How can we use Clark Hull’s Goal Attainment Hypothesis in Direct Mail?

I was thinking about an interesting theory for a Direct Mail ask array/proposal. I was reading about some research that was done by a group of researchers at the Columbia University Gradate School of Business in 2006. They were doing a series of studies based on Clark Hull’s studies and applying them to the business world. Long story short, they were looking to see if the goal attainment hypothesis could be used to accelerate consumer spending. They conducted these tests with the understanding that when our brains perceive the goal to be closer, we actually speed towards that goal with more energy and focus (the same basic idea of marathon runners who speed up with only a half mile left because they see the finish line).

Here is what they did. They first cleverly looked at rates of participation and purchase in a customer reward program at a local coffee shop. They gave the customers a stamp card and told them that every purchase counted towards a goal of a free 11th coffee. So if they bought 10 coffees, they’d get one free. Pretty basic stuff. But what they found was that the closer they got towards their goal of 10 coffees, they actually began to purchase their coffees with more regularity accelerating their goal towards the free 11th coffee. So the conducted another test, but this time, they had two groups of consumers. Group A received the same card, buy ten coffees, get one free. Group B received a card that said buy 12 coffees and get one free, but it came with two stamps. So in both cases, each consumer had to buy 10 coffees, but Group 2 was given a perceived head start. What did they find? Fascinatingly, Group B burned through their 10 coffees at a significantly faster rate than Group A (I don’t have the exact metrics). They were proving that Hull’s hypothesis on behavior is not objective proximity to your goal, but your subjective perception of that objective reality. Amazing.

Now back to how this could creatively be applicable to DM. After reading this, I began to wonder about giving donors the opportunity to join with a grant that would add to their gifts BEFORE they even decided to give. More clearly stated, this would provide the donor with an RD that states that $10.00 will be given simply by sending in the RD but anything they give on top of that would go even further to help XXXXXXX ministries? Risky? Could we encourage donors to give more by showing them that another grant is already giving to the ministry ahead of them and they now have the opportunity to make it a bigger donation? It’s very similar to a Matching Grant, but in this scenario the MG funds are already guaranteed, so the goal has been moved closer for the donor, and the pressure has been taken off of them to reach it alone. Now they can simply add to it, not fulfill it.

Anyhow, this was just a hypothesis that I had that perhaps we could encourage greater donations in particular donor groups by moving the obligation of reaching a campaign goal even closer and allowing the donor to just add on top of it, not match it. We know that studies have shown that if you are doing a fundraiser for $10,000, you don’t start at zero, you start at $1,000 (and simply raise the goal to $11,000). Research proves that people will work faster and harder to reach said goal because the target seems closer.