“Retail is detail! Give consumers a gift rather than a bundle”: Promotion framing and consumer product returns

Abstract

Retailers often use the promotion strategy of offering supplementary products (e.g., free gift, bundle) to attract consumers and increase sales. Despite the growing literature on the promotions that are differently framed but offer economically identical values, little research has examined the link between promotion framing and consumer product returns. The current article sheds light on this relationship, hypothesizing that a free gift promotion would be superior to a bundle promotion in reducing consumer product returns. The findings suggest that a gift-framed promotion leads to a lower product return intention than an economically equivalent bundle promotion, because consumers tend to perceive more loss from giving up the gift-framed (vs. bundle-framed) deal. Further, this study examines a moderating role of brand familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and shows that the merits of free gift framing on product return intention via perceived loss are amplified (attenuated) when the promoted brand is familiar (unfamiliar). Overall, the investigations of this study imply that it is better to frame a promotion as a "free gift" than a "bundle" to increase perceived loss in returning the purchase and thus to decrease consumer product returns. This strategic intervention works especially when the gift is offered by familiar brands. K E Y W O R D Sbrand familiarity, bundle, free gift, perceived loss, product returns, promotion framing

The drivers of desirability in scarcity marketing

“…When an existing luxury brand launches a new product, they have a high probability of using LQS and LTS messages (Wiedmann et al, 2009). LQS messages allow consumers to assume that the goods are scarce and prestigious, thus affecting consumers' desire to gain the product (Lee and Yi, 2019). LTS messages are adopted in the launch period of the product lifecycle, especially for luxury products (Wu and Lee, 2016).…”

To earmark or not to earmark when gift‐giving: Gift‐givers' and gift‐recipients' diverging preferences for earmarked cash gifts

“…Although research on how to give is sparse, the extant research (just discussed) clearly shows that the aspects comprising how to give are important, as they can influence recipients' reactions to gifts. Indeed, outside the realm of gift-giving, much research spanning multiple areas of psychology (e.g., persuasion, judgement and decision making) indicates that how products are framed, received, and perceived is, arguably, about as important to consumers as the products themselves (e.g., Lee & Yi, 2019;Schmidt & Maier, 2019).…”

“Right” on the day: How the timing of date‐specific promotions influences consumer responses

“…and the mechanism of persuasion (Campbell & Kirmani, 2008). For instance, Lee and Yi (2019) found that consumers' belief regarding promotion framing (gift-framed vs. bundle-framed) served as persuasion knowledge that affected how people decided to return a product. Consumers tend to perceive more loss from giving up giftframed (vs. bundle framed) promotions, leading to a lower return rate for gift-framed package.…”