Purchase Likelihood Research Articles

Does taste sensitivity matter? The effect of coffee sensory tasting information and taste sensitivity on consumer preferences

Product sensory information, an external cue, could greatly influence consumer enjoyment of hedonic products like coffee. The question is what type of sensory information, subjective (e.g., aroma, flavor and body) or objective (e.g., origin, varieties and production practices), has a higher impact on consumer product experience accounting for heterogeneous taste sensitivity. We examine this question using a between-subject experiment where participants were either given subjective, objective or no sensory information of a specialty coffee. Participants were classified as either supertasters or other tasters using the 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) paper strip. The results indicate that, compared to objective sensory information and no information, subjective sensory information results in a higher taste rating and a higher preference level for the coffee. More importantly, subjective information positively influences PROP supertasters’ purchase likelihood for coffee, without necessarily affecting their bitterness perception of the coffee tasted.

Identification and characterization of fluid milk consumer groups

Consumption of fluid milk has steadily declined over the last few decades. Understanding the attributes of fluid milk products that are attractive to specific consumer groups may provide a sound basis for education and marketing to encourage increased dairy consumption and reverse the downward trend. The objective of this study was to identify the attributes of fluid milk that specific consumer groups find attractive and attributes that suggest a higher purchase likelihood. An adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) survey was designed to assess attributes of fluid milk. The ACBC survey included Kano, importance, labeling identification, and beliefs questions to determine the key attributes that dictated consumer purchase and consumption. Self-reported purchase habits and attitudes for organic food products were also collected. Attributes in the ACBC exercise included fat content, package type, shelf life, and label claims. Maximum difference scaling was used to rank the importance of attributes in fluid milk that affected purchase. Maximum difference scaling was also used to rank qualities and issues associated with organic milk that were most motivating for those who identified as organic milk consumers. Results were analyzed by univariate and multivariate statistics. A total of 1,163 fluid milk consumers completed the survey, and of those, 434 were regular purchasers of organic milk. The ideal fluid milk from conjoint analysis was 2% milkfat, organic, packaged in a plastic jug, conventionally pasteurized, and contained no additives or label claims. The belief that "organic milk is healthier" was the most important motivator for purchases of organic milk, followed by the beliefs that "organic milk production encourages ethical treatment of animals" and "organic milk production supports local farms and farmers." Conjoint importance scores of all fluid milk consumers showed that milkfat content was the most important attribute, followed by flavor, package size, and price. For all milk consumers, designation as organic was ranked as the 8th most important of 14 attributes. Evaluation of these results on both aggregate and individual levels suggest that fluid milk consumers are not a homogeneous consumer group and that underlying consumer groups are led to purchase decisions by specific product features or expectations.

Assessing Purchase Patterns of Price Conscious Consumers

Price greatly influences consumers’ purchasing decisions. Individuals whose decisions are primarily driven by price are said to be ‘price conscious’. To date, studies have focused on defining price consciousness and identifying factors that contribute to price-conscious behavior. However, research using visual attention to assess how price conscious consumers use in-store stimuli is limited. Here, consumers’ purchasing decisions are assessed using a rating-based conjoint analysis paired with eye tracking technology when shopping for ornamental plants. An ordered logit model is employed to understand price conscious consumers’ purchase patterns and choice outcomes. Overall, price conscious consumers are less attentive to price information. Being price conscious tends to reduce purchase likelihood, ceteris paribus. Increasing visual attention to price decreases consumers’ purchase likelihood, which is amplified for price conscious consumers. Price conscious consumers tend to be quicker decision makers than non-price conscious consumers. Results are beneficial to retailers interested in targeting or primarily catering to price conscious consumers.

Connecting with Brands: Brand Personality and Brand Outcome Valuing Persons with Special Needs (PSN)

There are many individuals with developmental disabilities who have the capability to make independent purchases and who frequent particular brands. Studies on buying trends of individuals with physical disabilities is available, however, there is a need for academic study to explore how individuals with developmental disabilities connect to various brands via brand personality. The proposed embryo case study will investigate how individuals with developmental disabilities associate with particular brands utilizing the Brand Personality scale (Aaker, 1997) to predict brand outcome (e.g. brand connection, purchase likelihood, and brand choice) as well as promote inclusive marketing methods for the above-mentioned population.

