Effects of complete products on consumer judgments
| Published date | 26 October 2012 |
| Date | 26 October 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421211276240 |
| Pages | 499-507 |
| Author | Timucin Ozcan,Daniel A. Sheinin |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Effects of complete products on
consumer judgments
Timucin Ozcan
Department of Management and Marketing, School of Business, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois, USA, and
Daniel A. Sheinin
College of Business Administration, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to seek to understand better how consumers judge multiattribute products that are perceived as either more or less
complete in terms of feature coverage in a category. Complete products are used to reduce the need of developing and managing expansive and
expensive line-extension portfolios.
Design/methodology/approach – The research used an experimental method and conducted two studies to test hypotheses derived from the
marketing literature.
Findings – It is found that more complete multiattribute products are preferred to less complete alternatives. This preference for more complete
products remains under larger competitive product assortment, but is reduced under smaller assortment. With a higher price level and larger
assortment, the preference is substantial. However, under the conditions of lower price level/larger assortment, higher price level/smaller assortment,
and lower price level/smaller assortment, the preference is again reduced.
Research limitations/implications – More positive evaluations and higher product utility accrue from adding new features to multiattribute products
prior to purchase. Moreover,more complete information causes more positive evaluations and cognitive responses. Larger assortment strains cognitive
resources, and more complete multiattribute products are easier to understand than less complete multiattribute products. This processing facilitation
generates positive affect leads to greater use of information that can shorten processing.
Practical implications – Brand managers can have a better understanding of how consumers judge more and less complete products, and under
which circumstances more complete products are preferred.
Originality/value – The study of perceived product completeness is novel.
Keywords Product completeness, Product management, Product assortment, Price inferences, Consumer behaviour, Individual perception
Paper type Research paper
An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this article.
Complete products, such as Colgate Total, the new iMac
desktop (“all-in-one for everyone” on the product webpage),
or Sprint Mobile’s Simply Everything Plan, are positioned to
include every significant feature in the category and be
attractive to many feasible customer segments. Until recently,
managers responded to the increasing fragmentation of
customers by expanding portfolios with specialized products
targeting well-defined segments. However, managing such
large portfolios can be unprofitable due to high expense and
cannibalization (Dodes, 2007; Mason and Milne, 1994).
Therefore, many marketer s are retracting por tfolios by
launching a smaller number of more complete products to
replace a larger number of specialized alternatives (Kang ,
2007). Fully complete products are the ultimate
representation of this trend.
Despite the increased use of complete products,
surprisingly little research has directly examined their
effectiveness. The work that does exist presents conflicting
conclusions. Some research suggests adding feature s to
multiattribute products enhan ce product utility (Bertini
et al., 2009; Mukherjee and Hoyer, 2001; Nowlis and
Simonson, 1996), even if the features are trivial (Brown and
Carpenter, 2000). In contrast, other work has found potential
drawbacks. Converged (multi-category) technological
products, which contain multiple functions across multiple
categories (e.g., cellphones containing digital cameras), were
assessed less positively than dedicated (single-category)
alternatives at high levels of technology performance (Han
et al., 2009). Increasing a product’s attribute quantity can lead
to “feature fatigue,” especially in a usage context (Thompson
et al., 2005). Similarly, an attribute in an all-in-one (two-
attribute) product that was shared with a specialized (single-
attribute) alternative was devalued when the two products
were in the same choice set (Chernev, 2007). This work
establishes the importance and topicality of investigating
multiattribute products, and also points to the need of better
understanding how consumers judge them. However, this
research does not directly manipulate perceived completeness.
This is an important omission, as perceptions of completeness
start becoming germa ne as products accumulate larger
numbers of attributes, and may alter judgments of otherwise
identical products. Moreover, the increased use of complete
products by marketers points to the high degree of managerial
topicality.
Therefore, the objective of this research is to try to resolve
some of these conflicts and address the gap in the literature by
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
21/7 (2012) 499–507
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/10610421211276240]
499
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