How to best describe what your product does

Let’s say you are promoting a skin care line. Should you say your ingredients:

A. “Increase the skin cell cycle to reduce the appearance of fine lines “, or 

B. “Increase the skin cell cycle to increase the appearance of fullness”?

The difference is how directionally consistent your causal chains are, and as revealed in new research, this matters. What’s a causal chain? Let me explain.

Causal chains

Casual chains are statements where you say “doing x leads to y”. In business we often use them to explain how our products work, linking steps or ingredients (the mechanism) to consumer outcomes (the effect).

For example, magnesium supplements can increase sleep time, shampoo can increase hair silkiness and air fresheners can reduce odours.

Researchers were therefore interested in how best to describe these cause-and-effect chains to consumers, theorising that directionally consistent causal chains are preferred to inconsistent chains.

In other words, it’s better to say “an increase of x leads to an increase in y” rather than “an increase in x leads to a decrease in z”.

Directionally consistent chains

In the second of ten experiments, the researchers asked 603 people to evaluate two supplements.

Some were informed that the products were designed to “increase alertness” (as energy supplements), and others, that they were designed to “decrease alertness” (as sleep supplements).

Next, they read descriptions of the two products. As the researchers note, “One supplement was described as working by increasing the production of a hormone in the body (increasing mechanism), while the other product worked by decreasing the production of another hormone in the body (decreasing mechanism) to accomplish the same effect.” 

Participants were then asked to rate the supplements for how well they would achieve their intended effect.

• Those who believed the product was designed to increase alertness, rated the supplement more highly when told it worked by increasing a hormone.
• Those who believed the product was designed to decrease alertness, instead rated it more highly when told it worked by decreasing a hormone. 

Similar results were found when people were asked to choose between two products in categories such as hair serums, anxiety aids and face creams.

• When a product with an increasing mechanism had its effect framed in increasing terms, 60% of people chose it.
• When the effect was instead framed in decreasing terms, this dropped to 42%.

It seems that consistency in direction between the mechanism and its effect is persuasive.

Buy why?

Processing fluency. When something is easier to understand, we tend to prefer it more. According to the researchers, “Participants found directionally consistent causal chains easier to process, which in turn improved perceptions of product efficacy, and ultimately increased purchase likelihood”.

That means, for the skin care line you are promoting, you are better to say your ingredients increase the skin cell cycle to increase the appearance of fullness (option B) rather than reduce the appearance of fine lines (option A).

Implications for your business

• If you use causal chains, make them directionally consistent. If you say your product reduces something, make sure the steps leading to that are also about diminishing, reducing or decreasing. If your product increases something, the reverse holds, where you should emphasise enhancing, increasing or adding.
• Steer clear of long causal chains with multiple steps because they are harder to process. If you do need to list multiple steps, make them directionally consistent.
• When consumers are very familiar with your product type, directional causality isn’t as impactful. They will likely prioritise their prior knowledge over whether the causal chains are consistent. 

 This article also appeared in Smartcompany.

To learn more about how to influence customers and colleagues using the right type and structure of language, consider my Influencing Action course.

^{Ref: Soaham Bharti, Abigail B Sussman, Consumers Prefer Products That Work Using Directionally Consistent Causal Chains, Journal of Consumer Research, 2024;, ucae066,}