Specialist Competitor Referrals: How Salespeople can Use Competitor Referrals for Nonfocal Products to Increase Focal Product Sales

Intuition suggests that a salesperson should not refer consumers to a competitor for products that they both sell. However, myriad examples reveal salespeople doing just that. The authors study specialist competitor referrals, a sales strategy by which one increases consumers’ purchase likelihood of a focal product (e.g., a painting at an art gallery) by (1) referring consumers to a competitor (e.g., a frame warehouse store) that offers a nonfocal product (e.g., a frame) at a lower price, while (2) stating that the stores differ in their specializations (i.e., the stores concentrate their efforts on different goods). Using a study and survey with salespeople, experimental studies, an incentivized negotiation experiment, and a field study, the authors show that specialist competitor referrals can indeed benefit sellers. Specifically, they build on equity theory to show that specialist competitor referrals increase focal product sales by reducing consumers’ perceived overpayment risk for the focal product via increasing perceived equity in the exchange. The authors also show that competitor referrals for nonfocal products that do not justify the price difference on the nonfocal product are ineffective.

Alcohol expectancy profile in late childhood with alcohol drinking and purchasing behaviors in adolescence

BackgroundThe study aims to (i) identify the evolving profile of endorsed alcohol expectancies (AEs) during the transition from late childhood into early adolescence, and (ii) examine the connection between such profiles and subsequent alcohol drinking and purchasing in adolescence. MethodsA prospective cohort of 928 sixth graders was recruited from 17 elementary schools in northern Taiwan in 2006 with follow-ups conducted in seventh and eighth grade. Information concerning AEs, individual characteristics, and social attributes were collected by self-administered questionnaires at baseline and in seventh grade; drinking behaviors and alcohol purchasing were assessed in eighth grade. Longitudinal latent profile and survey regression analyses were used to evaluate association estimates. ResultsThree distinct profiles of positive AEs were identified: stably low (37%), stably high (35%), and increasing (28%). Regardless of childhood-onset alcohol experience, endorsing the stably high-profile AEs was associated with increased drinking occasions (adjusted relative risk [aRR] = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.24–1.80), and having the increasing-profile AEs may elevate the likelihood of alcohol purchase in adolescence (adjusted odd ratio [aOR] = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.33–4.96). Additionally, parental drinking was the most influential social factor for drinking occasions (aRR = 1.43) whereas peer drinking was prominent for alcohol purchasing (aOR = 3.06). ConclusionsThe evolving profile of alcohol expectancy in late childhood may predict alcohol drinking occasion and purchasing behaviors in adolescence. Underage drinking prevention efforts should target not only pro-alcohol social environments but also cognitive constructs (e.g., alcohol expectancy).

Modeling the effects of dynamic group influence on shopper zone choice, purchase conversion, and spending

In many retail contexts, social interaction plays an important role in the shopping process. We propose a three-stage dynamic linear model that captures the influence of group discussion on shopper behavior within a hierarchical Bayes framework. The model is tested using a video tracking and transaction dataset from a specialty apparel store. The research reveals that group conversations have a significant impact on the shopper’s department or “zone” choice, purchase likelihood, and spending over time. This group influence is magnified by the size of the group (particularly for zone penetration and purchase conversion), and is also moderated by group composition and cohesiveness. The conversations of mixed-age groups and groups who stay together while shopping have a significant influence on shopper behavior across all three stages, while discussions by adult groups exhibit a marginal carryover effect for purchase conversion. When shoppers have repeated discussions in a specific department, they are more likely to return to and buy from this department, while the cumulative number of discussions in the store drives higher spending levels. We also observe that group shoppers visit more departments than their solo counterparts; and mixed-age groups and solo shoppers are more likely to buy than adults-only or teen groups. This study has important implications for how retailers manage shopper engagement and group interaction in their stores.

