How sequels seduce: Consumers' affective expectations for entertainment experiences

Entertainment goods have two important characteristics: (1) they primarily provide affective benefits and (2) their quality cannot be determined prior to consumption. Therefore, when evaluating future entertainment experiences, consumers form expectations about the emotional gratification that they will receive, which depends upon the entertainment brand being evaluated and the consumer's characteristics, among other factors. This dissertation explores the process by which consumers form affective expectations and examines the impacts of brand strategy and consumer characteristics upon this process. The first study explores the process by which consumers form affective expectations, finding that consumers form affective expectations by weighting their affective forecast by their confidence in that forecast. The second study examines the influence of brand extensions on this process, finding that the similarity of a brand extension, such as a movie sequel or new book by a serial author, to its parent brand facilitates the transfer of associations from the parent brand to the brand extension, and that these associations form the basis for the affective forecast for the extension, which, in turn, impact affective expectations for the extension. Findings also suggest that similarity increases consumers' confidence in their affective forecasts for brand extensions, which impacts affective expectations for the extensions. The third study addresses a consumer characteristic, finding that consumers who are defensively pessimistic generate more negative thoughts about brand extensions than new brands, resulting in lower affective forecasts and expectations. Furthermore, this study finds that defensive pessimism strengthens the role of similarity on the transfer of associations from parent brands to brand extensions, and also strengthens the role of forecast confidence in the formation of consumers' affective expectations. These findings contribute to affective forecasting literature by addressing the impact of forecast confidence, and by proposing a model of how consumers form affective expectations. Findings also contribute to this literature by addressing the impact of defensive pessimism on affective expectations. Finally, findings contribute to the literature on brand extensions by demonstrating the role that brand strategy plays in the affective expectations process, and how this role is influenced by defensive pessimism.