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Too many cooks spoil the broth? Number of promotional gifts and impact on consumer choice

Rashmi Kumari, Aruna Divya Tatavarthy and Arvind Sahay

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2022, vol. 69, issue C

Abstract: As an alternative to traditional free-gift promotions where consumers have little say over which gift item they receive, retailers are increasingly offering consumers an option to choose from a menu of free-gift items (e.g., buy a washing machine and pick a steam iron or a vacuum cleaner for free). However, little is known about what drives consumers' perceptions of value associated with a menu of free-gift items. Using data from a unique retail-promotion setting and controlled-lab studies, we show that the perceived attractiveness of free-gifts follows an inverted U-shape (or plateauing-shape) as the ‘menu-size’ increases. We also highlight the interplay of resource (time and money) constraints experienced by consumers and menu-size on the proposed effects. Our findings not only help retailers better design free-gift promotions but also contribute to the academic conversations in the domain of promotional-gifts by exploring the downstream consequences of offering choices in a promotional-gift context.

Keywords: retail promotions; free-gifts; choice overload; assortment size; menu of promotions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:69:y:2022:i:c:s096969892200176x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103083

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