When Do Rewards Have Enhancement Effects? An Availability Valence Approach

Abstract

It is commonly argued that although rewards induce behaviors, they undermine attitudes and motivation for subsequent action. This perspective has been applied in a consumer setting to suggest that sales promotions such as coupons will undermine consumer brand evaluations and brand loyalty. Instead of focusing on the undermining effects of promotional rewards, this research applies the availability valence hypothesis (Tybout, Sternthal, & Calder, 1983) to predict and explain when rewards will enhance recipient response. Two experiments demonstrate that an immediate reward from a product-related source enhances product evaluations by making favorable information more accessible than unfavorable information. Promotions enhance the relative accessibility of favorable information when their benefits are directly experienced and the salience of the promotion's task-contingency is diminished by maximizing consumer behavioral freedom.

Growing Existing Customers’ Revenue Streams through Customer Referral Programs

“…The notion of using rewards for positive reinforcement is also prominent in marketing thought, as exemplified by customer loyalty programs (Yi and Jeon 2003). In loyalty programs, obtaining rewards can generate customers’ positive feelings toward the firm implementing the program (Tietje 2002) such that participants in loyalty programs show higher levels of attitudinal loyalty than do nonparticipants (Gomez, Arranz, and Cillan 2006). The perceived size of the reward also increases these positive attitudes (Yi and Jeon 2003).…”

How special rewards in loyalty programs enrich consumer–brand relationships: The role of self‐expansion

“…The rewards that these programs offer are essential to managing them properly. They denote intangible (e.g., convenience, hedonic, novelty, social recognition, self‐esteem) or tangible (e.g., economic savings, miles, points, discounts) incentives likely to elicit inner cognitive responses from consumers (Drèze & Nunes, ; Kwong, Soman, & Ho, ; Meyer‐Waarden, ; Tietje, ; Vesel & Zabkar, ) and are among the main structural elements of loyalty programs (Lara & Ponzoa, ). Usually, loyalty program members are rewarded with rebates, products and services, customized offers or preferential treatment (Meyer‐Waarden & Casteran, ).…”

Effects of belief in luck on the attractiveness of loyalty programmes

“…In this approach, the person becomes conditioned to repeat the behaviour simply because of the coupling of the action with the reward (Blattberg et al, ). From the point of view of the cognitive approach, a reward can generate an increase in subsequent buying behaviour, as the rewarded client develops positive feelings towards the loyalty programme (Tietje, ).…”

“…The rewarded behaviour effect is more likely to persist after a firm rewards the loyalty programme member (Tietje, ). The reward will probably make the members stay in the loyalty programme.…”