The effects of mobile promotions on customer purchase dynamics

While mobile promotions have become increasingly popular in recent years, limited research has examined the effects of mobile promotions over time. This research investigates the effects of two popular types of promotional offers, price discount and non-price free sample coupons, on purchase behavior. To this end, we present a dynamic model of customer purchase behavior that incorporates time-varying effects of mobile coupons, enabling us to investigate both the short-term and longer-term effects of mobile promotions. Using transaction and mobile promotion data, we find that both price discount and free sample coupons increase customers' purchase likelihood and expenditures during the coupon redemption period. We also find that free sample coupons have an enduring effect that increases the purchase propensity beyond the promotion period, thereby contributing to incremental purchases over a longer period of time. We demonstrate how our approach can help marketers improve mobile couponing decisions by considering the dynamic effects of mobile promotions that manifest over time.

Antecedents of Global Brand Purchase Likelihood: Exploring the Mediating Effect of Quality, Prestige and Familiarity

ABSTRACTThis article examines the drivers of global brand purchase likelihood and delineates theoretical and practical implications for marketers. A distinctive model is developed based on theoretical and empirical foundations in the branding and consumer behavior research and the constructs used are well grounded in literature. The model proposes that perceived brand globalness and country of origin have an impact on perceived brand quality, brand prestige and brand familiarity that in turn affect brand purchase likelihood. Additionally, both perceived brand globalness and country of origin are expected to have direct relationships with brand purchase likelihood. The proposed model is testified drawing on the results of empirical work in the form of a large-scale survey conducted on a convenience sample of generation Y consumers in Saudi Arabia. Data collection resulted in 319 usable questionnaires. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that brand perceived globalness and country of origin are important determinants of perceived brand quality, prestige, and brand familiarity. Additionally, perceived brand globalness, quality, and prestige are important determinants of brand purchase likelihood.

Culturally Contingent Cravings: How Holistic Thinking Influences Consumer Responses to Food Appeals

While prior literature has often conceptualized Eastern consumers as archetypes of resolute discipline and self‐control, the authors of this manuscript demonstrate that holistic thinking (a well‐established characteristic of Eastern culture) can pose a liability to consumers’ self‐control efforts by increasing their desire for indulgent foods under certain conditions. Specifically, this research reveals that when an indulgent food is advertised with a cue that sets the occasion for consumption (i.e., an occasion‐setting cue), holistic (vs. analytic) thinking increases craving and subsequent purchase likelihood for the featured product. Evidence for this effect is found across three studies using both self‐reported and physiological measures of craving. Furthermore, the effect holds regardless of whether holistic thinking is measured or manipulated. Finally, this research provides evidence for the underlying mechanism and establishes important boundary conditions for the interactive effect.

Does it actually feel right? A replication attempt of the rounded price effect.

How does the roundedness of prices affect product evaluations? The ‘rounded price effect’ postulates that depending on the context, rounded or non-rounded prices increase the purchase likelihood of consumers. The study presented here is a replication attempt of these findings and the proposed mediation of the effect through a sense of ‘feeling right’ when evaluating the product. p-Curve analysis and the R-Index are used to assess the robustness of the originally reported statistics since original data were not available. A pre-registered replication of study 5 from the original article was conducted in a sample of N=588 participants. For both the original product and one alternative product neither an interaction between price roundedness and context, nor a mediation through ‘a sense of feeling right’ was found. Our results suggest that the effect is either smaller than originally reported or contingent on other, not investigated factors. Further studies might investigate contingencies in larger samples.

Visual attention, buying impulsiveness, and consumer behavior

Buying impulsiveness is frequently triggered by point-of-sale information. In order to impact consumer behavior, this information must be visually noticed. In this study, researchers propose that consumers’ level of buying impulsiveness impacts their visual attention to point-of-sale information (i.e., signs, displays). Specifically, individuals scoring high on the buying impulsiveness scale (BIS) fixate less on point-of-sale information. This was tested in two experiments where participants’ task was to rate their purchase likelihood for ornamental plants. Both experiments demonstrate that consumers with high BIS fixate less on in-store signs but more on displays than low BIS consumers. High BIS participants’ visual attention to informational signs positively impacts their purchasing behavior while their visual attention to the displays does not. Theoretical contributions to consumer behavior literature and implications for retail marketing efforts are discussed.

