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The article presents a case study on the dialogue between a Centerville Mall shopper Lana Thompson and a sales representative of Atlantis Spa Product kiosk as an example of an effective persuasive communication in the U.S. The dialogue is adapted for an undergraduate business communication, marketing/personal selling courses, and development of persuasive communications. The students focused on the sales approach of a kiosk vendor who sells nail and skin care products.

Studies consumer abstraction of product representations. Definition of abstraction as the processes by which consumers infer the absolute or relative value of products or product attributes; Psychological mechanisms by which consumers abstract product representations; Methodologies for studying the process.

Whenever salespeople engage in sales interactions they have to decide how to behave in order to satisfy customers and make them buy. Basically, there are two different selling approaches salespeople can choose between: adapting to the customer, and controlling the interaction. The former refers to salespeople who are "submissive" and let the customers "dominate" the sales interaction. Thus, they engage in behaviors oriented to each customer's needs and preferences and adapt their sales presentation accordingly. In contrast, the latter aims at influencing customers and directing the sales interaction toward an outcome preferred by the salesperson. Although considerable work has been conducted in the area of selling strategies, the question of which of the two selling approaches is more effective in a retail environment remains open. In addition, only little research has been directed toward how customers perceive salespeople's behaviors. Finally, the SOCO scale and its various modifications do not exclusively refer to salespeople activities. So, there is no research to date that specifically addresses the question of what are the particular activities during a sales interaction that make customers perceive salesperson behaviors as being adaptive or influencing, respectively. Yet, it appears that this kind of information is important to both retail sales managers and salespeople as the managers may find it easier to monitor behavior than to monitor disposition and the salespeople might want to know how to act effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]