Managing consumers’ product evaluations through direct product experience
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420210451625 |
| Pages | 432-446 |
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| Author | Sylvia C. Mooy,Henry S.J. Robben |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Managing consumers' product
evaluations through direct
product experience
Sylvia C. Mooy
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Department of Product Innovation
and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The
Netherlands
Henry S.J. Robben
Professor of Marketing and Director, Center for Supply Chain
Management, Universiteit Nyenrode, Breukelen, The Netherlands
Keywords Marketing communications, New product development,
Information processing
Abstract Where traditional mass-media advertising may perish in the enormous amount
of communication messages, the product itself can act as a decisive communication tool
and provide consumers with product-related information in the buying decision situation.
For example, the sound the product makes in use and the tactile sensation give an
impression of the product's quality. To complement the little research on the role that
durable consumer products can play in marketing communications, we investigated the
effects of direct product experience on information processing and product evaluation in
a sample of 127 adult consumers. The results showed that direct experience enhanced
consumers' opportunity and ability to process product-related information, but not their
motivation to process the information. Subsequently, the induced levels of motivation,
opportunity, and ability influenced both consumers' attitude toward the product and their
attitude confidence. One important implication for product development and marketing
communications is that the communicative abilities of products can effectively be
employed to enhance positively consumers' evaluation of the product.
Introduction
While new product developers pay great attention to aligning consumer
needs and desires with product specifications (Roozenburg and Eekels,
1995), little attention is paid to the communication abilities of the product.
Like a package, the physical product is an important carrier of product
information. For example, the tactile sensation of the material of the product
may give an impression of its quality. Commonly used marketing
communications tools, like advertising, sales promotions and public
relations, have difficulties in reaching and influencing their intended targets
(Poiesz and Robben, 1994). Advertisements may be overshadowed by the
enormous amount of communication messages that reach consumers every
day. Consumers might overlook an individual advertisement or become
confused by the overwhelming number of communication messages they are
confronted with and as a consequence make poorer choices. From an
advertiser's point of view, the effectiveness of marketing communications
decreases, which results in even more messages needed to achieve the
desired result.
Following Beckman and Davidson's adage (Beckman and Davidson, 1967,
cited in Hoch and Deighton, 1989), that ``[t]he best salesman for the product
is the product itself'', we take a new point of view, namely, to let the
physical product fulfil its own marketing communications function. The
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Aligning consumer needs
432 JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 11 NO. 7 2002, pp. 432-446, #MCB UP LIMITED, 1061-0421, DOI 10.1108/10610420210451625
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