When you look at yourself, what do you see?
Remember earlier when I was brainstorming with my friend who is testing a new stylish laptop bag for corporate women?
If not, it’s ok. I get it, you are busy, but in case you are interested here is the blog post: I am not sure this is for you, but…
A little background context.
I was brainstorming ideas with my friend who is doing customer testing for a new stylish laptop bag for corporate women.
In addition to the “I am not sure this is for you, but…” tip, I also suggested to get a mirror, where customers can see themselves wearing the bag. I didn’t write about it in that blog post though, because, well, my friend was too lazy to get the mirror due to logistic reasons… and I have no results to share with you.
To be honest, that suggestion was purely based on intuition — and that is another reason I didn’t write about it back then.
Now, however, I learned a new trick from Roger Dooley in his book Brainfluence about mirrors that can just make me confidently share my tip. Can I just say that Brainfluence is one of my favorite books?
“When we look in a mirror, our behavior is actually altered — at least for a short period of time.”
— Dooley, Roger. Brainfluence
Roger shared an experiment that showed when we see ourselves, we are less likely to misbehave.
“The most venerable piece of mirror-behavior research dates all the way back to the 1970s. Like many experiments in social psychology, the setup was simple: children making their Halloween rounds were told they could take one piece of candy from a large bowl of candy and were then left alone. About 34 percent helped themselves to more than one piece. When a mirror was placed behind the bowl so that the children could see themselves as they took the candy, only 9 percent disobeyed their instructions. The simple addition of the mirror cut the rate of bad behavior by almost three-fourths!” — Dooley, Roger. Brainfluence
You are less likely to misbehave because you don’t want to look bad in your own eyes.
What if I told you how about we use the same concept to make ourselves look good in our own eyes? Well, hence the mirror?
If I can see myself in the mirror, wearing that stylish laptop bag, feeling sophisticated, wouldn’t I want to buy one?
Jewelry too. I mean how many jewelry stores have adequate mirrors for the ladies to “indulge” in their looks, admire themselves, and… well, make the purchase?
While you are at it, why don’t you offer some chocolate truffles as well? (Read: Chocolate might make you want to buy more)
I am surprised that not so many have proper mirrors, and those who have mirrors, have small ones.
Hmm…