Two birds, one stone? Positive mood makes products seem less useful for multiple-goal pursuit

Anastasiya Pocheptsova, Francine Espinoza Petersen and Jordan Etkin
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Anastasiya Pocheptsova: R. H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Francine Espinoza Petersen: ESMT European School of Management and Technology
Jordan Etkin: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

No ESMT-14-06, ESMT Research Working Papers from ESMT European School of Management and Technology

Abstract: Negotiating the pursuit of multiple goals often requires making difficult trade-offs between goals. In these situations, consumers can benefit from using products that help them pursue several goals at the same time. But do consumers always prefer these multipurpose products? We propose that consumers’ incidental mood state alters perceptions of products in a multiple-goals context. Four studies demonstrate that being in a positive mood amplifies perceptions of differences between multiple conflicting goals. As a consequence, consumers are less likely to evaluate multipurpose products as being able to serve multiple distinct goals simultaneously. We conclude by discussing implications of these findings for marketers of multipurpose products.

Keywords: Goals; product evaluation; positive mood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2014-11-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-mkt and nep-neu
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Published in Journal of Consumer Psychology 25(2): 296–303.

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http://static.esmt.org/publications/workingpapers/ESMT-14-06.pdf First version, 2014 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:esm:wpaper:esmt-14-06

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