How marketers express time can affect what consumers buy, study finds

While these phrases may seem interchangeable, the research shows they can create different impressions in consumers’ minds. 

When time is described as a length – a 10-year-old whisky – people tend to perceive it as longer than when the same age is described using a year, such as a whisky from 2016. The researchers call this phenomenon the ‘year-length effect’. 

When age is valued, consumers have more favourable perceptions when time is framed by length in marketing messaging. On the other hand, when age reduces value, as with used goods, framing the product by year is preferable. 

Be aware of your marketing goals 

“If the goal is to signal longevity, history or oldness, then you should use the number of years,” explains Dr Deepak Sirwani, an associate professor and co-author of the study.  

“If the goal is to signal something new, then you should use the boundary years. The same logic applies to the future.” 

To explore the impact of time framing, the researchers analysed auction data and conducted controlled experiments.  

In whisky auctions, bottles described by length of time commanded about 9% higher prices. For used goods, the pattern reversed: sellers on an items-for-sale website earned roughly 17% more when they stated the purchase year rather than the item’s age. 

So, what’s driving this effect? According to Dr Sirwani, people perceive the jump from a large number to another large number as smaller than a leap between two smaller numbers. 

“Our mental number line is logarithmic, meaning the difference between numbers feels smaller as they increase,” he says. “The difference between 11 and 12 feels smaller than the difference between two and three. And the difference between 2020 and 2021 feels much smaller than the difference between one and two.” 

The bottom line is that marketers need to be mindful of how they express time, as subtle differences in language can shape how consumers think and decide. 

The study is published in the Journal of Marketing Research. You can find out more about it here.