The Effect Of Promotional Formats And Consumption Motivation In Inaction Inertia

The inaction inertia effect is a phenomenon that people are not willing to accept the current suboptimal opportunity when they missed the optimal opportunity for some reasons before(although it is still better than the general situation).This phenomenon is widely concerned in the field of consumption.Previous studies had explored the impact of product formats(utilitarian product,hedonic product),promotional formats(price discount,non price discount)and spatial distance on the inaction inertia effect.Then,will the spatial distance between two opportunities moderate the impact of product formats and promotional formats on inaction inertia effect?Although there is a dichotomy between hedonic and utilitarian goods in the market,the same product may have both hedonic and utilitarian attributes.Will manipulate different consumption motivation(hedonic and utilitarian motivation)of the same product also affect the inaction inertia effect? In addition,when the discount difference is added,will the discount difference between two opportunities moderate the influence of consumption motivation on inaction inertia?In this paper,we used the classic imaginary scenario method of inaction inertia effect,and through two studies to test our hypothesis.In Study 1,a mixed design of 2(product format: hedonic vs utilitarian)× 2(promotional format: price discount vs non price discount)× 2(distance: far,near)was used.Distance was designed between subjects,promotional format and product format were designed within subjects,and the dependent variable was suboptimal purchase intention.The lower the suboptimal purchase intention,the higher the inaction inertia effect;on the contrary,the lower the inaction inertia effect.The results show that:(1)the interaction between product format and promotional format is not significant;(2)the main effects of promotional format and distance between two opportunities are significant: price discount is higher than non price discount;the inaction inertia between two opportunities under the condition of close distance is higher than that under the condition of long distance;(3)the interaction between promotional format and distance is significant.In the short distance,The incation inertia of price discount is significantly higher than that of non price discount.In the long distance,the influence of promotional format on inaction inertia disappears.In Study 1,there is a significant difference between the two promotional formats when the opportunity is close,so in Study 2,we will explore the influence of other factors on the inaction inertia when the opportunity is close,And only price discount is used.Study 2 adopted an between-subject design of 2(purchase motivation: hedonic motivation,utilitarian motivation)× 3(discount difference:50%-75%,65%-75%,70%-95%).The dependent variable was the purchase intention of the suboptimal opportunity.The results show that:(1)the main effect of consumption motivation is significant,and the inaction inertia of hedonic motivation is significantly higher than that of utilitarian motivation;(2)there is a significant interaction between consumption motivation and the difference between the two opportunities.When the suboptimal opportunities are the same,the difference between consumption motivation and inaction inertia increases with the difference between the two opportunities;but when the suboptimal opportunities are different,the influence of consumption motivation on the inaction inertia effect disappears,and the smaller the suboptimal discount is,the higher the inertia effect of inaction is.(3)Expectation as regret partially mediates between purchase motivation and inaction inertia of effect.We found that the inactin inertia of price discount is significantly lower than that of non price discount when the two opportunity spaces are close,and the difference between price discount and non price discount disappears when the two opportunities are far away.The same product may take into account both hedonic and utilitarian motivation,so the product attributes can be better divided according to consumer motivation,and hedonic motivation has higher inertia of inaction than utilitarian motivation,which expands the research field of inaction inertia effect.At the same time,this study also found that not only the discount difference size will affect the inaction inertia effect,but also the size of suboptimal opportunity will affect the inaction inertia effect.The smaller the discount of suboptimal opportunity,the higher the inaction inertia.This paper also provides a reference for enterprises and businesses that are preparing to promote the sale of goods by means of promotion.When the same commodity is promoted many times in the same place,it is necessary to use the non price discount as much as possible;at the same time,it can also carry out marketing activities from the aspect of affecting consumers’ utilitarian consumption motivation,in order to reduce the negative effect of inaction inertia on sales.