When Do Consumers Avoid Imperfections? Superficial Packaging Damage as a Contamination Cue
When Do Consumers Avoid Imperfections? Superficial Packaging Damage as a Contamination Cue
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DOI：
10.1509/jmr.12.0388
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发表时间：
2016-02-01
影响因子：
6.1
通讯作者：
Ritchie, Robin J. B.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
White, Katherine;Lin, Lily;Ritchie, Robin J. B.
通过六个实验，作者证明了包装损坏形式的表面缺陷会产生负面的消费者反应，这种反应会以不总是客观合理的方式塑造随后的态度和行为。他们的研究结果表明，这些反应以一种相对自动的方式起作用，即使在包装损坏没有传达产品对健康和安全威胁信息的情况下也会出现。作者扩展了对传染的研究，表明表面的包装损坏可以作为污染的线索，自动激活污染和健康安全问题的想法。这种避免表面包装损坏的倾向可以通过抵消这些污染的想法来消除。这可以通过积极的品牌联想（即，通过将产品标记为有机产品）或通过在包装损坏和产品本身之间创建物理缓冲来实现。作者最后讨论了对营销人员、消费者和公共政策制定者的影响。
Across six experiments, the authors demonstrate that superficial imperfections in the form of packaging damage can engender negative consumer reactions that shape subsequent attitudes and behaviors in ways that are not always objectively justified. Their findings show that these reactions function in a relatively automatic fashion, even emerging under conditions in which the packaging damage does not convey information about a health and safety threat from the product. The authors extend work on contagion to show that superficial packaging damage can act as a contamination cue, automatically activating thoughts of contamination and health and safety concerns. This tendency to avoid superficial packaging damage can be eliminated by counteracting these thoughts of contamination. This can be done with positive brand associations (i.e., by branding the product as organic) or by creating a physical buffer between the packaging damage and the product itself. The authors close with a discussion of implications for marketers, consumers, and public policy makers.