Content area
Full Text
We proposed that when consumers considered that scarcity claims signal a product is valuable, such claims would have a positive effect on product evaluation. However, when consumers interpreted scarcity claims as a sales tactic, the positive effect of scarcity claims on product evaluation would be diluted. Our participants were 100 undergraduate students at a large university in Canada. We found that when consumers had sufficient cognitive resources available to draw inferences about persuasion motives underlying marketers' behavior, they were more likely to perceive scarcity as a sales tactic. Further, our results showed that company reputation could influence consumers' inference of scarcity as a sales tactic, and, hence, moderate the effect of scarcity on product evaluation.
Keywords: scarcity, product evaluation, marketing, cognitive resources, company reputation, sales tactic.
Marketers often use scarcity appeal to influence consumers by making statements such as "Hurry, limited quantities," "While stocks last," "Few tickets left for this event," "Limit of two per customer," or "Only 25 items per store."
Past researchers have indicated that scarcity generally has a positive effect on product evaluation (Dai, Wertenbroch, & Brendl, 2008; Eisend, 2008; Inman, Peter, & Raghubir, 1997; Jung & Kellaris, 2004). That is to say, when only limited quantities of a product are available, consumers generally tend to evaluate the product more favorably. This is because consumers infer that scarcity is a consequence of high demand for the product, which, in turn, the consumer infers has arisen from superior value offered by the product (Cialdini, 2001). This is a robust effect, which has been observed to apply to a range of products, including laundry detergent, toothpaste, soda, wine, cookies, sunglasses, and paintings (see e.g., Lynn, 1989; Verhallen, 1982; Verhallen & Robben, 1994; Worchel, Lee, & Adewole, 1975).
In the present research we extended the existing literature by identifying a new mechanism - and, correspondingly, a new boundary condition - for the effect of scarcity on product evaluation. Specifically, we argued that consumers may interpret scarcity as either an indicator of product value or as a sales tactic.
Literature Review
Scarcity
Scarcity can be defined as insufficiency of product supply or time of availability (Brock, 1968; Brannon & Brock, 2001). Previous researchers (Eisend, 2008; Inman et al., 1997; Jung & Kellaris, 2004; Worchel et...