恢恑憰怪的魅力：营销中的偏离常规影响消费行为的机制和边界

Many marketing activities, such as product design, advertising, pricing, and packging, deviate from the norms. While marketers wish such deviation will generate positive outcomes (e.g., more attention, greater sales), prior research suggests that the effectiveness of this strategy has not been conclusive. This research thus aims to understand when and why deviation willl lead to positive consequences. In addition, the roles of deviation in consumer behavior has been studied in scattered literature using various constructs such as unfamiliarity, disfluency, and novelty, without a unifying theory. The second goal of this project is to integrate previous studies into a single theoretical framework. To achieve these goals, we distinguishes between two types of deviation effects: intentional versus unintentional. Under this framework, we noticed that much of the literature has been focused on intentional effects of deviation (i.e., inference making), with much less attention being paid to unintentional mechanisms. This proposal consists of a series of projects, each of which examines one possible psychological mechanism underlying the unintentional influence, including arousal and cognitive elaboration. We also investigated theoretically-derived boundary conditions for these effects. In doing so, this project contributes to consumer literature in three ways. First, theoretically, the construct of deviation has the potential to integrate many disperse findings into a parsimonious theoretical framework. Second, methodologically, we will adopt non-self-report measures to address the limitations of self-report measures, which were often used in prior work. Third, practically, the research findings from this project will have rich implications for a variety of marketing strategies including product design, pricing, and marketing communications.

营销实践中常企图用偏离常规的产品设计和沟通方式获取消费者好感，然而偏离常规何时如何打动人心则有待研究。本项目提出“偏离”是以往很多研究背后起作用的本质因素，区分消费者主动推论偏离的意味和消费者被动受偏离影响。以往研究多考虑前者，而本项目建议对后者进行系统研究：考察多种尚未被研究过的偏离形式对消费行为的影响，验证被以往研究忽略的偏离的多种作用机制以及其对应的结果，探索不同机制起作用的边界。同时还引入消费者“想要”和“喜爱”的区分，以期在偏离的研究框架下为两者的区分提供进一步实证证据。本项目拟贡献于以下几个方面：在理论上，将过往离散的研究统一到偏离的构念之下，并填补该研究领域的空白，完善以偏离作为核心构念的理论。在方法上，采用多种非自陈式报告作为内在机制和结果变量的测量，为研究内容和未来研究提供方法学依据。在实践上，促使市场人员可以将偏离以合理的方式运用到产品设计和营销沟通之中，提高市场效率。

营销实践中常企图用偏离常规的产品设计和沟通方式获取消费者好感，本项目考察消费者主观层面对偏离无意识但是却被动受到偏离影响的情况。具体而言，本项目在数字、空间、语言、美行、产品属性五个领域对“偏离常规”及其反面“符合预期”进行了研究。1）在数字领域发现：偏离整数的数字提高对产品的想要程度；偏离本国货币系统的实际购买力很低的游戏币让人们在以本国货币兑换游戏币购买虚拟物品时感觉更便宜；偏离以文字进行命名习的惯以数字命名服务人员会降低消费者对于服务人员的忠诚。2）在空间领域发现：网页留白提高了产品的价格感知；标志留白提高了产品的速度感知；菜单留白提高了食品的健康感知。3）在语言领域发现：强调恢复更符合不可控困境，强调改善更符合可控困境；语音双关更符合真挚品牌，语义双关更符合精致品牌；偏离常规的信息被赋予理由之后，比符合常规的信息更有说服力。4）在美行领域发现：隐私泄露导致的隐私担忧让消费者更乐于进行道德消费；任务拖延让消费者后继选择耗时更长更有吸引力的选项；善因营销减少了顾客的退货行为。5）在产品属性领域发现：容易阅读的字体适合放松的旅游，难以阅读的字体适合挑战的旅游；互补品适合在形象温暖的产品后推荐，竞争品适合在能力高的产品后推荐；多颜色的产品适合从左到右/从上到下饱和度上升的排列；光泽表面适合强调回避的功能产品，哑光表面适合强调趋近的功能产品。此外，项目组进行了疫情背景下的若干研究以及上述研究的延展研究。研究的部分成果已经发表在国际和国内高水平刊物上（SSCI/SCI 9篇，其中项目负责人为第一作者的UTD24刊物3篇；CSSCI辑刊2篇），部分已经投稿并通过第一轮评审，部分仍在后继的撰写和整理当中。在国际和国内会议上报告研究成果，其中有5篇会议文章尚未在期刊发表。这些成果深化了学界和业界对于营销中的偏离常规的理解。