| The agricultural products supply has transferred from the "supply market" with an overall shortage in the supply to a relative surplus stage in the demand,say,the "demand market" in China.With the rapid development of the electronic commerce and the awakening of consumer awareness of food safety,it is of great importance for retailers to apply marketing communication tools scientifically.Given the agricultural products are"non-standardized,perishable,seasonal experience goods",on-site sampling has been explored and applied to a certain extent in the agricultural retailing section in China.However,in general,a certain amount of food retailers are straddling on conducting sampling activities or not.This is because,on one hand,retailers are concerned about the effectiveness of sampling in boosting sales,on the other hand,it is still unknown how to persuade consumers to accept the complimentary samples.The current study conducts on-site sampling experiments of both the fresh agricultural product(fruit)and processed agricultural product(yogurt)in two types of supermarket,and recruits respondents directly from the sampling setting.With the analysis of consumer data,we aim at answering these questions:If agricultural products on-site sampling is effective in inducing the immediate purchase behavior and if yes,how the effective mechanism works?What kind of direct and indirect factors jointly determine consumer sampling behavior?The main research contents and corresponding conclusions are described below.1.Evaluate sampling's effectiveness in inducing the immediate purchase behavior and analyze its functioning mechanismFirst,we analyze the factors influencing consumer buying behaviors in a sampling setting:pre-determined purchase plan,price sensitivity,and product liking.Second,based on the consumer segmentations derived from various levels of those factors,we compare samplers'and non-samplers' purchase behavior by employing the Independent Sample T-test Assuming Unequal Variances and the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Test.We find a higher purchase rate among consumer segmentations bearing no pre-determined purchase plan,or a high level of price sensitivity(a low level of perceived price reasonability)or a low level of product preference.As for those consumer segmentations with a pre-determined purchase plan,a low level of price sensitivity(a high level of perceived price reasonability)or a high level of product preference,there is no difference between samplers' and non-samplers' purchase behaviors.It reveals that if a consumer has not developed a promising image of the target product,her decision to accept the sample is determinant to her purchase decision.Furthermore,based on the Expectation Confirmation Theory,we find the sampling experience shortens the decision-making process and thus increase the efficiency of agricultural products distribution and reduce the possible spoilage.And we apply the Conditional Recursive Mixed-process regression with the first stage equation explaining determinants of samplers' buying decisions,and the second stage addressing how the sampling satisfaction changes consumer perceptions.The result shows that the willingness to generate word-of-mouth communication(hereinafter referred to as WOM)for the product significantly decreases the price sensitivity and thus increases the purchase probability.The overall sampling satisfaction and willingness to generate product WOM improve the product liking,but the improved product liking fails to contribute to the purchase behavior.Therefore,the price cue is more prominent when taking into account both the price cue and hedonic expectation(preference)regarding the consumer decision-making system.We offer two possible explanations here:Chinese food shopping consumers are mostly female and sensitive to the price,and the price sensitivity reflects a positive confirmation of sensory expectation to some extent,which brings a positive influence on the purchase behavior.Although the improved preference fails to boost purchases,this kind of improvement plays an important role in maintaining and managing the agricultural products life cycle,especially in mitigating the forgetting effect of a mature product.2.Decompose direct motivations to accept or reject sampling based on the Self-determination TheoryWe decompose the direct reasons for accepting or rejecting a free sample into the meaningful motivation level by employing the Exploratory Factor Analysis.And we find samplers and non-samplers share the same motivation components consisting of experience motivation,social motivation,hedonic motivation and utilitarian motivation.According to the Self-determination Theory,the social and hedonic motivation are the extrinsic motivation whereas the experience and utilitarian motivation belong to intrinsic motivations.Consumers internalize the extrinsic motivations in an integrated regulation,by which way all the "intrinsic" motivations collaborate in order to meet the basic psychological needs:autonomy(experience motivation and hedonic motivation),relatedness(social motivation),and competence(utilitarian motivation).The result shows that autonomy is the most dominant dimension of the three needs,and meeting the competence need is more important to samplers whereas the relatedness is more significant to non-samplers.3.Analyze factors impacting consumer sampling behavior based on the Theory of Planned BehaviorWe analyze three categories of factors that have an impact on the sampling behavior grounded on the Theory of Planned Behavior:1)attitude—on-site sampling motivation,2)perceived behavior control—pre-determined purchase plan and price sensitivity,and 3)subjective norm—social capital and consumer trust.In order to discuss the endogenous relationship between sampling behavior and consumer trust,and jointly estimate the determinants of sampling behavior and determinants of consumer trust,we introduce the Two-stage Probit Least Square Model.The evidence demonstrates that consumers who are strongly driven by the direct sampling motivation also tend to accept the free sample,which points to the measurement effectiveness of direct sampling reasons.Consumers who have a pre-determined purchase plan and a high level of price sensitivity have a higher sampling probability.This is genuinely because the former cluster of consumers are able to seek for product information and explore product quality at a low opportunity cost,while the latter cluster of consumers perceives a high level of monetary value compensating a part of the opportunity cost.More importantly,consumer general trust in the produce supply system of the retailer is a positive driver of sampling behavior,and in turn,sampling behavior can be regarded as an enhancer to consumer trust according to Self Perception Theory.Offering complimentary samples in the food shopping circumstance is an effective approach to reduce uncertainty and information cost,through which the perceived risk is decreased and the willingness to accept vulnerability is increased,and thus consumer trust is enhanced.Based on the research conclusions,we propose the political implications regarding developing a better marketing communication and interaction between agricultural products retailer and the consumers by the application of in-store sampling practice. |
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