The following dissertation includes three essays examining consumer’s
affective responses to promotional activity. The first paper provides theoretical and
empirical evidence of the interrelationship between consumers’ appraisals, affective
responses, and evaluations. The proposed model argues that appraisals resulting from
a comparison of actual outcomes to expected outcomes determine transaction utility.
Furthermore, it is shown that the accepted transaction utility construct is a summary
statistic that can be broken down into underlying positive affect (e.g., feelings of
being happy, proud, or appreciative) and negative affect (e.g., feelings of being
unhappy, ashamed, or deceived) aroused by a promotional offer. The results of a
series of studies show that the informational value of these distinct feeling states have
important, but counter-intuitive consequences on deal and brand evaluations.
The second paper in this dissertation examines the instances in which the
attributes of a promotion serve to complicate the consumer appraisal process.
Specifically, I examine how the variance in “costs” incurred by the firm or the
consumer impact the appraisal process. A typology of promotions is developed based
on what the consumer will receive from an offer (costs incurred by the firm) and what
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the consumer will be required to do to take advantage of the offer (costs incurred by
the consumer); suggesting that consumers categorize promotions in these terms. I
show that as an offer becomes more complex along either of these dimensions
consumers experience greater levels of ambivalence (conflicting emotional reactions)
toward a purchase situation.
Given consumers affective reactions are shown to be an important
consequence of the promotion appraisal process and to have such unique implications
for evaluation and satisfaction (than might be predicted from a purely cognitive
process) the final paper in this thesis examines the manner in which consumers may
proactively use promotions to accentuate/attenuate their emotional reactions to a
purchase context and in turn manipulate their evaluations and levels of satisfaction
with that context or purchase outcome. An analysis of consumers’ stated reasons for
their preferences regarding promotional opportunities suggests that consumers do in
fact prefer different product and promotional pairs based on a desire “to manage”
their evaluations and satisfactions levels