Characteristics of Successful Product Information Programs

Abstract

A review of 28 field‐tested product information programs for consumers revealed the characteristics that distinguish successful from unsuccessful programs. Success in changing purchase or consumption behavior was associated with increases in information benefits and decreases in processing effort. Greater intensity of consumer participation in a program, such as through personal goal setting, also was associated with higher success rates. In contrast, hortatory reminders that neither provided new benefits nor reduced effort costs were unsuccessful. Similarly, a program's magnitude per se was unrelated to its success. We conclude that the design of product information programs should be guided by a cost‐benefit analysis of information use from the consumer's perspective.

"Coherent Arbitrariness": Stable Demand Curves Without Stable Preferences

“…Other factors that can make a difference are how the information is presented, e.g., whether prices of alternative products are listed in a comparative fashion or are encountered sequentially (see Russo and Leclerc [1991]), and whether prices are known privately or discussed. Thus, for example, large salary differentials may be easier to sustain in a work environment in which salary information is not discussed.…”

Using augmented reality to inform consumer choice and lower carbon footprints

“…These nutrition results are uncommon in the literature on product information programs, which is replete with findings of no effect (Mayer et al 1989, Russo and Leclerc 1991, Escaron et al 2013, Russo et al 1986. The 23% reduction in the carbon content of bottled water would likely be difficult to achieve through technical means.…”

Conditions of consumer information seeking: theoretical foundations and empirical results of using interactive multimedia systems

“…The most convincing arguments for the relevance of the cost-bene t concept as a basis for explaining media selection are provided by empirical studies (Kuhlmann et al 1992;Russo 1987;Russo and Leclerc 1991). Determining individual cost-bene t relationships by means of eld experiments or in advance of media consumption, as in the case of rsttime users, is however an arduous process.…”