Product Trials

2.2.1 Consumers’ Product Experiences

Consumers’ experiences with a product vary in a spectrum from indirect to direct, depending on their level of interaction with a product (Mooy and Robben 2002). On this spectrum (see Figure 2.1), with increasing consumer interaction with the product, the use of relevant senses in product information processing increases.

Specifically, at the indirect end of the spectrum (e.g. reading a product description), consumers use a single sense in processing product information; at the direct end of the spectrum (e.g. product trials), consumers have direct sensory contact and fully interact with the product. In the following articles, we would use product trials, the most direct form of product experience, to represent the example of direct experience with a product; and product advertisement, one of the most common form of product experience before consumers engage in a product trial, to represent the example of indirect experiences.

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Figure 1 The Direct Experience Spectrum (Mooy and Robben 2002)

2.2.2 The Advantages of Product Trials

Product trials was defined as a consumer’s first usage experience with a brand, which is a critical factor in determining brand beliefs, attitudes, and purchase intentions (Kempf and Smith 1998). Previous research proposed several advantages to provide product trials for both consumers and retailers.

First, product trials may reduce consumers’ perceived risk for products (Roselius 1971). Because high levels of perceived risk may prevent consumers from buying the product, through a product trial, they have the opportunity to test hypotheses about how the products work (Hoch and Deighton 1989) to further reduce the level of perceived risk. Simultaneously, consumers can find out whether they will like the product enough to buy (Groot, Antonides, Read, and Raaij 2009).

Second, product trials may provide consumers with more credible information Product description

Word-of-Mouth Product photo

Product in store window Product demonstration

Hands-on experience (Product trial) Indirect Product

Experience

Direct Product Experience

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than other indirect experiences with a product (Hamilton and Thompson 2007).

Because information is accepted better when it is obtained from first-hand experience such as trial than when obtained by other indirect source such as advertising (Smith and Swinyard 1983; Wright and Lynch 1995; Fazio and Zanna 1981). Product trials would contribute to the formation of high-order beliefs and more enduring behavior (Kempf and Smith 1998). As a result, product trials have been shown to produce higher consistency between consumers’ attitudes and behaviors (Smith and Swinyard 1983) and greater belief confidence (Smith and Swinyard 1988) than exposure to advertising.

The third advantage is related to loss aversion (Thaler 1980; Kahneman and Tversky 1979; Knetsch 2000). Since loss aversion can makes people overvalue items in possession relative to items not in possession (Kahneman et al. 1990, 1991), an observation which Thaler (1980) labeled the “endowment effect”. More importantly, similar processes can even take place without physical possession of objects (Strahilevitz and Loewenstein 1998; Antonides et al. 2006). Thus, on the basis that “giving up” can induce negative feelings (Hoch and Loewenstein 1991;

Plous 1993; Smith and Nagle 1995), providing a product trial may not only lead people to overvalue the product, but also raise the probabilities for buying the product.

In short, product trial is beneficial for consumer because it may reduce perceived risk and provides more reliable information. On the other hand, it is also beneficial for retailers because it can lead to more positive attitudes, and a feeling of ownership among consumers.

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2.2.3 Preference Inconsistency Before and After a Product Trial

Although there are several advantages to provide product trials, it will alter consumers’ mental construals to evaluate products (Hamilton and Thompson 2007), further causing inconsistent preferences for products, and detracting consumers’

purchase intention in some situations.

Owing to processing product information which is got from indirect experience (e.g., product advertisement) require consumers to manipulate and integrate stimulus information, it would trigger people to use a more abstract mental construal to evaluate the product (Liberman, Trope, and Stephan 2007; Hamilton and Thompson 2007). In contrast, direct experience (e.g., product trials) allow consumers to react to an immediate, vivid stimulus and provide greater sensory contact with the stimulus;

it would induce a more concrete mental construal to evaluate a product. When consumers just exposure to a product advertisement, abstract construals make them to place more weight on the desirability of promised benefits (e.g., What can this product do for me?), consumers may tend to prefer products with many features that associate with higher capability. However, when consumers engage in a product trial, concrete construals make them to put more weight on feasibility. That is, consumers will consider their ability to use the product or benefits from these features, therefore tending to prefer products that are simpler in functions but easier to use. At this moment, every additional feature for consumers is “one more thing to learn, one more thing to possibly misunderstand, and one more thing to search through when looking for the thing they want” (Nielsen 1993). Thus, such “feature fatigue” effect may further result in the reduction of consumers’ purchase intention for high capability but relatively low usability products.

In order to prevent consumers’ inconsistent preferences and raise their purchase

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intention for high capability/low usability products after a product trial, we try to alter consumers’ product preferences by using the mechanism of mental simulation (Taylor et al. 1998; Escalas and Luce 2003, 2004; Zhao, Hoeffler, and Zauberman 2007) to shift their mental construals before or after a product trial. In the next section, we reviewed the literature on mental simulation and elaborate the mechanism we applied.