Operant Behavioral Economics for E‐mail Marketing: An Experiment Based on the Behavioral Perspective Model Testing the Effectiveness of Motivational Operation, Utilitarian and Informational Stimuli

Abstract

The e‐mail marketing literature is limited and scattered and in a search for a more systematic approach to research. The few published studies mostly consist of indirect (attitudinal) measures of behavior instead of a direct measurement of the actual variables of interest—consumer economic choice. Furthermore, published research does not focus on motivational operations despite marketing's emphasis on needs, wants, and personalized marketing. In the current paper, we extend the examination of the Behavioral Perspective Model as a conceptual system for managerial decision making in e‐mail marketing. The experiment tested the applicability of motivational operations and utilitarian and informational contingencies for e‐mail marketing for a hardware and home improvement chain selling bicycle helmets. A motivational‐segmentation analysis of the marketing database was performed prior to the experiment based on the target product appropriateness for consumers. After the segmentation, different types of e‐mails based on altered utilitarian contingencies or a combination of utilitarian and informational contingencies were sent to two groups from the same marketing database of registered consumers interested in receiving special offers. The results showed that the e‐mail marketing's effectiveness were greatest when motivational‐based segmentation and economical (utilitarian) contingencies were applied. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.