Pleasant Surprises: Consumer Response to Unexpected In-Store Coupons

Heilman, Carrie M.; Nakamoto, Kent; Rao, Ambar G.

doi:10.1509/jmkr.39.2.242.19081

Cited by 281 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Thus, we expect that compared with cash, credit card use will increase the likelihood of unplanned purchases. 3 The coupon was mailed to respondents to prevent a windfall effect (e.g., Heilman, Nakamoto, and Rao 2002).…”

Section: Methods Of Paymentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interplay among Category Characteristics, Customer Characteristics, and Customer Activities on in-Store Decision Making

Inman

Winer

Ferraro

2009

Journal of Marketing

416

359

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The authors explore product category and customer characteristics that affect consumers' likelihood of engaging in unplanned purchases. In addition, they examine consumer activities that can exacerbate or limit these effects. The authors employ a hierarchical modeling approach to test their hypotheses using a data set of in-store intercept interviews conducted with 2300 consumers across 28 stores. The results show that category characteristics, such as purchase frequency and displays, and customer characteristics, such as household size and gender, affect in-store decision making. Moreover, although the analysis reveals that the baseline probability of an unplanned purchase is 46%, the contextual factors can drive this probability as high as 93%. The results support the predictions that list use, more frequent trips, limiting the aisles visited, limiting time spent in the store, and paying by cash are effective strategies for decreasing the likelihood of making unplanned purchases.

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Section: Methods Of Paymentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interplay among Category Characteristics, Customer Characteristics, and Customer Activities on in-Store Decision Making

Inman

Winer

Ferraro

2009

Journal of Marketing

416

359

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Arkes et al (1994) demonstrated that unexpected small windfalls ($3-5) are more likely to be spent on gambling or at a basketball game than anticipated windfalls of the same size. Heilman et al (2002) examined the effect of $1 coupons for particular grocery items on the behavior of grocery shoppers and found that the coupons increased consumers' unplanned spending as well as their total spending. 6 Finally, in research contemporaneous with ours, Abeler and Marklein (2008) studied how restaurant patrons responded to an unexpected windfall in the form of a discount on their bill.…”

Section: Related Empirical Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Mental accounting and small windfalls: Evidence from an online grocer

Milkman

Beshears

2009

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

162

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a b s t r a c tWe study the effect of small windfalls on consumer spending decisions by comparing the purchases online grocery customers make when redeeming $10-off coupons with the purchases they make without coupons. Controlling for customer fixed effects and other variables, we find that grocery spending increases by $1.59 when a $10-off coupon is redeemed. The extra spending associated with coupon redemption is focused on groceries that a customer does not typically buy. These results are consistent with the theory of mental accounting but are not consistent with the standard permanent income or lifecycle theory of consumption. While the hypotheses we test are motivated by mental accounting, we also discuss some alternative psychological explanations for our findings.

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“…Thus, marketers commonly use a long-wavelength color (e.g., red) in the prepurchase stage (e.g., advertisement) to stimulate arousal (Mehta and Zhu 2009) (e.g., excitement) and tend to use a short-wavelength color (e.g., blue) in the postpurchase stage to lower arousal (e.g., relaxation). Gifts or coupons, as an effective promotion strategy, can create a positive surprise when they appear in the package (Heilman et al 2002). This positive surprise may cause consumers to experience greater perceived pleasure and perhaps even arousal.…”

Section: Affective Reactions In Consumer Return Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the package opening process on product returns

Zhou

Hinz

Benlian

2017

Bus Res

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High product return rates are an increasingly pressing challenge for many e-retailers around the world. To address this problem, this paper offers a new perspective by focusing on the critical moment of the package-opening process. Going beyond previous research, which has primarily focused on website information and the product itself, we examine the effects of the outside appearance (i.e., the color of the delivery package) and contents of the delivery package (i.e., extra gifts, coupons, and preprinted return labels) on consumer return behavior. Our findings across two experimental studies and an observational field study show that a well-considered package design, including colorful packaging and extra gifts, significantly lowers consumers' return intentions and actual returns. We also explore the process of consumers' cognitive-affective reactions after opening a delivery package. During this two-stage reaction process, pleasure plays a crucial role in the consumer's return choice.

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Pleasant Surprises: Consumer Response to Unexpected In-Store Coupons

Cited by 281 publications

References 15 publications

The Interplay among Category Characteristics, Customer Characteristics, and Customer Activities on in-Store Decision Making

The Interplay among Category Characteristics, Customer Characteristics, and Customer Activities on in-Store Decision Making

Mental accounting and small windfalls: Evidence from an online grocer

The impact of the package opening process on product returns

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