The dynamic framing of progress: 'Temporal framing' as a marketing intervention in extended consumer experience

Time is one of the most valuable, yet limited, possessions we have. Marketers who find ways to save consumers time or to help them procure pleasure and/or abate pain in their activities are well on their way to success. However, there are times when marketers ask consumers to participate in time-consuming and less-than-pleasant tasks, such as filling out marketing surveys. Finding ways to make these activities more bearable is critical in getting consumers to cooperate. One way to make these activities more bearable would be to create the perception of "accelerated" progress while participating in these activities. This paper proposes one such managerial intervention, to periodically and strategically give "framed" feedback on the consumer's progress over the extended period of time.; This paper introduces the idea of progress reports that are "temporally" framed as either forward or backward looking in orientation. It also considers the effect of the individual consumer's "natural time orientation" to personalized marketing approaches to these progress messages.; Results from the first experiment indicate that even a single exposure to a temporal frame can have an effect on mood, both while filling out marketing surveys and upon completion. Moreover, "when" in the process you deliver these messages makes a difference as to which frame type is optimal.; Results from the second experiment indicate that even behavior can be affected by what frame type is used. It shows that a mixture of backward first, then forward later is the optimal mixture of framing in getting the maximum number of surveys completed. However, affective results are not always an ideal predictor of behavioral results. Moreover, mismatching externally-imposed orientation with consumer's natural orientation can dampen these effects.