Outpacing Others: When Consumers Value Products Based on Relative Usage Frequency

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. When considering the purchase of a new product, will consumers be more likely to make the purchase if they think about using it every day or if they think about using it every week? From an economic perspective, using a durable product more frequently should increase its perceived value. However, we show that perceived usage frequency relative to other consumers can influence product interest more than absolute usage frequency. In five studies, we use scale labels, advertisements, and customer reviews to invoke either a high-frequency or low-frequency norm. We show that high-frequency cues create less product interest and lower willingness to pay than low-frequency cues because consumers infer that their relative usage frequency will be lower, reducing the product's perceived fit. This effect is moderated by the consumer's perceived similarity to the standard of comparison and the consumer's own characteristics. The University of Chicago PressH ow do consumers decide whether to buy a durable good, and how much they are willing to pay for it? One factor they might consider during the decision process is how often they will use the product. In this article, we examine how cues suggesting that a product is expected to be used more or less frequently affect consumer interest in the product.

The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors

“…In the object priming condition, participants were asked to describe the favorite features and functionality of their laptop and then evaluate their laptop using product characteristics (loudquiet; too heavy weight-perfect weight; small storage-big storage; appearance design bad-appearance design good; CPU slow-CPU fast). Then the participants were randomly assigned to social media interaction frequency (high vs. low) conditions (adopted from Hamilton, Ratner, & Thompson, 2011 F(1,203)= 32.0, p< .001; see Figure 2) but was not significant at the level of object priming condition (p>.84). These results replicated the results of study 1 in that both social media interaction and brand anthropomorphism are positively associated with BRQ.…”

“…Then the participants were randomly assigned to social media interaction amount (high vs. low) conditions. Specifically, they responded to a question "How much time do you think you would spend on interaction with XXX brand on social media on an average weekday" on a low amount scale (1=up to 5 minutes, 5= more than 30 minutes) or a high amount scale (1=up to 30 minutes, 5= more than 2.5 hours; procedures adopted from Hamilton et al, 2011). After the manipulations, participants answered some questions about BRQ, brand loyalty, and word of mouth.…”

Predicting Consumption Time: The Role of Event Valence and Unpacking

“…Similarly, when they predict spending more time watching paid television, they are more likely to buy a cable television package (Lemon, White, and Winer 2002). Usage time also influences consumers' willingness to pay for durable goods (Hamilton, Ratner, and Thompson 2011;Tanner and Carlson 2009). Further, consumers use service duration (e.g., duration of gym classes) or time to onset (e.g., the time required for a medication or caffeine to become effective) as a heuristic basis for evaluation (Faro 2010;Yeung and Soman 2007).…”

The value of Twitter for sports fans

“…Further, functional value, which is defined in terms of utility, has been considered to be a factor in the choices made by consumers. 21,22 To be valuable, social media must be seen as being worth the time and effort expended (eg learning curves). Social media also benefits from network effectsthe more people use them, the more content there is, thereby increasing the likelihood of return engagement and the perception of content value.…”