Vanessa Shelby

Vanessa Shelby is a Master of Science in Applied Psychology student at the University of Southern California. Prior to her studies at USC, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Indiana University. She is an Associate Consultant at Mintel in Chicago, Illinois where she conducts research within the consumer packaged goods industry.

Vanessa's research project explored the norm of reciprocity and how it can be applied to facilitate trade-ups within the brick and mortar beauty retail environment. Respondents in her study were asked to indicate their preferences among several in-store marketing tactics thought to provoke reciprocation, noting which they felt would most encourage them to buy a prestige product - a product higher in quality and in price.

The results revealed that free makeovers, free samples of prestige products, and a wide array of non-toxic, cruelty free products were the in-store attributes most likely to encourage them to trade-up. These findings emphasize the importance of personalized customer attention, interactive product education, and affording customers the time and freedom to try products before they buy. An interesting secondary finding of this research was the success of the attribute, “A Wide Array of Non-Toxic and Cruelty-Free Products.” While this attribute falls under the category of merchandising rather than personal selling, it illustrates the growing interest in and demand for natural and safe products that do not test on animals.