World Cup Edition or Summer Special? Why Consumers Buy Limited Edition Products

Abstract

Limited Edition (LE) products can be defined as uniquely designed products offered for a predefined time and/or at a predefined quantity within the same product category. Marketers are likely to promote both luxury and consumer goods’ scarcity as this method has proven to be successful not only in the luxury goods segment, but also in various consumer good product categories (Balachander and Stock 2009). Although consumer behavior has already been investigated in the context of scarcity, no study has focused on a rather comprehensive identification of the success factors that determine consumers’ intention to purchase scarce products in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) context (Van Herpen et al. 2009). Our research focuses on a detailed investigation of FMCG limited editions, as they are one of the most popular product types whose availability is artificially limited (Gierl and Huttl 2010). Based on a review of the relevant literature we identify crucial determinants influencing consumers’ purchase intention (PI) with respect to limited edition products. In particular, we investigated perceived scarcity, perceived product innovativeness, perceived credibility, and perceived product quality. Furthermore, we determine the influence of product familiarity by comparing a convenience sample of noninvolved consumers (study 1) with a sample of consumers highly involved in the product category used in our survey (study 2). Consequently, in order to support marketers to better promote and use scarcity signals in practice, as well as to reduce failure rates of newly introduced LE products, we aim at answering the following research question: What are success factors that drive consumers’ purchase intentions of LE products?