The bandwagon effect in marketing

The bandwagon effect is a cognitive bias that impacts people’s behaviour during decision-making: when choosing an option those made by others are more fre­quently selected. This effect was first described in 1944 by pseph­o­lo­gists – sci­ent­ists who study elections. However, the bandwagon effect also applies to sales psy­cho­logy and is an important part of marketing and sales strategies.

The bandwagon effect wasn’t dis­covered in market research or marketing, but as part of pseph­o­logy – the analysis of elections and polls – in the U.S. When they examined their research data, the three pseph­o­lo­gists, P.F. Laz­arsfeld, B. Berelson and H. Gaudet dis­covered that during elections, people tended to align their behaviour with an alleged majority if the predicted winner was known. This type of advanced in­form­a­tion about the winner can, for example, originate from election polls that are published a short time ahead of voting.

The bandwagon rep­res­ents the winning side or suc­cess­ful party. “To climb onto the bandwagon” describes the process of someone aligning them­selves with a promising cause, or in other words, becoming a follower.

The name “bandwagon effect” stems from this trope. The action theory in the field of psy­cho­logy provides a good ex­plan­a­tion of the bandwagon effect: A perceived success, such as the pos­ses­sion of an enticing product that elevates one’s status and increases the will­ing­ness of other consumers to perform the same action that has been re­cog­nised as suc­cess­ful. As part of the “bandwagon”, they will buy the product that – to their knowledge – others are pur­chas­ing.

The con­tra­dict­ory reasons for making the purchase are quite fas­cin­at­ing. While “leaders” purchase products to stand out from everyone else, “followers” buy products to belong to a specific group. The effect works because people are motivated by a general desire to be correct. If a person decides on the popular option, the prob­ab­il­ity appears higher that they have made the right decision.

Thanks to rapid de­vel­op­ments within social media, the bandwagon effect’s concept of leader and follower has attained even greater im­port­ance for marketing purposes. Across social media platforms, the concept of “following” is already being suc­cess­fully applied and explains the success of in­flu­en­cer marketing.

Cognitive dis­tor­tions like the bandwagon effect have an impact on people on an almost daily basis: whether it’s shopping, voting, or their behaviour on vacation. However, we rarely realise that we are under the influence of a cognitive dis­tor­tion because cognitive processes involve countless decisions that are made un­con­sciously. The bandwagon effect largely describes the concept of “imitative con­sump­tion”. Imitative con­sump­tion can be observed when the demand for a specific product increases because those who are demanding it associate them­selves with other consumers who have already bought the product.

The book and music in­dus­tries employ the bandwagon effect by including sales figures to further increase the sales of best­sellers. For example, the placement of stickers or imprints on products that emphasise their pop­ular­ity will influence consumers to reach for the book or CD that has already been bought by many people.

For ad­vert­ising companies, the bandwagon effect is be­ne­fi­cial and it often plays a key role in marketing strategy and planning.

Since the bandwagon effect is relevant in marketing, it should be taken into account while de­vel­op­ing a brand and during ongoing campaigns. Product, service and website ratings assume major roles in online marketing and when correctly im­ple­men­ted, the bandwagon effect reduces the bounce rate and increases con­ver­sion rates.

The bandwagon effect operates on the fact that people fre­quently orient their behaviour around success and status. Aspiring toward status and climbing a hierarchy are ancient evol­u­tion­ary drives that we still follow today. Therefore, most consumers compare them­selves to the con­sump­tion level of another group. The “other group” can be within one’s social class or one that is higher up in the hierarchy.

What are the positive side effects of the bandwagon effect in marketing? The greatest sig­ni­fic­ance of this “pref­er­ence policy” can ensure that the price of a product loses im­port­ance as a selling point. Marketing com­mu­nic­a­tions can use the bandwagon effect to aim for a higher price that primarily appeals to consumers’ status con­sid­er­a­tions to boost demand and sales. Other cognitive dis­tor­tions such as the en­down­ment effect and loss aversion can be used as re­in­force­ment. For example, they can appeal to consumers by focusing on factors such as pride of ownership (e.g. through a test drive) and potential loss pre­ven­tion (e.g. loss of prestige by not pur­chas­ing a certain product or service).

Yet, the bandwagon effect does not produce only positive effects for companies. Business-to-business buyers and marketers are also prone to it by following the market leader or relying on the sup­posedly most suc­cess­ful supplier when pur­chas­ing goods. But when they are aware of the bandwagon effect, they can spe­cific­ally question or examine their decisions while taking market analyses into account. In this way, in­nov­at­ive and lucrative market niches can be detected more rapidly instead of running blindly after band­wag­ons.