Retail therapy is often said to make up for a poor love life - and now new research has shown why.
A study has discovered that shoppers get the same level of emotionalexcitement from special offers as they do from sexual arousal.
Researchers have found that bargains make us so deliriously happy that the brain is turned on to the same level excitement that it gets from sex. And that is why they are such a successful way of selling items from the shelves.
Academics came to the conclusion after measuring brain activity in emotional areas of the mind, while volunteers carried out a number of activities including shopping and watching an erotic film.
They found a coupon or free gift with a jar of Marmite or a loaf of Kingsmill bread gave them just as much excitement as the pornography.
Researchers at the University of Westminster, used specialistequipment to monitored eye movements and emotionalresponses in the body to a series of everydayconsumer products in 50 volunteers.
Some featured special promotions like a discount coupon scheme or a free gift offer or an association with a favourite character like a Wallace and Gromit campaign. Other everyday groceries in the test featured no special offers and were the normal versions of well known brands.
The researchers used a system called iMotion which measures the body's emotionalresponses on a scale of one to 10. A high of 10 is the equivalent to severe trauma which is rarely seen and could be dangerous. But a score of between five and seven is the kind of excitement a body has to erotic images such as pornography.
One Marmite promotion, to get a free audiobook featuring the children's character Horrid Henry, registered a scored of up to 5.8 among the consumers. Others including a discount couple for Cravendale milk and a Wallace & Gromit free gift with Kingsmill bread also scored particularly highly among the early results.
The research has been commissioned by The Institute of Promotional Marketing and is yet to be completed, it was revealed in trade journalThe Grocer.
But the early results suggest the ones which get shoppers most excited in the tests have also been among the most successful commercially.
Colin Harper of the Institute said: "It's early days but these results indicate a correlation between high emotionalresponse and sales uplift."
(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
(Agencies)
人们常说购物疗法可以弥补一个人感情生活的不幸，如今有新的研究揭示了其中的原因。 一项研究发现，购物者们买到特价商品所获得的兴奋感，同他们性欲被唤起所获得的兴奋感程度相当。 研究人员发现，特价商品让人欣喜若狂，能让大脑产生同性爱中所获得的相同程度的兴奋感。这就是为什么特价销售的方法能够成功地卖出货架上商品的原因。 在志愿者们进行购物和观看色情电影等活动的同时，科研人员们对他们大脑情感区的活动进行了观测，从而得出了这一结论。 他们发现，一罐马麦酱或一条金斯米尔面包附赠的优惠券或免费礼品给他们带来的兴奋感和他们观看色情片时所获得的兴奋感一样多。 威斯敏斯特大学的研究人员利用专业设备对50位志愿者在看到一系列日常消费品时眼睛的活动和人体的情感反应进行了监控。 其中一些杂货店有特价促销活动，如赠送折扣券、提供免费礼品，或是与华莱士和小狗阿高这样讨人喜欢的卡通人物相结合的促销活动。其他在测试中涉及的日用品杂货店没有特价活动，只是照常销售知名品牌。 研究人员使用的是一种被称为iMotion的系统，该系统能测量身体的情绪反应，并按从1到10分级。最高的10级相当于严重的精神创伤，这一级别极为罕见，而且会很危险。而5到7级是身体在面对色情片等性爱画面时达到的兴奋水平。 有一个促销马麦酱的活动，购买者能免费获得一本儿童有声读物《调皮的亨利》，对此消费者的兴奋水平达到了5.8级。另外早期的结果显示，克莱文戴尔牛奶附赠的折扣券和金斯米尔面包附赠的超级无敌掌门狗免费礼品给消费者带来的兴奋感指数也很高。 据行业杂志《杂货商》透露，市场营销推广学会委托开展了这项研究，并且该研究还有待完成。 不过早期的结果已表明，测试中那些最令购物者们兴奋的商店也是一些经营得最成功的商店。 市场营销推广学会的科林•哈珀说："尽管研究还处于早期阶段，但是这些结果表明了强烈的情绪反应同营业额上升之间的相关性。"
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