and his colleagues recorded an actor answering a series of quiz questions. Primed with the right responses, he got 92% of the questions correct, and then pretended to spill a cup of coffee over himself – a small blunder, or pratfall.
Two groups of students were shown the footage, and asked how likeable the contestant was. One group saw the footage with the spill, one without.
The students found the clumsy contestant more likeable. Aronson said:
“The pratfall made the contestant more appealing as it increases his approachability and makes him seem less austere, more human.”
Admitting weakness is a tangible demonstration of honesty, which in turn makes other claims more believable.
In a world where brands regularly overstate their benefits, cosmetics companies claim their products can reverse the flow of time, and advertising agencies even make up words to oversell, could flaunting your flaws help you stand out and sell more?
Stella Artois ran the award-winning “Reassuringly Expensive” campaign for 26 years, transforming the brand’s fortunes. Guinness publicised the slowness of their pour with “Good things come to those who wait“.
So what’s the secret to the best straplines that leverage the Pratfall Effect?
By admitting a weakness, brands credibly establish a related positive attribute, and cement this in our minds.
Guinness may not be the fastest to pour, but it’s worth the wait. Avis don’t have the highest sales figures, but they work hard to make you happy.
Budget airlines successfully leveraged the trade-off effect when they first launched. They openly admitted that the trade-off for cheap prices was compromised services – small luggage allowance and no seat reservations. If they hadn’t admitted this, customers might have assumed the cost-cutting came at the cost of safety.
Millennials – the generation with the biggest spending power – are typically skeptical of brands. They tend to give their loyalty to brands that are transparent and align with their core values.
As a result, self depreciating marketing is everywhere. Alt-milk brand Oatly are known for their cheeky, disruptive approach, running ads that highlight how not everyone likes the taste of their alt-milk.
French plant-based food brand La Vie ran a pre-launch campaign before coming to London, with self-deprecating copy including ‘the best plant-based bacon in town that isn’t available in town,’ aiming to leave an impression with locals and get the product into UK supermarkets.
Leveraging the pratfall effect is about more than just the copy in your ads.
A 2015 study by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Centre analysed 111,460 product reviews across 22 categories and linked ratings to probability of purchasing.
It found that likelihood of purchase doesn’t peak with perfect scores – but at 4.2-4.5 out of 5.
While it’s tempting to only highlight 5* reviews, negative reviews can actually help establish trust and authenticity. Customers are smart, and they understand that a product can’t be all things to all people.
Will it work for you?
As with all behavioural tactics, you need to consider your audience demographics. Kay Deaux, Professor of Psychology at New York City University, conducted an experiment in 1972 that found that men are more swayed by the pratfall effect than women.
If your brand targets men then leveraging your weaknesses is an approach you should seriously consider.
However, it’s not without risk. Self-deprecation only works when negative brand discourse is relatively benign.
Thanks to social media, audiences have never had more control over brand narratives. Any campaign leveraging this strategy should be grounded in social listening to monitor and adapt to audience response.
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