Unexpected-Framing Effect: Impact of Framing a Product Benefit as Unexpected on Product Desire

Abstract

Product tests are a common feature before any product launch. During product tests, marketers might discover that the product can deliver additional unintended benefits to the users. Should marketers communicate such unexpectedly found benefits to their potential customers as an unexpectedly discovered benefit or as an intended benefit? Across six experiments, including a field experiment, the current research shows that framing a product benefit as unexpected increases desire for the product, when consumers have a heightened motivation to seek rewards. However, framing an undesirable product feature (e.g., a side effect) as unexpected can negatively impact product desirability for consumers, who have a heightened motivation to avoid losses. Finally, highlighting another managerially important boundary condition, our findings show that the unexpected-framing effect is attenuated when the benefit framed as unexpected is incongruent with the product category. Theoretical and managerial implications of unexpected framing are discussed.

How consumer opinions are affected by marketers: an empirical examination by deep learning approach

“…Storytelling allows ample room for customer review; it is a wise tactic. This study result also supports Wadhwa et al (2019) research, which doubts if marketers should communicate all benefits to attract customers. Anyway, it is unnecessary and impossible for marketers to foresee all possible experiences (Gallo et al , 2019).…”

“…It concurs with an observation from Noureddine and ZeinEddine (2018) that often, consumers feel different from what marketers think. Anyway, the framing theory does not anticipate marketer's frames to be replicated by customers (Davidson, 2002; Gallo et al , 2019; Wadhwa et al , 2019).…”

“…While it is inappropriate to advertise some goodies incongruent with the product class (Wadhwa et al , 2019), the platform should allow easy sharing after consumers have found out those beneficial frames. Online review platforms need to employ tactics and design that facilitates customer to reflect their opinions upon marketers or someone else's messages, so that it may foster narrative engagement (Hamby et al , 2015).…”

Entrepreneurial framing: How category dynamics shape the effectiveness of linguistic frames

“…This has important implications as the venture may forgo the cognitive and evaluative benefits of perceived membership in the given category (e.g., Gehman & Grimes, 2017; Navis & Glynn, 2011) and consumers may even devalue the entrepreneurial offering if they perceived it to violate the category's codes and conventions (Hsu, 2006; Zuckerman, 1999). Moreover, an innovativeness framing may also lower cognitive resonance if it draws on language that is relatively unfamiliar to consumers (Cattani, Ferriani, et al, 2017; Lounsbury et al, 2019) or if such a framing alternatively relies on relatively generic claims (e.g., “we offer the next level of innovation”) that fail to communicate the offering's key features and benefits to consumers (Pan et al, 2020; Wadhwa et al, 2019). An innovativeness framing will therefore likely lowers a venture's cognitive resonance.…”

Visualization ability and the elaborations that sustain product desire

“…Many studies have attempted to understand the factors that influence product desire, but these are limited in scope in that nearly all of them look at external factors only. External factors studied include resource scarcity (Bradshaw et al, 2020), how product benefits are framed by marketers (Wadhwa et al, 2019), and the configuration of product features (Hur et al, 2015), among many others. However, research has rarely examined the internal mental processes that may influence desire, although Belk et al (2003), in a qualitative analysis, have highlighted the immense importance of these internal processes.…”