只愿得“一人”行:同伴人数对公开享乐型体验消费购买意愿的影响研究

Only Wishing for“One Person”:A Study on the Impact of Companion Numbers on the Willingness to Purchase Public Hedonic Experiential

社会化是体验型消费的重要特征。但现有文献只是将体验型消费情境简单划分为独自参与和同伴参与,缺乏对常见情境即同伴人数的进一步探讨。针对此,本研究意图探究体验的同伴人数(一人同伴vs.多人同伴)对消费者参与意愿的影响以及内在机制,并检验个体孤独感的调节作用。结果表明,在体验型消费中,相较于多人同伴,单人同伴会使消费者的参与意愿更高,原因是单人同伴会促使消费者拥有更近的心理距离。并且上述的差异化效果受到个体孤独感的调节,即相对于多人同伴,高孤独感的消费者对单人同伴的活动有更高的参与意愿,但是对低孤独感的消费者来说这种效应不明显。本文丰富了现有体验消费领域的文献研究,对营销实践具有重要的指导作用。

With the increasing improvement in people’s living standards,more consumers are investing time and money into various experiential consumption activities that offer enjoyment during the process.Socialization is a key feature of experiential consumption.However,existing literature merely categorizes experiential consumption into solo and companion-based activities,lacking further exploration of a common scenario:the number of companions.So,what is the optimal number of companions to increase consumer willingness to participate?Is it“more friends,more paths,”meaning the more companions,the better,or“one person,one confidant,”where just one companion is sufficient?If differences exist,what are the underlying mechanisms?Additionally,the counterpart to companionship is loneliness.Despite the diverse opportunities and ways provided by experiential consumption for people to interact and share with friends,family,and even strangers,an interesting and ironic phenomenon is that public feelings of loneliness have not shown signs of decreasing.Thus,we question whether the increasingly rich social experience choices actually contribute substantially to reducing social loneliness.Specifically,at a micro level,do lonely individuals indeed have a higher willingness to engage in experiential consumption with companions to alleviate loneliness?Or,what forms of experiential consumption are truly desired by lonely individuals?This study aims to address the gap in the literature on the number of companions in experiential consumption,using the person-positivity bias as a theoretical basis,to explore the impact and underlying mechanisms of the number of companions(one companion vs.multiple companions)on consumer participation willingness,and the potential moderating role of loneliness.This study investigates the theoretical model and hypotheses through three experiments.First,Experiment 1,which categorized the number of companions into four levels,found that there were no significant differences in participation willingness among different numbers of companions(two vs.three vs.four).The impact of the number of companions on participation willingness was only evident between solo and multiple companions,meaning that once companions are present as a group,the consumer’s perception of different numbers of companions does not make a substantial difference.The mediating effect was verified based on the direct measurement of psychological distance.Experiment 2 revalidated this mediating effect by manipulating psychological distance.Experiments 3 examined the moderating effect of loneliness.The results show that the effect of the number of companions on participation willingness is more pronounced under high loneliness conditions but tended to disappear under low loneliness conditions.Therefore,loneliness does moderate the differentiated impact of the number of companions on consumers’willingness to engage in public hedonic experiential consumption.This study makes several significant theoretical contributions:First,it expands and refines the research on social contexts in experiential consumption,enriching academic observations of experiential consumption by discussing the differentiated impact of the number of companions on consumer purchase willingness.While existing studies have considered solo and companion-based consumption contexts,this research further details the effects of varying numbers of companions.Second,it connects the classic effect of the person-positivity bias with the hot topic of experiential consumption,extending the application scenarios of the person-positivity bias and its related inferences.Third,it introduces a micro-level explanatory mechanism for how the number of companions affects consumer participation willingness,identifying psychological distance as a crucial mechanism causing heterogeneous effects in experiential consumption contexts.Fourth,by exploring how the number of companions influences participation willingness in different loneliness states,it enriches the research on the behavior of lonely individuals.This study also aims to provide practical guidance for marketers:First,when conducting experiential marketing,businesses should pay attention to the distinction of the number of companions.If feasible,products can be categorized based on the number of companions,and differentiated marketing strategies can be implemented to maximize marketing effectiveness.For example,in restaurant services,increasing the number of two-person tables and emphasizing the attribute of solo companions in the online booking interface could be beneficial,such as:“We welcome you to bring your most important person to experience our offerings!”Similarly,in the tourism industry,attractions or travel agencies might consider intensifying marketing efforts for two-person travel packages.Second,in addition to focusing on single-companion products,businesses should also emphasize reducing psychological distance in their marketing messages to enhance consumer experience quality.For instance,businesses can encourage consumers to bring their close friends or family for the experience,and simultaneously create a warm,close-knit atmosphere at the experience site.Third,when implementing experiential marketing,companies should also consider the consumer’s level of loneliness.They can infer whether target customers belong to a lonely demographic based on personal information(e.g.,occupation,relationship status)or by simply asking about their feelings of loneliness before the experience,allowing for targeted product recommendations.For consumers in high loneliness states,single-companion products should be strongly recommended,while for those in low loneliness states,businesses can recommend products indiscriminately to save on unnecessary marketing expenditures.