The interaction effect of consumer desire and type of product changes on sensitivity to product changes

Desire is a positively felt strong attraction that is enhanced by a sensory simulation of desired state. It provides a motivation and an intention to approach to a specific target that yields a pleasurable experience or a positive state. While much of the previous works on desire have focused on understanding addictive behaviors, more recently, researchers have paid attention to general desire in various domains.

In this research, we draw attention to consumer desire in the marketing context; we investigate how sensitively consumers react to the product changes when they have high or low desire for the product and the underlying mechanism for such behavior. With three studies, we test that, first, relative to the individuals with lower desire, the ones with higher desire react more sensitively to the standpoint-consistent product changes (e.g., increase in benefit, decrease in cost) that support their decisions or thoughts about the product than to the standpoint-inconsistent product changes (e.g., decrease in benefit, increase in cost) that discourage their decisions or thoughts about the product. Second, we test that, relative to the individuals with lower desire, the ones with higher desire tend to evaluate the standpoint-consistent product changes more favorably and seek the relevant information more actively than the standpoint-inconsistent product changes. The three studies show that, relative to the individuals with lower desire, the ones with higher desire react more sensitively to the standpoint-consistent product changes than to the standpoint-inconsistent product changes. However, there is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions regarding the underlying mechanism.