Periodic Pricing and Perceived Contract Benefits

Framing a contract’s cost as a series of payments over time structures how people mentally account for the contract’s benefits. For example, when people are asked to donate to a charity once a year (aggregate pricing), they imagine the benefits they will feel from a single, large donation. In contrast, if the charity frames its request in terms of the equivalent daily donation (periodic pricing), people consider the benefits from making many smaller donations, which is often a more enticing prospect than a single gift. Eight lab experiments and a field test examine how periodic pricing influences purchase intentions. Periodic prices can increase perceived benefits, particularly when people value the first few units of a product each more than additional units of consumption. More frequent payments can help people appreciate recurring pleasures and increase the likelihood of purchasing.

Online Reviews: Star Ratings, Position Effects and Purchase Likelihood

Online product reviews constitute a powerful source of information for consumers. Past research has studied the effect of aggregate measures of reviews (such as, average product rating and number of reviews) on consumer behaviour. In this study, we investigate how individual reviews displayed on a product webpage affect consumers’ purchase likelihood. Identifying this effect is challenging because retailers are free to select which reviews to display on the product page and in what order, making the display of reviews in particular positions potentially endogenous. We address this challenge by utilizing an empirical context where the retailer displays reviews by recency and exploit the variation in review positions generated as newer reviews are added on top of older ones. We find that individual reviews have a strong effect on consumer purchase decisions. These effects are particularly pronounced when individual reviews contrast with the aggregate information that is instantly available on the product page or help consumers resolve uncertainty about the product.

Men hate it, women love it: Guilty pleasure advertising messages

The concept of a guilty pleasure has become a cultural touchstone, and messaging employing the concept has been increasingly used in advertising to gain consumers' attention and enhance the perceived value of the product. However, the present research finds guilty pleasure messages have strikingly different effects in men vs. women, for both physical and service products. Such messages result in more negative attitudes and lowered likelihood of purchase in men, yet higher attitudes and purchase likelihood in women. Using a mediated moderation model, this research shows these differential gender effects are driven by imagery generation via the experience of low agency emotions.

Monetizing Sharing Traffic Via Incentive Design: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

Despite the increasing connectivity between consumers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design promotional incentives that jointly consider their consumers as both purchasers and sharers. In this study, we examine whether and how firms can leverage consumers’ social connections and engage consumers to share promotional incentives. In collaboration with a leading online deal platform, we report a large-scale randomized field experiment to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varying in the shareability and scarcity of promotion codes) in driving social sharing senders’ purchases and successful referrals. We find that the different incentive designs have distinct impacts on the purchase and referral outcomes. Specifically, providing senders with one non-shareable promo code significantly increases their own purchase likelihood, compared to the other experimental groups. In contrast, the senders who receive one shareable promo code are less likely to purchase themselves yet are more likely to make successful referrals. Surprisingly, the incentive design with two promo codes containing one non-shareable code and one shareable code increases neither the senders’ purchase nor their successful referrals. Managerially, we estimate that although the one non-shareable promo code group derives the highest net revenue for the experimental period, the one shareable promo code group derives the highest customer lifetime value for the firm from the new customers acquired through the successful referrals. We further conducted two online experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk that replicate the field experiment’s findings and explore the underlying mechanisms of the observed relationships. We find that exclusivity perception and social motives triggered by the incentive designs with one promo code mediate their effects on senders’ self-purchases and successful referrals, respectively, and explain the ineffectiveness of two promo codes. Our study contributes to the bodies of literature on IT-enabled social sharing and social promotions, providing implications for firms on how to design promotional incentives that accommodate the dual role of consumers as purchasers and sharers.

