Hype sucks

I discovered another insightful blog: Science Daily. It's an encyplopedia of insightful studies that have serious implications on business practices.

Science Daily published a study of assistant professor Vanessa Patrick (University of Georgia) along with co-authors Debbie MacInnis and C. Whan Park (University of Southern California): “Marketing: Too Much Hype Backfires.” The study shows that “people take notice when they feel worse than they thought they would, but—oddly—not when they feel better than expected.”

The team invented the term “affective misforecasting” to describe the gap between anticipated and actual feelings. This supports the old marketing belief that people tell five others about a bad experience but only one about a good experience (“negative evangelism”?). One thing seems certain: “under promising and over delivering” is the way to go.