What makes consumers believe: the impacts of priming and sequential service experiences on consumer emotions and willingness to pay

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of priming on consumer emotions and willingness to pay as consumers experience two services with two opposite valences. Design/methodology/approach - A 2 (service experience sequence: failure-success, success-failure) × 3(priming: positive, negative, no priming) between-subject experiment was conducted with 230 college students in China. Findings - Results indicate that when priming information is included, people give greater decision weight to the second service. Specifically, in the failure-success scenario, priming information between two services increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions, raising willingness to pay. In the success-failure scenario, priming information decreases positive emotions and increases negative emotions, thus lowering willingness to pay. Practical implications - First, if businesses discover the possibility of a service failure, then disclosing negative information is better than whitewashing the truth. Second, services following a campaign of positively framed messages should be carefully rendered. The damage of pre-failure positive priming is most certainly irreparable. Finally, in terms of communication, businesses and service providers should cater to consumers exposed to different levels of information accordingly. Originality/value - Previous investigations focusing on a single purchase have argued that priming effects should cause consumers of varying tastes to react in a more unified manner to a service. This study extends the research scope to more realistic situations "sequential service experiences with opposite valences" and asserts that differences in service experiences alter the influence of priming information.