• DOI:10.1080/13527266.2012.747980
• Corpus ID: 167589726

Unintended effects of incentivizing consumers to recommend a favorite brand

@article{Anghelcev2015UnintendedEO,
  title={Unintended effects of incentivizing consumers to recommend a favorite brand},
  author={George Anghelcev},
  journal={Journal of Marketing Communications},
  year={2015},
  volume={21},
  pages={210 - 223}
}

• George Anghelcev
• Published 4 May 2015
• Economics
• Journal of Marketing Communications

Marketers often use incentives such as coupons, rewards or special membership discounts in order to motivate consumers to purchase or recommend a particular brand. This practice is based on the underlying assumption that an increase in incentives will lead to an increase in consumer response – an idea which has been at the core of traditional economic thinking for decades. Some psychologists have claimed, however, that under specific conditions an increase in incentives can reduce (rather than increase) one's willingness to perform the behavior which is being incentivized. If materialized, the possibility that extrinsic incentives may diminish consumer willingness to recommend a favorite brand could have important theoretical and practical consequences in the context of word-of-mouth or buzz marketing. This study tests that possibility in the context of an experiment about Apple computers, a favorite brand among US college students. Participants were asked to recommend the brand to a friend (1) in absence of any monetary reward and (2) for a small monetary incentive. Students who were promised a small monetary reward experienced a decrease in intrinsic motivation and wrote shorter recommendations than those who were not promised any incentives. Data also suggest that the quality of the recommendation may decrease when incentives are offered. The results are discussed in line of their possible theoretical and practical significance.