Sales Promotions for Preorder Products: The Role of Time-of-Release

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-16-2019

Publication Title

Psychology and Marketing

Volume

36

Issue

9

First page number:

875

Last page number:

890

Abstract

Preorder offers are increasingly common for many types of products and services. Sales promotions, such as price discounts and free gifts, are frequently used to raise offer attractiveness and elicit a stronger sales response. Through a series of experiments, we show that a preorder promotion's effectiveness depends on whether it matches the construal level associated with timing of the featured product's release. When a match occurs, it increases consumers’ positive affect leading to higher purchase intention directly or by raising the perceived certainty of new product quality. In addition, we find interesting differences related to promotion type. Specifically, we show that a larger discount promotes low‐level construals, which leads to stronger purchase intentions only when the product is scheduled for near‐future release. Since a gift may elicit either high‐ or low‐level construals, a premium offer of higher perceived value leads to stronger purchase intentions regardless of release timing.

Keywords

Construal level theory; New product release; Positive affect; Preorder; Quality certainty; Salespromotion

Disciplines

Sales and Merchandising

Language

English

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