Why a Small Messaging Mistake Could Make Your Customers Trust You More Than a Flawless Pitch
- Vivien
- Feb 13
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 20
Which cookie would you rather choose?
Would it surprise you that most of us would pick the one on the right?
But why?
The Pratfall Effect was first theorised in 1966 by Harvard University psychologist Elliot Aronson, who recorded 2 scenarios where an actor answered a series of questions 92% correctly.
In one video, the actor answers and leaves with no incident, while in another, the actor spills a cup of coffee over themselves (a small blunder, or pratfall).
The recordings were played to a sample of students, who were then asked how likable the contestant was, with the students favouring the clumsy contestant as more likable.
More recently, in a study, consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier asked 626 people which of two cookies they preferred - one was perfectly round, and the other had rough edges.
The study found that 66% of participants preferred the rough-edged cookie.
Customers are increasingly seeking authenticity in the brands and services they use.
They crave honesty and transparency.
But being told to be authentic is as triggering to a writer as a red flag to a bull.
One of the hardest things for a business to do is to admit it has a weakness, a problem, a challenge, or has made a mistake.
They hide their "insides," only letting their customers see what is on the "outside" - the surface level.
They post content that sings their praises
We have the most innovative tech
The best experts
We're number 1
We have the perfect track record
But what if brands that only show their successes are seen as less trustworthy than those that admit their faults, problems, and challenges?
According to studies published in the Nature Human Behavior journal, when reviews are too positive, it can be challenging for customers to tell the difference between products and to believe what you say.
Just like how the imperfections in the left cookie don't make the cookie less appealing but actually boost its appeal, messaging mistakes can make your brand seem more human. More relatable.
Let me show you what this can look like for your communication.
A recent SP Group social post caught my attention.
It wasn't their first line - in fact I skimmed past the blah numbers. What hooked me were the words "overcoming challenges like bird excrement and "shading". While Bird Poop on solar panels was not on my communication bingo card, it's what made me curious enough to click the link.
To make your brand's content unignorable, you need to go beyond data and numbers and humanise your content
Imagine all those potential customers scrolling on by if this post had been all about how many solar panels they were installing.
Let's take, for example, how companies talk about their sustainability goals.
Most companies think that to be credible, they need to state the "boring" and list only the things they are doing well. They seem content with filling the space on their websites with platitudes.
Now, consider how Innocent Drinks talks about its sustainability goals
Being transparent about what they are still "working on" and where they may be failing makes what they say believable.
Being transparent about what they are still "working on", where they may be failing, makes what they say believable.
So, how can you use the Pratfall Effect in your Business Communication Strategy
1) As part of your value proposition
Car rental firm Avis embraced their second-best status - “When you’re only number two” compared to the brand leader Hertz, and positioned themselves as the brand that tries harder.
At the time, Paula Green, their copywriter, said they created a campaign that was more like an operational manual, with Avis's CEO going to every Avis rental, telling them they had to make sure they kept the promise of the ad campaign.
Within a year of the campaign launching, Avis made a profit of $1.2m – the first time they had broken even in a decade. Customers valued the honesty and were willing to try the car rental company. The approach was so successful it ran for more than 50 years.
Create a Campaign
Heinz 57 Ketchup is notoriously slow to come out of the bottle. You need to apply the right amount of force to get it to flow. Instead of ignoring the “fault,” Heinz Ketchup celebrates its slowness, even telling people to slow down.
They created the “world’s slowest website,” taking a full 57 minutes to load and rewarding those who did wait.
They also released The Pour-Perfect Bottle, a limited-edition glass bottle with an updated label to guide you to the perfect pouring angle.
As a hook
Just like SP uses their challenges to pique their readers' curiosity,
Clancy's Autobody shop grew its TikTok following from 0 to more than 200,000 in 1 week and amassed over 2 million likes because the social media manager asked for help.
4) Overcome Objections and Give Your Claims Credibility
When our customers read the promises on our website and campaigns being too perfect sets off alarm bells, and they think, "This must be too good to be true."
Perhaps the most famous example of the pratfall effect in marketing is the VW Beetle campaigns of the 1950s and 60s.
At the time, the car was everything that the American consumer didn’t want: small and ugly.
VW's ad campaign gloried the flaws of the Beetle with headlines like: ‘Lemon’, ‘One of the nice things about owning it is selling it’, ‘And if you run out of gas, it’s easy to push’, “Think Small”, and ‘Nobody’s perfect’, by using those negatives they were able to get in front of their customers objections and differentiate themselves from their competitors.
This also means if you do make a major mistake and need to apologise, you can.
Gain your Customers' trust back quicker
In 2019, VW remade its iconic LEMON ad to apologise for its emissions scandal and turned the lemon into lemonade. For a brand that is generally viewed as competent, an authentic apology allowed it to overcome any negative attention.
But before you tell your CEO to champion all the company's failures, there is a twist to the Pratfall Effect.
According to research from social psychologist Fiona Lee, while admitting shortcomings and even committing a small mistake will generally make you more appealing and can even highlight your strengths, it is only successful if a person or brand is considered smart and capable.
When an average brand or person makes an error or mistake, they become less appealing.
Lee and colleagues conducted a test that had participants reading one of two fictitious company reports.
Both reports listed reasons why the company had done so “poorly” in the past year.
The first report listed strategic decisions as the main reason for poor performance.
The second emphasised external events (economic downturn and increased competition).
The first company was viewed far more favorably than the second.
Admitting to shortcomings in areas like strategic thinking showed that the company was still in control, despite its faults, while blaming external forces gave skeptics a reason to view them as not having the ability to fix the problem, and that they might just be making excuses.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Pratfalls are contextual; there is no single right interpretation of how committing a mistake might affect how someone is perceived in public.
But a time when honesty and transparency are key factors to humanising your brand, the Pratfall Effect, if done correctly, can turn your weaknesses into your company's strength.
However, you need to make sure that you and your products are already positioned as ‘superior’, otherwise, your pratfall might have the opposite effect.
If your messaging is getting stuck, I can help you build one that creates movement.
🎯 Hi, I'm Vivien,
I work with Heads of Communications, CMOs, and B2B internal and external comms teams who desperately need messaging that:
Sticks
Travels accurately
Gets repeated and remembered
Ticks internal alignment
Creates momentum in buying committees
And moves decisions forward
