How Height Embodies Your Thinking – The Height of Marketing
Christopher Philip
Research by University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management has found that not only does standing tall boost your mental processes but so too does sitting on a high chair or take up an upper level position in a tall building.
In fact, the research has found that even the perception of being higher affects how we process information and make decisions.
As part of the research, participants were seated at various heights as well as various floors of a building. They were also primed for height by playing word searchers containing words including “high” or “low.”
Results found that when people figured they were higher up such as on a tall stool or the top floor of a building, they were more likely to use “big-picture” thinking to important decisions including financial planning – so called the “50,000-foot view” or “street level” approach to decisions.
The research mirrors previous embodied findings including the correlation between physical distance and mental distance as well as physical warmth and mental warmth.
The implications say that people are more likely to purchase a book with serious subject matter when it is located on the second floor of a bookstore and a lighter read on the ground or basement level. Likewise, the upper level of a shopping mall is where people are more likely to purchase an unassembled piece of furniture whereas the lower level would tend to attract more pre-assembled products.
The researchers note the wider marketing implications: “It may be more effective for stores located on a higher level of a mall to promote rich features, superior functions, or performance of their products,” noted Aggarwal. “It may be more effective for stores on a lower level to promote feasibility aspects such as high convenience or ease of usage for their products,” he added.
Resources
Aggarwal, Pankaj and Min Zhao. Seeing the Big Picture: The Effect of Height on the Level of Construal. Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming; 2019