How do companies use mere-exposure effect?
https://www.psychreg.org/mere-exposure-effect/
https://www.starbucksfaster.com/post/50543351758/customers-like-you-more-than-you-think
How do companies use mere-exposure effect?
Mere-exposure effect is a psychological effect in which people tend to prefer something simply because they are more familiar with them. It is also called familiarity principle, and this is one of the important tactics that companies use in order to increase their sales through advertisement. A test that was conducted on college student showed banner ads that appeared on the computer screen while they were asked to read an article online. After they read the article, students were to choose a favorable products among few, and students who had the banner with the product was likely to choose that specific product. The cognitive memory of the advertisement gave psychological effect of engraving the brand image in a student’s head which lead them to choose it over other products. Another example could be how Starbucks advertise their products. Every single coffee cup they give to customer has their logo printed largely on the side of the cup. Such projection of their logo gives repetitive image of linking coffee with Starbucks, and it has greatly contributed to their branding effect.
However, some scientists warn that not all exposure cause positive feedback. When the advertisement gives a negative image of the product, the advertisement would rather spread a negative image of the product; even if the customers are familiar with the product with repetitive exposure to it, they would not buy the product. Since buyer still buys based on what they like, it is important to keep positive or neutral image at least in order to hold the mere-exposure effect.
I found this interesting since it slightly contradicts with the idea of mere-exposure effect and each company must consider the image that it presents about the product through the advertisement in order to have a positive use of mere-exposure effect.