When consumers get mild doses of negative information about a product or service, news about the blemish may actually strengthen their positive impression say researchers. This finding could affect online ads or even face-to-face sales processes say Baba Shiv and Zakary Tormala of the Stanford Graduate School of Business
Accent the positive; eliminate the negative. Besides being the lyrics of an old Bing Crosby song, that phrase has been conventional wisdom for generations of marketers. After all, why would you want consumers to hear anything negative about your product? But like a lot of conventional wisdom, it doesn't stand up to serious scrutiny.
This piece originally appeared in Stanford Business Insights from Stanford Graduate School of Business. To receive business ideas and insights from Stanford GSB click here: (To sign up: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/about/emails)