The scarcity effect on product evaluation in retail: The curation message role

초록

Purpose - Many retail stores tend to use scarcity-laden message in order to influence consumers, where scarcity refers to insufficiency of product supply or time of availability. For example, inside stores, the displayed products are often accompanied by scarcity message such as 'exclusive offer, limited time only.' According to past research, scarcity has a positive effect on product evaluation, since scarcity can acts as a signal of consumer demand, and thus product quality. Prior studies argue that consumers face a scarce product, they logically infer that other consumers buying the product in large numbers cause the scarcity. We propose that scarcity can be interpreted as a sales tactic artificially created by retail stores in order to increase sales of product. Research design, data, and methodology - We use a persuasion knowledge perspective framework to develop our hypotheses. In the present research, we show that product curation type is a key variable that moderates consumer response to scarcity, and thus the scarcity effect on product evaluation. Results - In this research, we showed when scarcity-laden message was used inside the store using consumer-centric curation message, scarcity had a positive effect on product evaluation. In contrast, when scarcity-laden message was used inside the store using marketer-centric curation message, the positive of scarcity message on product evaluation was diluted. Conclusions - Our study makes two important contributions to the literature on consumer response to scarcity. First, we identify a variable - namely, product curation type - that determines when either 'scarcity = good' or 'scarcity = marketing tactic' interpretation is likely to be dominant. Second, we cite persuasion knowledge perspective to explain the moderating function of product curation type in a retail store-related scarcity context. This research is relevant to practitioners, such as brand manager, retail environment manager, and advertising agencies, for the effective use for the scarcity-laden message in retail. The proposed moderator can operate in many real-life situations in retail where consumers are exposed to scarcity. And curation message related to scarcity has been facilitated by the inner-retail activities. These factors of the marketplace indicate that the boundary conditions of scarcity can have a significant effect on real-life consumer judgment. © 2018, Korea Distribution Science Association (KODISA).

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