“动之以情”还是“晓之以理”--权力感对消费者产品决策的影响

Pull the Emotional Trigger or the Rational String?The Effect of Power on Consumers’Decision of Product Choice

商家对待不同权力感的消费者是该“动之以情”(强调产品的独特情感体验)还是“晓之以理”(突出产品的优势功能属性)?哪种方式能带来更好的营销绩效?本研究通过4个情景模拟实验和1个行为实验,探讨和阐释权力感如何影响消费者决策方式及产品选择。研究发现:不论是长期权力感(实验2、实验3)还是启动权力感(实验1a、实验1b和实验1c),都会影响消费者的决策模式偏好,高(v s.低)权力感消费者偏好采用感性(v s.理性)模式进行决策;权力感影响决策模式选择的内在机制是消费者对决策合理性的解释需要(实验2);同时权力感对决策模式选择的影响程度取决于消费者的决策聚焦(为自己/为他人)(实验3)。研究结论丰富和拓展了权力感与消费者决策相关领域的文献,对企业有针对性地设计营销策略具有重要的借鉴价值。

Consumers’ judgment and decision-making have two different modes: reason-based(consumers carefully evaluate and weigh the attributes of the target object) and feeling-based(consumers’ subjective emotional response or instant feeling to the target object). It is precisely based on the differences in consumer decision-making modes that when marketers design new product(for example, automobiles) promotion activities, some of them highlight the advantageous functional attributes of the products(for example, Hyundai Automobile’s "Think about it" activity. Consumers were asked to think about and name the differentiated advantages of Hyundai cars, such as low price, energy saving, and long-term warranty), while others emphasize the unique emotional experience(Ford Motors asks consumers to describe their unique inner feelings when they see a Ford Edge passing by). However, which way can bring higher marketing performance? Judging from the existing literature, scholars have carried out a series of studies on the characteristics and antecedent variables that affect consumer decision-making patterns, and have formed a wealth of research results. However, the existing literature ignores a factor that can be seen everywhere in people’s daily life and plays a subtle role, namely, the power state of consumers. Different from previous studies, this paper will explore the mechanism by which the sense of power affects consumer decision-making mode.Based on the agentic-communal model of power, through four scenario simulation experiments and one behavior experiment, this paper explores and explains how the sense of power affects the consumer decision-making mode and product choices. Experiments 1a, 1b, and 1c are used in the consumption scenarios of renting an apartment and choosing postcards. By manipulating the individuals’ sense of power and designing different dependent variables, they test the main effect of the sense of power on consumers’ product decision-making. Experiment 2 analyzes the internal mechanism of the inf luence of the sense of power on consumers’ product decision-making by measuring the long-term sense of power. Experiment 3 examines the boundary conditions of the inf luence of the sense of power on consumers’ product decision-making.The research finds that both the long-term sense of power(Experiment 2, and Experiment 3) or the situational sense of power(Experiment 1a, Experiment 1b, and Experiment 1c) will affect the consumer decision-making mode, and consumers with high(vs. low) sense of power prefer to make decisions based on feeling(vs. reason) mode and choose products with outstanding emotional(vs. cognitive) attributes. The internal mechanism by which the sense of power affects the choice of decision-making mode is the consumer’s need to justify the rationality of decision-making(Experiment 2);at the same time, the degree of inf luence of the sense of power on the choice of decision-making mode depends on the consumer’s decision focus(for oneself/others)(Experiment 3).This paper has made contributions to the existing literature on agentic-communal model of power and product decision-making. First of all, from the perspective of decision-making mode differences, it expands the scope and path of the inf luence of the power agentic-communal model on individuals, verifies the inf luence of the sense of power on the consumer decision-making mode, and enriches the research literature on the inf luence of power status on consumer behavior. Second, it expands the previous research conclusions on perceptual and rational decision-making factors, and promotes the construction and improvement of the theoretical system of product decision-making. In addition, this paper also discovers the explanatory variables and boundary conditions that inf luence the consumer decision-making mode by the sense of power, namely, need for justification of decision-making and decision focus. The research conclusions also have important reference value for marketers in designing different product advertising appeals in practical activities, customizing product strategies based on consumers with different sense of power, and improving customer experience in emerging consumption scenarios such as purchasing agents.