Once Upon a Product: Storytelling with Online Product Descriptions: An Abstract

Abstract

With the rise in popularity of online shopping, marketers are challenged to find new ways to make their product appealing to consumers without the ability of physical experiences that help connect a consumer to a product (Thaler, 1980; Peck & Shu, 2009). Narratives may be a powerful way to differentiate a product online and generate product attachment without the product’s physical presence. Using Narrative Transportation Theory, this paper explores the process through which shoppers create impressions of an online product based on the online product description type. A conceptual model is proposed with consumer transportation and product attachment mediating the relationship between narrative product descriptions and product substitutability. A scenario-based experimental design is employed to test the conceptual model. The results showed that narrative product descriptions had significantly higher consumer transportation perceptions than non-narrative product descriptions, consumer transportation had a positive relationship with product attachment, and product attachment had a negative relationship with product substitutability, confirming the direct effect hypotheses. Furthermore, consumer transportation and product attachment mediated the relationship between product description type and product substitutability. This research extends narrative transportation theory into online product descriptions, a previously unexplored area. In doing so, this research shows that narratives can be used at the product level to influence consumer’s perceptions of a particular product. These results have practical implications for online retailers. First, this research shows that online product descriptions can influence consumer perceptions of the product, including increasing perceptions that a product differs from others in its product category. Second, regarding narratives, by incorporating narratives into online product descriptions, these retailers may be able to reduce the likelihood that their shoppers would look elsewhere for an alternative through decreasing the consumer’s perceptions of the product as being substitutable. Narratives in online product descriptions may offer a form of defense against other similar goods that a consumer may find online.