Implications for Marketers
The preceding propositions have several implications for marketers of self-regulatory products and services. Specifically, marketers should be better able to enhance the success of their self-regulatory products and services to the extent that they create hope in consumers. For example, consider the success of programs such as Weight Watchers: The organization influences hope in meetings as attendees 12 / Journal of Marketing, January 2005 relate their success stories and achievements publicly. Such stories remind other attendees that goal achievement is possible. They also reinforce yearning as attendees relate the many and varied ways that goal achievement results in higher-order, yearned-for goals related to weight loss (e.g., greater energy, respect and admiration from others, better romantic interactions).