Choosing an Experience Over a Product: Uncertainty, Holistic Processing, and Price Sensitivity

How do consumers choose between a product and an experience? We propose that consumers’ evaluation of experiences is uncertain and that this has important consequences in choice behavior. Specifically, participants who process analytically choose an experience over a product more often when its price increases. This is because they rely on price as a quality cue for experiences, but not for products. Also, we find that holistic processing is more compatible with experiences, compared to products. Finally, participants who access more attribute information do not feel more confident in their evaluation of an experience, while they do for a product.



Citation:

Inigo Gallo and Sanjay Sood (2012) ,"Choosing an Experience Over a Product: Uncertainty, Holistic Processing, and Price Sensitivity", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 40, eds. Zeynep Gürhan-Canli, Cele Otnes, and Rui (Juliet) Zhu, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 1073-1074.

Authors

Inigo Gallo, UCLA, USA
Sanjay Sood, UCLA, USA



Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 40 | 2012



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