Corporate brand extensions based on the purchase likelihood: governance implications

This paper is examining the purchase likelihood of hypothetical service brand extensions from product companies focusing on consumer electronics based on sector categorization and perceptions of fit between the existing product category and image of the company. Prior research has recognized that levels of brand knowledge eases the transference of associations and affect to the new products. Similarity to the existing products of the parent company and perceived image also influence the success of brand extensions. However, sector categorization may interfere with this relationship. The purpose of this study is to examine Greek consumers’ attitudes towards hypothetical brand extensions, and how these are affected by consumers’ existing knowledge about the brand, sector categorization and perceptions of image and category fit of cross-sector extensions. This aim is examined in the context of technological categories, where less-known companies exhibited significance in purchase likelihood, and contradictory with the existing literature, service companies did not perform as positively as expected. Additional insights to the existing literature about sector categorization are provided. The effect of both image and category fit is also examined and predictions regarding the effect of each are made.

Aromakologia w sektorze żywności – aspekty wyboru produktów żywnościowych przez konsumentów

A current therapy trend known as „back to nature therapy” boosts the use of essential oils and pure fragrance compounds and increases the importance thereof not only in medicine, but also in the business sphere. Marketing services involving aroma applications include for example scent logo or corporate aroma, selecting air-scent for interiors that strongly depends on the type of industry, scents used during marketing campaigns, corporate events or in outlets as those scents impact customer behaviour. In the paper there was presented a review of the reference literature on the aroma usage in food retail outlets. There was discussed the effect of aromas on the behaviours and emotions of consumers and on their perception of the environment as was the effect of aromas on the likelihood of purchase, the amount of money spent, and the evaluation of products and the outlet. It was showed that the scent applied had a positive effect on the shoppers and customers, incl. their moods, behaviours and emotions. Regarding the type of aroma, the analysis covered mostly the floral and food-based scents incl. citrus and herbal scents. It was proved that following the category-congruent olfactory cues had a positive effect on the sales of the entire product range. In general it can be inferred that modifying the environment by adding appropriate aromas has a positive effect on customers, and this can be a high potential for the food sector and for other sectors of the business sphere.

Accents and Ethnic Stereotypes in Radio Advertising: Implications for Spokesperson Selection

Abstract: Advertisers often employ accented spokespeople to promote products and services that are stereotypical of or related to a speaker's background. The current research examines the impact of using an accented spokesperson on listener evaluations of credibility, attitude toward the spokesperson, and the purchase likelihood of an advertised product/service. Using an ethnically and regionally diverse sample, this research indicates that accented radio advertisements are effective when the listener perceives the spokesperson as being ethnically similar. Additionally, this research illustrates that accented spokespersons can be effective in promoting stereotypical products/services; however the effect is limited to listeners that perceive ethnic similarity to the ad spokesperson. Advertising can have a profound impact on society whereby it has the ability to change perceptions and behaviors in both positive and negative ways. When designing advertisements, marketers are encouraged to be mindful of potential societal repercussions that come from their choices, such as spokesperson selection and the accents that are used.

How do consumer perceptions of “local” production benefits influence their visual attention to state marketing programs?

AbstractWith increasing market potential due to consumer interest in locally sourced foods, state marketing promotional campaigns are becoming increasingly popular. We quantify consumers’ perceptions of local production benefits and assess the impact of Florida's state agricultural promotional campaign on consumer preferences for and visual attention to fruit‐producing plants. A rating‐based experiment and eye tracking measures were integrated to investigate the relationship between consumers’ perceived benefits of local production, purchase likelihood, and visual attention. Local economy benefits were perceived as the most beneficial (compared to environmental or product quality benefits) with participants’ demographics influencing their perceptions of those benefits. Visual attention to the agricultural promotional campaign logo increased consumers’ purchase likelihood if they perceived locally grown plants as benefiting the local economy. The local production attribute had a positive impact even though consumers who became familiar with the visual stimulus (after repetitive exposures) spent relatively less time visually attending to the campaign logo. [EconLit citations: M3].