Papers by Rebecca Hamilton
Supplemental Material, jmr.14.0567-web-appendix for When Does Partitioned Pricing Lead to More Fa... more Supplemental Material, jmr.14.0567-web-appendix for When Does Partitioned Pricing Lead to More Favorable Consumer Preferences? Meta-Analytic Evidence by Ajay T. Abraham, and Rebecca W. Hamilton in Journal of Marketing Research
Effects of Evaluability on Goal Fulfillment and Satisfaction
We examine how consumers' trade off competence and morality when evaluating marketing agents. Alt... more We examine how consumers' trade off competence and morality when evaluating marketing agents. Although the general information formation literature predicts that individuals place greater weight on morality than competence, we predict that in marketing contexts, consumers may value an agent's competence more than morality. We investigate three factors that might affect how consumers weigh competence and morality: 1) the immediacy of the decision making horizon; 2) self vs. other perspective; and 3) the target-agent relationship. Three studies find support for the predictions.
When Do Partitioned Prices Increase Demand? Meta-Analytic and Experimental Evidence
ACR North American Advances, 2015
Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2017
Doing Well versus Doing Good: The Differential Effect of Underdog Positioning on Moral and Competent Service Providers
Journal of Marketing, 2017
This research examines how consumers make trade-offs between highly competent, less moral service... more This research examines how consumers make trade-offs between highly competent, less moral service providers and highly moral, less competent service providers. Counter to research on general impression formation, which shows that moral traits dominate competence traits, the authors demonstrate that when choosing between service providers, consumers systematically value competence more than morality. However, underdog positioning moderates this effect. When a moral service provider is positioned as an underdog, consumers feel empathy, thereby attenuating the dominance of competence. Notably, although underdog positioning can help a moral provider overcome a deficit in competence, it does not help a competent service provider overcome a deficit in morality or a warm provider overcome a deficit in competence. Thus, underdog positioning is particularly well suited for less competent service providers who are highly moral.
acrwebsite.org
Imagine that you are looking for an apartment to rent and are deciding between two options that e... more Imagine that you are looking for an apartment to rent and are deciding between two options that entail an attribute trade-off. One apartment is spacious but far from your workplace; the other is closer but much less spacious. Construal level theory (Liberman and Trope 1998) ...
Capturing the voice of the customer and translating customer needs into product features have bec... more Capturing the voice of the customer and translating customer needs into product features have become systematic steps in the product development process at thousands of firms worldwide. Some of the most popular techniques used to interpret the voice of the customer, such as customer sorts and affinity diagrams, are based on the process of categorization. The underlying assumption is that these techniques elicit the categorizers' tacit knowledge and theories about the relationships among customers needs in an unbiased manner. Building on recent research on categorization, we question this assumption and test the effects of two moderating variables on the categorization of customer needs. First, we test whether participants categorize customer needs differently when working individually or as part of a group. Second, we test whether participants' prior experience using a technique affects the way they categorize customer needs. Two experiments confirm that these moderators systematically contribute to variations in category structures: the breadth of categories created and relationships identified among categories.
Journal of Consumer Research, 2015
The present research demonstrates that consumers often feel inhibited from engaging in hedonic ac... more The present research demonstrates that consumers often feel inhibited from engaging in hedonic activities alone, especially when these activities are observable by others. When considering whether to engage in a hedonic and public activity such as going to a movie alone, individuals anticipate negative inferences from others about their social connectedness that reduce their interest in engaging in the activity. Notably, consumers seem to overestimate how much their enjoyment of these activities depends on whether they are accompanied by a companion. Cues that attenuate consumers' anticipation of negative inferences by making an activity seem more utilitarian or by reducing the anticipated number of observers systematically increases interest in engaging in unaccompanied public activities.
Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2022
How can consumers buy happiness? One prominent recommendation from consumer research is to pursue... more How can consumers buy happiness? One prominent recommendation from consumer research is to pursue experiences, because experiential purchases yield greater happiness than material purchases do (Gilovich et al., 2015; Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003). First defined by Van Boven and Gilovich (2003), experiential purchases are made with "the primary intention of acquiring a life experience-an event or series of events that [the individual] personally encounters or lives through," while material purchases are made with "the primary intention
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
Resource scarcity, manifested through limited time, money or space, is a prevalent aspect of fami... more Resource scarcity, manifested through limited time, money or space, is a prevalent aspect of family life. Drawing on depth interviews with 30 families from diverse demographic backgrounds, this study develops a framework to demonstrate how families respond to resource scarcity. Our research examines how multi-dimensional, concurrent and/or consecutive life events, such as job changes, house moves, or childbirth, create a mismatch between available and required resources to trigger situational resource scarcity. We identify different patterns of adjustments in consumption and resource investment over time, based on families’ chronic resources and reliance on support networks. Notably, the greater flexibility afforded by multiple family members is constrained by collective goals, domains of control, tensions and negotiations.
