The Role of Regulatory Focus in Preference Construction
Published 2/1/2006
Author: Jing Wang and Angela Y. Lee
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Executive Summary
Recent research suggests that some consumers prefer products that help advance their regulatory goal of growth and achievement (i.e., they are promotion focused), whereas others prefer products that help satisfy their regulatory goal of safety and security (i.e., they are prevention focused). For example, consumers who were concerned with safety and security were more persuaded by a beverage advertisement that emphasized cardiovascular disease prevention and antioxidants, whereas those who were concerned with growth and advancements were more persuaded by a message that focused on energy creation and vitamin C. Thus, it seems that the optimal strategy for companies is to position their product on the basis of the regulatory goal of their consumers. However, heterogeneity in the marketplace often requires companies to cater to both types of consumers.
One way to ensure that the advertising message appeals to consumers with distinct goals is to include both types of product claims that address these goals. Yet previous research investigating the effects of regulatory goals on advertising effectiveness has examined these effects with appeals that are either promotion focused or prevention focused. The objective of this article is to investigate how consumers with distinct a regulatory goal process mixed appeals that address both types of concerns.
In two studies, the authors find that consumers who are not highly motivated to process product information rely on their regulatory goal to select the type of information to consider. They are more likely to pay attention to product features that are compatible (versus incompatible) with their goal, and they are more likely to process compatible features more extensively. Furthermore, they place more weight on compatible features in their evaluation of products. Thus, they develop more (less) favorable attitudes toward products with the more (less) attractive compatible features.
Conversely, consumers who are highly motivated to process product information consider both compatible and incompatible product features equally and spend the same amount of time processing these two types of information. Their evaluation of products is not affected by the relative attractiveness of the compatible features.
These results show that to the extent that consumers do not pay much attention to advertising (which is often the case for most ad viewers), companies should emphasize benefits that address both achievement and security goals in their message when targeting a heterogeneous segment because consumers actively select the information that is relevant to their goal.
Biography
Jing Wang is Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Henry B. Tippie College of Business at University of Iowa. Her research interests include consumer psychology and consumer learning and how these are affected by their goals and motivations. She is also interested in studying the various effects of advertising contexts on the persuasiveness of advertising. Her teaching interests include advertising strategies and marketing research.
Angela Y. Lee is Associate Professor of Marketing in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She teaches Marketing Management and Marketing Research and has served as the faculty advisor of the Global Initiatives in Management class for China and South Africa. Professor Lee’s expertise is in consumer behavior. Her research interests include consumer learning, effects of memory on product evaluations and brand choice, motivation and affect, and cross-cultural similarities and differences in information processing. Professor Lee’s publications appear in leading marketing and psychology journals.
J Marketing Research, Volume 43, Number 1, February 2006
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