Who Cares More? Consumers' Perceived Unfairness of Targeted Promotions

Firms propose targeted promotions to offer different prices to present and prospective customers. When facing such program, who (present or prospective customers) will perceive more unfairness regarding targeted promotions? How do consumers react to their perceived unfairness? To address these questions, this research proposes a framework to examine the antecedents and the consequences of the perceived unfairness of target promotions. Through a lab experiment, this research finds that present customers’ perceived unfairness is higher than prospective customers’ when facing disadvantaged conditions. However, present customers’ and prospective customers’ perceived unfairness is no difference when facing advantaged condition. We further show that the perceived unfairness cognitively and affectively influences purchase intentions through the perceived value and negative emotions. Firms might benefit from this research by having better control of consumers’ perceived value and emotional reactions induced by perceived unfairness, and therefore attenuating the negative consequence in implementing targeted promotions.

Citation:

Dungchun Tsai and Hsiao-Ching Lee (2007) ,"Who Cares More? Consumers' Perceived Unfairness of Targeted Promotions", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Stefania Borghini, Mary Ann McGrath, and Cele Otnes, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 253-254.