Journal of Marketing Research, 2021
Why Does the Medium Matter? Research suggests that the medium through which a message is communic... more Why Does the Medium Matter? Research suggests that the medium through which a message is communicated can influence its effectiveness. For example, Venkatraman et al. (2021) illustrate that consumers use more relational processing when encoding ads presented in print format than in digital format, potentially enhancing their memory retrieval when exposed to ad cues during purchasing decisions. Danaher et al. (2020) tracked the number of brand ad exposures across multiple media, including email, catalog, and paid search, and show that while all three media were effective in increasing sales, digital media (email and paid search) were more effective for increasing the brand's online sales, while catalogs were more effective for increasing in-store sales. Why might the effectiveness of marketing communications vary across media? Media richness theory suggests that media
Credence products are those whose quality is difficult or impossible for consumers to assess, eve... more Credence products are those whose quality is difficult or impossible for consumers to assess, even after consuming the product (Darby & Karni, 1973). For example, it is difficult to assess the technical skill and knowledge of a physician even after a visit. This research is focused on the content, structure and consumer perceptions of online reviews for credence services. We start by examining how the content and structure of real online reviews of credence services systematically differs from those of experience services (Nelson, 1970). We find that online reviews of credence services are more likely to contain unsupported claims than reviews of experience services. We experimentally examine consumer perceptions of reviews, varying both their structure and content. Consumers rationally discount the credibility of credence claims when presented with short, simple reviews but we expect more complex argument structure and inclusion of experience attributes in the review to attenuate this effect.
Journal of Marketing Research, 2005
As technology advances, it becomes more feasible to load products with a large number of features... more As technology advances, it becomes more feasible to load products with a large number of features, each of which individually might be perceived as useful. However, too many features can make a product overwhelming for consumers and difficult to use. Three studies examine how consumers balance their desires for capability and usability when they evaluate products and how these desires shift over time. Because consumers give more weight to capability and less weight to usability before use than after use, they tend to choose overly complex products that do not maximize their satisfaction when they use them, resulting in ”feature fatigue.” An analytical model based on these results provides additional insights into the feature fatigue effect. This model shows that choosing the number of features that maximizes initial choice results in the inclusion of too many features, potentially decreasing customer lifetime value. As the emphasis on future sales increases, the optimal number of fe...
Journal of Consumer Research, 2007
Journal of Consumer Research, 2011
When considering the purchase of a new product, will consumers be more likely to make the purchas... more 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.
Consumer substitution decisions: an integrative framework
Marketing Letters, 2014
ABSTRACT Substitution decisions have been examined from a variety of perspectives. The economics ... more ABSTRACT Substitution decisions have been examined from a variety of perspectives. The economics literature measures cross-price elasticity, operations research models optimal assortments, the psychology literature studies goals in conflict, and marketing research has examined substitution-in-use, brand switching, stockouts, and self-control. We integrate these perspectives into a common framework for understanding consumer substitution decisions; their specific drivers (availability of new alternatives, internal vs. external restrictions on choice); the moderating role of a consumer's commitment to an initially desired alternative; and the affective, motivational, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes of substitution. We use this framework to recommend new avenues for research.
Journal of Consumer Research, 2006
We demonstrate that matching ad format to a consumer's mode of information processing enhances ad... more We demonstrate that matching ad format to a consumer's mode of information processing enhances advertising effectiveness. Relative to noncomparative ads, comparative ads are more effective when consumers use analytical processing. Conversely, noncomparative ads are more effective than comparative ads when consumers use imagery processing. When ad format is compatible with processing mode, information processability is enhanced, making the message more persuasive and ad evaluations, brand evaluations, and purchase intentions more favorable than when ad format and processing mode are incompatible. C omparative appeals are used frequently in a variety of industries, such as in the automotive trade (e.g., Ford Taurus vs. Honda Accord), information technology (e.g., Oracle vs. IBM), and consumer packaged goods (e.g., Progresso vs. Campbell soup, Miller Light vs. Budweiser Light). In contrast to noncomparative ads, which present information about a single brand, comparative ads present explicit comparisons between two or more brands. Academic research comparing the effectiveness of these two formats has been inconclusive. While several studies have shown that comparative ads can enhance the positioning of an advertised brand (e.g., , other studies have shown that comparative ads do not result in more positive evaluations of the brand (e.g., and can lead to more negative evaluations of the ad (e.g., . In this article, we examine consumers' readiness to process information in either a comparative or noncomparative format. If a consumer is using an imagery processing mode, thinking about herself using the advertised product, will a comparative or a noncomparative format be more effective?
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Papers by Rebecca Hamilton