Customer Voice
Choice Set Size Shapes Self-Expression
Nathan Cheek, Barry Schwartz & Eldar Shafir
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Across six studies (total N = 3,549), we find that participants who were randomly assigned to choose from larger assortments thought their choices were more self-expressive, an effect that emerged regardless of whether larger sets actually enabled participants to better satisfy their preferences. Studies examining the moderating role of choice domain and cultural context show that the effect of choice set size on perceived self-expression may be particular to contexts in which choices have some initial potential to express choosers' identities. We then test novel predictions from this theoretical perspective, finding that self-expression mediates the effect of choice set size on choice satisfaction, the likelihood of publicly sharing choices, and the perceived importance of choices. Together, these studies show that choice set size shapes perceived self-expression and illustrate how this meaning-based theoretical lens provides both novel explanations for existing effects and novel predictions for future research.
The Power of Profanity: The Meaning and Impact of Swearwords in Word-of-Mouth
Katherine Lafreniere, Sarah Moore & Robert Fisher
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Swearing can violate norms and thereby offend consumers. Yet the prevalence of swearword use suggests that an offensiveness perspective may not fully capture their impact in marketing. This paper adopts a linguistic perspective to develop and test a model of how, why, and when swearword use affects consumers in online word-of-mouth. In two field datasets and four experiments, the authors show that relative to reviews with no swearwords, or with non-swearword synonyms (e.g., super), reviews with swearwords (e.g., damn) impact review readers. First, reviews with swearwords are rated as more helpful. Second, when a swearword qualifies a desirable [undesirable] product attribute, readers' attitudes toward the product increase [decrease] (e.g., "This dishwasher is damn quiet [loud]!"). Swearwords impact readers because they convey meaning about 1) the reviewer and 2) the topic (product) under discussion. These two meanings function as independent, parallel mediators that drive the observed effects. Further, these effects are moderated by swearword number and style: they do not emerge when a review contains many swearwords and are stronger for uncensored and euphemistic swearwords (e.g., darn) than censored swearwords (e.g., d*mn). Overall, swearwords in reviews provide value to readers-and review platforms-because they efficiently and effectively convey two meanings.
Consumer Behavior and the Rise of Broadband: A Retail Apocalypse?
Uyen Tran
University of Chicago Working Paper, December 2021
Abstract:
I explore US consumer retail behavior during the proliferation of broadband internet from 2004 to 2018. Using household and retail scanner data, I capture consumer behavior using seven outcomes: (1) trip frequency, (2) total spending, (3) unique chains visited, (4) unique brands purchased, (5) prices, (6) price dispersion, and (7) price elasticities of demand. Contrary to popular media reporting, I show aggregate retail trends during the rise of broadband are muted and do not support the hypothesis that the collapse of brick-and-mortar retail is imminent. Only 2 of the 7 outcomes changed by more than 10%: The number of unique brands decreased by 12.5% and average prices grew at 24%, consistent with inflation. Exploiting the differential growth in broadband across counties, I estimate the effect of local broadband access on each of the seven outcomes. I find the direct effects of broadband are also muted: Across all outcomes, the estimates are centered at zero and the upper and lower bounds of the 95% confidence intervals are economically insignificant. These conclusions are consistent with estimates using within-household internet adoption. Taken together, my results show fears of the retail apocalypse are quantitatively unwarranted.
An Unintended Consequence of Product Upgrades: How Upgrades Can Make Current Consumers Feel Left Behind
Wonsuk Jung et al.
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
In today's advanced economies, consumers are constantly exposed to an increasing number of upgraded products. This research examines consumer response to a brand's launching of an upgraded product and identifies the consumer's ownership status of a previous version of the product as a key dimension that can influence their reaction. Contrary to common intuition, it is demonstrated that while the release of an upgraded product is received positively by non-owners of a previous version, this is not always the case for owners. The authors propose that owners respond unfavorably because the new upgrade increases perceived distance between the owners and the brand as the brand progresses forward with the enhanced products. That is, when the new product replaces an existing product the consumers own, consumers perceive as if the brand is moving away from them. This negative effect of an upgrade is attenuated if the owners are provided with an extra source of connection to the brand. The authors investigate this phenomenon in five studies and discuss the implications of their findings.
When the medium massages perceptions: Personal (vs. public) displays of information reduce crowding perceptions and outsider mistreatment of frontline staff
Jean-Nicolas Reyt et al.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, February 2022, Pages 164-178
Abstract:
Crowded waiting areas are volatile environments, where seemingly ordinary people often get frustrated and mistreat frontline staff. Given that crowding is an exogenous factor in many industries (e.g., retail, healthcare), we suggest an intervention that can "massage" outsiders' perceptions of crowding and reduce the mistreatment of frontline staff. We theorize that providing information for outsiders to read while they wait on a personal medium (e.g., a leaflet, a smartphone) reduces their crowding perceptions and mistreatment of frontline staff, compared to providing the same information on a public medium (e.g., poster, wall sign). We report two studies that confirm our theory: A field experiment in Emergency Departments (n = 939) and an online experiment simulating a coffee shop (n = 246). Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
The Impact of Subscription Programs on Customer Purchases
Raghuram Iyengar, Young-Hoon Park & Qi Yu
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Subscription programs have become increasingly popular among a wide variety of retailers and marketplace platforms. Subscription programs give members access to a set of exclusive benefits for a fixed fee upfront. In this paper, we examine the causal effect of a subscription program on customer behavior. To account for self-selection and identify the individual-level treatment effects, we combine a difference-in-differences approach with a generalized random forests procedure that matches each member of the subscription program with comparable non-members. We find subscription leads to a large increase in customer purchases. The effect of subscription is economically significant, persistent over time, and heterogeneous across customers. Interestingly, only one third of the effect on customer purchases is due to the economic benefits of the subscription program and the remaining two thirds is attributed to the non-economic effect. We provide evidence that members experience a sunk cost fallacy due to the upfront payment that subscription programs entail. Finally, we illustrate how firms can calculate the profitability of the subscription program and discuss the implications of our findings for customer retention and subscription programs.