Physical attractiveness is a positive characteristic which dominates how people view others. Unconsciously, people associate physically attractive people with several positive traits such as talent, fluency, intelligence, honesty, and kindness, and therefore, they heed to their communication styles. It also dictates how people are going to listen to them and get persuaded to their offers. Physical attractiveness is considered generally as a good practice in the world of sales to boost sales and improve store productivity (Praxmarer, 2011). However, this is not always the case. This paper presents the two scenarios where sexy or very attractive salespersons may hurt sales instead of promoting it.
Most of the time, sexually attractive salespersons are hired to the business company because of their physical appearances and not because they are qualified for the job. Many companies usually assume that if individual customers, especially women, see an attractive lady wearing their clothes, they would want to buy the same clothes. They typically aim at looking similar to them. Due to the salesperson's incompetence in the work, they do not communicate effectively to consumers hence insufficient sales.
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Many studies also have shown that many customers are always unhappy with their appearances. That is when they buy such outfits that they saw worn by hotties in the stores. In such a situation, the customers start to shun away from such clothes. The reason is the embarrassments they face after comparing themselves with the dummies. The consumers are likely to feel a sense of inadequacy and withdrawn self-esteem because they keep comparing themselves with the models most especially when the salesperson is of the same sex. Such cases make the customers shy and embarrassed to approach the attractive salesperson of either sex. Failure to interact with the physically attractive personnel makes the salespeople ineffective regardless of their perfect appearances.
Researches have also indicated that the downside of physically attractive salespersons is not tied to the embarrassing purchases. But even the preference of proximity and the existing relationship between the salesperson and the consumers. Many retailers think that something beautiful appears better for everyone. They should also consider that some customers consider buying from someone they presume to be near to them. Additionally, several women may not consider celebrities a direct social threat. They might consider a simple girl at their neatest local shopping Centre as one. They then prefer promoting someone they know and understands them rather than a model celebrity they see on TV adverts.
Another occasion where attractiveness may ruin sales is a situation where high social anxiety concerns characterize the consumers. When consumers have chronic social anxiety, they are not likely to make an interaction with highly attractive service providers. This is because they feel much inferior to them, and they feel that their needs would not be understood. In many situations, people with high anxiety concerns usually feel shy to react to some products that could involve embarrassing situations. Research also indicates that some consumption situations involving products such as condoms weight-loss services, medical checkups, and other medical concerns may generate embarrassments. (Söderlund & Julander, 2009).
The consumptions are likely to endanger the self-esteem of a person they intend to convey in a social situation. This is especially when they are faced with attractive persons, and they still want to impress them. In a case like this, the customers may wish to avoid interacting at all with the attractive salespersons in a situation involving embarrassing consumption situations. In another instance, studies showed that the consumers in uncomfortable consumption conditions are less likely to make purchases when the salespersons are presented in an attractive way than they are. They are also more concerned with the impressions they could create when interacting with the well-groomed, attractive persons than they would be with less attractive personnel.
When a consumption situation is likely to be embarrassing, attractive persons of the opposite sex can cause the other person to have a lot of concerns with how they present themselves towards them. When these feelings come in, it has a destructive effect on the buying decisions of a customer. Another factor is that embarrassing consumption conditions will increase the consumers feeling of lousy mood and jealousy. Therefore, it decreases their self-perception of attractiveness and the liking of the same-sex sales personnel. The customers will, therefore, be less willing to interact with the service provider.
Most times, when the provider is of the same sex, their self-presentation and self-concerns are likely to be driven by the social comparison. The social comparison usually leads to the disliking of the salesperson and ends up avoiding the sales interactions with them. This shows that sexually attractive salespersons may always increase the sales of a product. This conditions may be only applying to products that are not embarrassing and do not involve awkward situations.
When the product is embarrassing, the effect of employing a sexually and physically attractive person may be more adverse than just assigning an average person to work on their behalf. To increase sales, a business person could opt to make use of attractive persons in an exceptional situation such as online shopping. The use of celebrities and attractive models do not present the same issue as one with physical shopping. Instead, it promotes the product and leads to large purchases.
References
Praxmarer, S. (2011). How a presenter's perceived attractiveness affects persuasion for attractiveness-unrelated products. International Journal of Advertising , 30 (5), 839-865
Söderlund, M., & Julander, C. R. (2009). Physical attractiveness of the service worker in the moment of truth and its effects on customer satisfaction. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services , 16 (3), 216-226
