Normally, in the modern world of online grocery shopping, what you order is not what you get. Much to the shopper's dismay, due to unavailability, a fillet steak is substituted by a sirloin, and a premium washing powder is replaced by an unknown brand.
Surprises, it seems, are never good news.
Or are they?
Tesco and the Super Substitute
Tesco instead wanted to create a (positive) sense of surprise and delight in shoppers' lives by creating the concept of a "Super Substitute".
Here, things work a little differently...
First, Tesco carefully picked a set of low value grocery items, chosen primarily because of their name.
Then, they're matched up with a much higher value set of electronics products from Tesco Mobile, with which each shares a word association.
Here's the list of super-substitutes gleaned from Tesco's Ts and Cs:
Importantly, to the average customer, they'd never see the connection. However, those who do add one of these grocery items to their basket get entered into a random draw to win one of these Super Substitutes.
For the lucky winners, when their groceries (and electronic item) are delivered, a special card is also included that explains what's happened. Without this, a lot of people could get confused and (potentially!) try and return the item.
What's going on behaviourally?
We know from the Surprise Effect that positive, unexpected gifts have a big effect on our mood, associations with a brand and how we recall that experience at a later date.
However, we also know that, designed poorly, today's surprises can become tomorrow's expectations. The two ways to avoid this is to keep the surprise both scarce and with a clear explanation of why it was given. Tesco do both by limiting the total number of prizes to 80 for a week only, and also including the Super Substitute explainer card shown above.
Lastly, we know that such acts of kindness have a high degree of likelihood for Reciprocity, where we want to repeat the kindness by sharing the good news publicly with our peers.
And certainly, this is what happened below, where Nick, who'd originally ordered a bag of apples in his shop, also received a brand new iPhone.
As well as all the retweets, comments and likes, it also made the news.
Concluding thoughts
A well-designed surprise has the power to warm hearts and turn heads. Normally, it's the human touch that is crucial to the surprise's success, with small or subtle kind gestures having an oversized impact on peoples' mood.
However, Tesco have shown that surprises can also be done in a more systematic way at a larger scale without losing the impact.
Because springing unexpected joy and humour into shoppers' lives when they least expect it, well, there's no substitute for that.
Surprise
Loyalty
From Mini-Cheddars to iPhone Mini: The surprise and delight of "Super Substitutes"
Unsuspecting customers of UK Supermarket Tesco are met with a mysterious, expected item in their weekly shop. What's going on?
Normally, in the modern world of online grocery shopping, what you order is not what you get. Much to the shopper's dismay, due to unavailability, a fillet steak is substituted by a sirloin, and a premium washing powder is replaced by an unknown brand.
Surprises, it seems, are never good news.
Or are they?
Tesco and the Super Substitute
Tesco instead wanted to create a (positive) sense of surprise and delight in shoppers' lives by creating the concept of a "Super Substitute".
Here, things work a little differently...
First, Tesco carefully picked a set of low value grocery items, chosen primarily because of their name.
Then, they're matched up with a much higher value set of electronics products from Tesco Mobile, with which each shares a word association.
Here's the list of super-substitutes gleaned from Tesco's Ts and Cs:
Importantly, to the average customer, they'd never see the connection. However, those who do add one of these grocery items to their basket get entered into a random draw to win one of these Super Substitutes.
For the lucky winners, when their groceries (and electronic item) are delivered, a special card is also included that explains what's happened. Without this, a lot of people could get confused and (potentially!) try and return the item.
What's going on behaviourally?
We know from the Surprise Effect that positive, unexpected gifts have a big effect on our mood, associations with a brand and how we recall that experience at a later date.
However, we also know that, designed poorly, today's surprises can become tomorrow's expectations. The two ways to avoid this is to keep the surprise both scarce and with a clear explanation of why it was given. Tesco do both by limiting the total number of prizes to 80 for a week only, and also including the Super Substitute explainer card shown above.
Lastly, we know that such acts of kindness have a high degree of likelihood for Reciprocity, where we want to repeat the kindness by sharing the good news publicly with our peers.
And certainly, this is what happened below, where Nick, who'd originally ordered a bag of apples in his shop, also received a brand new iPhone.
As well as all the retweets, comments and likes, it also made the news.
Concluding thoughts
A well-designed surprise has the power to warm hearts and turn heads. Normally, it's the human touch that is crucial to the surprise's success, with small or subtle kind gestures having an oversized impact on peoples' mood.
However, Tesco have shown that surprises can also be done in a more systematic way at a larger scale without losing the impact.
Because springing unexpected joy and humour into shoppers' lives when they least expect it, well, there's no substitute for that.
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows y
ou to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
Surprise
Loyalty
From Mini-Cheddars to iPhone Mini: The surprise and delight of "Super Substitutes"
Unsuspecting customers of UK Supermarket Tesco are met with a mysterious, expected item in their weekly shop. What's going on?
Normally, in the modern world of online grocery shopping, what you order is not what you get. Much to the shopper's dismay, due to unavailability, a fillet steak is substituted by a sirloin, and a premium washing powder is replaced by an unknown brand.
Surprises, it seems, are never good news.
Or are they?
Tesco and the Super Substitute
Tesco instead wanted to create a (positive) sense of surprise and delight in shoppers' lives by creating the concept of a "Super Substitute".
Here, things work a little differently...
First, Tesco carefully picked a set of low value grocery items, chosen primarily because of their name.
Then, they're matched up with a much higher value set of electronics products from Tesco Mobile, with which each shares a word association.
Here's the list of super-substitutes gleaned from Tesco's Ts and Cs:
Importantly, to the average customer, they'd never see the connection. However, those who do add one of these grocery items to their basket get entered into a random draw to win one of these Super Substitutes.
For the lucky winners, when their groceries (and electronic item) are delivered, a special card is also included that explains what's happened. Without this, a lot of people could get confused and (potentially!) try and return the item.
What's going on behaviourally?
We know from the Surprise Effect that positive, unexpected gifts have a big effect on our mood, associations with a brand and how we recall that experience at a later date.
However, we also know that, designed poorly, today's surprises can become tomorrow's expectations. The two ways to avoid this is to keep the surprise both scarce and with a clear explanation of why it was given. Tesco do both by limiting the total number of prizes to 80 for a week only, and also including the Super Substitute explainer card shown above.
Lastly, we know that such acts of kindness have a high degree of likelihood for Reciprocity, where we want to repeat the kindness by sharing the good news publicly with our peers.
And certainly, this is what happened below, where Nick, who'd originally ordered a bag of apples in his shop, also received a brand new iPhone.
As well as all the retweets, comments and likes, it also made the news.
Concluding thoughts
A well-designed surprise has the power to warm hearts and turn heads. Normally, it's the human touch that is crucial to the surprise's success, with small or subtle kind gestures having an oversized impact on peoples' mood.
However, Tesco have shown that surprises can also be done in a more systematic way at a larger scale without losing the impact.
Because springing unexpected joy and humour into shoppers' lives when they least expect it, well, there's no substitute for that.
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows y
ou to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
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