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Making Mistakes Work for You: What is the Pratfall Effect?

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Have you ever made an embarrassing mistake in public? Do you think it affected how much other people liked you or how competent they thought you were? The Pratfall Effect is a surprising twist on how peoplesโ€™ opinions of us can change after making an error (and it applies to brands and products too).


What is the Pratfall Effect?

The Pratfall Effect says that mistakes can make us seem more likable, not less. But it only works if youโ€™re already seen as competent or an above-average performer.

Building on the Pratfall Effect, acknowledging past mistakes can make someone more likable. For example, Barrack Obama, when running for President, admitted to smoking marijuana in college. He said, โ€œWhen I was a kid, I inhaled. That was the point.โ€

Not only did this admission seem to make Obama more likable, but it also positioned him against his main rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton. Her husband, President Bill Clinton, had famously said, โ€œI didnโ€™t inhaleโ€ when asked if heโ€™d used cannabis.


How the Pratfall Effect Works in Business

Using the Pratfall Effect in business can help make your brand seem more likable, engaging, and human. Here are three ways to apply it:

1. Being โ€œperfectโ€ isnโ€™t always a good thing

Apple Maps

Source: Adobe Stock | Alekseiโ€Š-โ€Šstock.adobe.com

When Apple debuted its buggy Maps product in 2012, CEO Tim Cook told the press, โ€œWe screwed up. Thatโ€™s the fact.โ€ The product itself was terribleโ€Šโ€”โ€Šcompletely erasing landmarks like Londonโ€™s Paddington Station, moved Chicagoโ€™s Sears Tower (now called Willis Tower) several miles away, and even created a non-existent airport in the middle of Dublin.

Tim Cook politely described the errors this way

โ€œIt [Maps] didnโ€™t meet our customersโ€™ expectation, and our expectations of ourselves are even higher than our customersโ€™.โ€

But given Appleโ€™s sparkling reputation at the time, they benefited from showing they werenโ€™t perfect, admitting their error, and taking clear steps to fix it. Only a year after the disaster, 35M people in the US used Appleโ€™s Maps, compared to 58.7M Google Maps users.


2. Too many good reviews can backfire 

Reviews

Source: Adobe Stock

According to studies published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, when reviews are too positive, it can be challenging for customers to tell the difference between products.

Reviews that are too good make it harder for people to decide which product to buy or where to eatโ€Šโ€”โ€Šthe choices can be hard to trust because they feel too good to be true. Researchers have dubbed this the โ€œpositivity problem,โ€ and it can have a negative effect on businessesโ€™ bottom lines.


3. Admitting your flaws can work in your favor

When a product or brand has a flawโ€Šโ€”โ€Šwhich most of them doโ€Šโ€”โ€Štheir instinct is often to ignore it in favor of positive messages about its products. But doubling down on your brandsโ€™ flaws can actually work in your favor.

For example, Heinz 57 Ketchup is notoriously slow to come out of the bottle. It takes a frustrating amount of pounding and shaking to get it out. Instead of ignoring their โ€œfault,โ€ Heinz Canada celebrated it with multiple campaigns that leaned into their slowness. They even created the โ€œworldโ€™s slowest website.โ€ It took a full 57 minutes to load.

Heinz Site

Source: Heinz Canada

During the Covid lockdown period, Heinz went a step further and created the world's slowest puzzle. With 570 identical red pieces (all the color of Heinz ketchup, of course), the brand leaned into it's "failing" yet again. 

Heinz 570 Puzzle

Source: Heinz Canada via Rethink


Another example of a brand publicly acknowledging a flaw (or, in this case, an operational error that shut down most of their stores) is when Kentucky Fried Chicken in the UK ran out of chicken in 2018.

KFC FCK

Source: KFC UK

They issued a dry apology, saying: 

โ€œA chicken restaurant without chicken. Itโ€™s not ideal.โ€

Admitting its mistake in public turned out to be the right move, as a survey of the UKโ€™s top marketers named KFCโ€™s FCK campaign their favorite that year.


How to Apply the Pratfall Effect

The Pratfall Effect can be a tricky one to get right, but here are some tips:


1. Donโ€™t admit to a fault that affects a critical part of your product. 

For example, a car company shouldnโ€™t create a campaign admitting that their carsโ€™ engines fall out on the highway and expect people to love their brand more. Itโ€™s too important to the productโ€™s core performance.


2. Pratfall from a position of strength. 

This effect amplifies existing opinions about a product, person, or experience. Meaning things that are already well-liked will be more well-liked post-Pratfall. But weaker products will be less liked.


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The Bottom Line

โ€œOne of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesnโ€™t existโ€ฆ..Without imperfection, neither you nor I would existโ€โ€Šโ€”โ€ŠStephen Hawking, physicist

If you want to apply the Pratfall Effect to your marketing or customer experience, start by asking yourself: 

  • Are we pratfalling from a position of strength? Are we already well-liked a respected, or is our brand generally looked at with suspicion? For example, a tobacco company pratfalling will not be as well-received as a tech company like Apple.
  • What were the consequences of our mistake? Was it an irritating inconvenience, like KFCโ€™s chicken supply issue? Or is it a life and death issue, like a product that hurt or injured customers? 

About the author

Jen Clinehens, MS/MBA

Hi ๐Ÿ‘‹ I'm Jen Clinehens (MS, MBA) the founder and Managing Director of Choice Hacking.

I started Choice Hacking in 2021 to help marketers and entrepreneurs figure out what makes buyers tick, and elevate their work using behavioral science, marketing psychology, and AI.

If you want to learn more, check out links to my newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel and other free resources below ๐Ÿ‘‡


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