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Paywall Suspensions and Digital News Subscriptions
Inyoung Chae, Jihyeon Ha & David Schweidel
Marketing Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In an effort to increase revenue amid declining print subscriptions, news organizations have shifted their focus to digital content consumption. On top of digital advertising revenue, digital subscriptions provide news organizations with an additional revenue stream. At the same time, though, this creates a conflict with the news organizations’ societal obligation to keep the public informed. Using individual-level clickstream data from a major news organization and temporary paywall suspensions during events of public interest, we investigate how paywall suspensions affect subsequent subscription decisions. Although paywall suspensions enable news organizations to inform the public, does this hinder or contribute to their commercial interests? Adopting various identification strategies to analyze both unplanned and planned events, our analyses reveal that temporary paywall suspensions not only increase the amount of traffic during the suspension period, but also increase the likelihood that visitors become subscribers. We further examine how the patterns of content consumption moderate the effect of the suspension on subscription behavior. Our results suggest that the variety of content consumed during the suspension period is associated with an increased likelihood that website visitors choose to subscribe.
More Voices Persuade: The Attentional Benefits of Voice Numerosity
Hannah Chang, Anirban Mukherjee & Amitava Chattopadhyay
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
The authors posit that in an initial exposure to a broadcast video, hearing different voices narrate (in succession) a persuasive message encourages consumers’ attention and processing of the message, thereby facilitating persuasion; this is referred to as “the voice numerosity effect.” Across four studies (plus validation and replication studies)—including two large-scale, real-world datasets (with more than 11,000 crowdfunding videos and over 3.6 million customer transactions, and more than 1,600 video ads) and two controlled experiments (with over 1,800 participants)—the results provide support for the hypothesized effect. The effect (1) has consequential, economic implications in a real-world marketplace, (2) is more pronounced when the message is easier to comprehend, (3) is more pronounced when consumers have the capacity to process the ad message, and (4) is mediated by the favorability of consumers’ cognitive responses. The authors demonstrate the use of machine learning, text mining, and natural language processing to process and analyze unstructured (multimedia) data. Theoretical and marketing implications are discussed.
Giving Suggestions: Using Quantity Requests to Increase Donations
Alice Moon & Eric VanEpps
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Across seven studies (N = 9,028), we provide evidence that quantity requests, wherein people consider multiple choice options of how much to donate (e.g., $5, $10, or $15), increase contributions compared to open-ended requests. Specifically, quantity requests encourage greater donations (Study 1), even when respondents can passively choose not to donate (Study 2) and even when the donation is directed toward a less popular cause (Study 3). This increase in donations holds for quantity requests that start with both lower (e.g., $1) or higher (e.g., $10) donation amount options (Study 4). Quantity requests also outperform other requests with multiple non-quantity donation options (e.g., multiple options of when to donate or to which charity branch to direct a donation; Study 5). We offer evidence that quantity requests are effective because they simplify donation decisions by communicating normative donation magnitudes (Studies 6-7). This clarified norm of donation magnitude boosts donation rates, which in turn leads to greater total donations. Our findings offer new conceptual insights into how quantity requests increase contributions as well as practical implications for charitable organizations to optimize contributions by leveraging the use of quantity requests.
Stars versus Bars: How the Aesthetics of Product Ratings “Shape” Product Preference
He (Michael) Jia, Echo Wen Wan & Wanyi Zheng
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Websites commonly use visual formats to display numerical product ratings. Highlighting the overlooked notion of the “aesthetics” of product ratings, the current research examines how the shape of basic visual rating units (rectangular vs. non-rectangular) influences product preference. Seven experiments (and 23 supplementary experiments; N = 17,994) demonstrate a visual rounding effect. Specifically, compared to the rectangular rating format (e.g., bar ratings), the non-rectangular rating format (e.g., star ratings) increases product preference when product ratings (e.g., 3.7, 3.8, 3.9) are below the nearest integer. In contrast, the non-rectangular rating format decreases product preference when product ratings (e.g., 4.1, 4.2, 4.3) are above the nearest integer. Occurring for both the overall rating and by-attribute ratings of a product, the visual rounding effect results from a visual completeness restoration process, wherein consumers perceive non-rectangular rating units to be incomplete after vertical cutting. This research contributes to the product rating and visual marketing literatures and provides actionable implications by demonstrating what visual rating format should be adopted based on rating distribution, how the visual rounding effect can be prevented if needed, and who are even more susceptible to the visual rounding effect.
Days-of-the-week Effect in Temporal Judgments
Tatiana Sokolova
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers often receive and evaluate temporal information, such as the number of days it will take a package to arrive or the number of days a vacation will last. Across eight preregistered studies (N = 4,758), we show that using days-of-the-week information in descriptions of temporal intervals (e.g., “ordered on Monday, February 1, delivered on Saturday, February 6” vs. “ordered on February 1, delivered on February 6”) affects consumers’ duration perceptions. We propose that the days-of-the-week framing prompts people to rely on narrow-span implicit scales characterized by lower thresholds for magnitude categories. These implicit scales lead people to judge objectively equivalent temporal intervals to be longer, which in turn has downstream consequences for consumers’ time-versus-money trade-offs, work planning, and provider-switching decisions. This research adds to our understanding of how decision context can activate different implicit scales and how these scales shape consumer judgments.
The Roundness of Antiquity Valuations from Auction Houses and Sales
Melissa Boyle & Justin Svec
Eastern Economic Journal, October 2022, Pages 602–630
Abstract:
Auction houses employ in-house art experts to assess the value of objects. Items that will be placed on the auction block are first published in catalogs with the experts’ upper- and lower-bound estimates of each object’s market value. This paper examines whether the roundness of those estimates is related to the likelihood that items sell and their eventual hammer price. We find that rounder lower estimates reduce the eventual hammer price and perhaps also the likelihood that the item sells. The roundness of the upper estimate seems to have no clear impact on the auction outcome.