Imagine you are searching online for a new mattress and you discover something surprising. The retailer showed an ad that included a “mattress comfort scale” from 1 (soft) to 10 (firm), followed by the message that if you prefer either firmness, this mattress isn’t right for you. Wait…what? A retailer telling someone not to buy its product? never!
Why would a company tell potential buyers that the product might not be suitable for them? Our team of professors – Karen Anne Wallach, Jaclyn L. Tanenbaum and Sean Blair – explored this issue in a recent article Journal of Consumer Research.
Marketers spend billions of dollars trying to convince consumers that a certain product is right for them. But our research shows that sometimes the most effective way to sell something is to say it’s not right for them. In other words, effective marketing might mean stopping the wrong customers rather than convincing everyone to buy.
We call this a “dissuasive frame.” Rather than saying a product is right for everyone, companies will be upfront about who it might not be suitable for. It’s amazing how much of a difference this simple shift can make.
We conducted experiments comparing ads with dissuasive and persuasive frames. For example, one coffee ad said, “If you like dark roasts, this is the coffee for you.” Another said, “If you don’t like dark roasts, then this isn’t the coffee for you.” Most marketers thought the first version would be better. But for those who like darker roasts, the second message beats it.
Across different products, from salsa to mattresses, and in real Facebook campaigns for toothbrush brands, we consistently see the same results. Dissuasive advertising increases engagement and clicks, making the brand feel more professional and its products more attractive to the right customers.
Why? You might think this is due to fear of missing out or reverse psychology, but we rule out those explanations. Instead, we found that what really drives this effect is the perception of a greater match between personal preferences and product attributes.
When a message indicates that a product may not be suitable for everyone, consumers perceive it as more focused on specific preferences. This sense of focus, which we call “target specificity,” makes the product feel more relevant to customers who align with their preferences. For others, it feels less relevant, which helps the company achieve its goal of attracting the people most likely to buy.
Our results show a clear trend: When companies set boundaries in their messaging, products appear more focused. This messaging strategy makes target customers feel like the product is a better fit for them. People think that if a product is not suitable for everyone, then it must be more specialized. This sense of specialness makes the target audience feel that the product is designed just for them.
why this is important
These findings challenge one of marketing’s most enduring assumptions: that effective marketing comes from directly convincing customers that a product meets their needs. In today’s crowded marketplace, where nearly every brand claims to be “right for you,” dissuasive messaging offers an alternative. By making it clear that a product may not be suitable for customers with different preferences, brands can convey a message of focus and professionalism. Consumers take this to mean that the company understands its product and who it is best suited to serve.
Our work also helps explain how people make what psychologists call compensatory inferences. This means that consumers often believe that when a product tries to do too many things, it ends up doing everything poorly. Imagine an all-in-one tool that can cut, twist, open, and file—but few would argue that it performs these tasks better than a dedicated tool.
From a practical perspective, dissuasive frames can help marketers communicate more effectively by defining the boundaries of product appeal. By doing so, brands can build trust, strengthen connections with the right customers, and avoid spending marketing dollars on customers who are less likely to buy.
Don’t know what yet
Our research focuses on products with well-defined attributes, such as taste or comfort, and on consumers who already know their preferences. Future work could test how this approach works when people are less sure what they like or when choices reflect self-expression rather than product fit.
Even with these unanswered questions, one conclusion stands out. Defining who a product isn’t right for can help the right customers see that it’s actually right for them. By focusing on preference match rather than general appeal, brands can make their messages more targeted, efficient and ultimately more effective. In other words, telling the wrong client “this isn’t for you” can actually help the right client feel like it is for you.
Jaclyn L. Tanenbaumassociate teaching professor, florida international university and Karen Anne WallachAssistant Professor of Marketing, University of Alabama Huntsville
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