Kairon Gnothi

The freebie dilemma: Consumers are skeptical about ‘free’ products
June 15th, 2009

买赠困境：消费者对所谓的“赠品”满腹狐疑

2009年6月15日 (via link)

It’s common for retailers to bundle two different products (like razors and blades) together and describe one as free. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that this strategy leads consumers to devalue the items when they’re sold individually.

零售商惯用的促销手段之一，是把两样相关商品（例如剃须刀和刀片）打包在一起出售，并将其中一样标为免费。然而《消费者研究》期刊的最新研究显示，这种“买一赠一”的做法，会导致在两种商品各自独立销售的时候，消费者觉得它们不值得按原价购买。

Authors Michael A. Kamins (Stony Brook University-SUNY), Valerie S. Folkes (University of Southern California), and Alexander Fedorikhin (Indiana University) found that describing a bundled item as free decreases the amount consumers are willing to pay for each product when sold individually. They call this the “freebie devaluation” effect.

该文由石溪大学（Stony Brook University）的Michael A. Kamins、南加州大学（University of Southern California）的Valerie S. Folkes和印第安纳大学(Indiana University)的Alexander Fedorikhin三位作者完成。他们发现，原本单独出售的商品凑成买赠包后，再拆开来单独卖时，消费者会认为再按原价购买每种商品就不划算了。（也就是说“买一赠一”这种方式损害了买赠包内商品的价值。）他们把这种现象称为“买赠贬值”效应。

“Why does a freebie decrease the price consumers are willing to pay for each individual product? Our research shows that consumers tend to make inferences about why they are getting such a great deal that detract from perceptions of product quality,” the authors explain. “For example, consumers figure the companies can’t sell the product without this marketing gimmick.”

作者对此进行了解释：“为什么买赠会降低消费者愿意为每种商品支付的价格呢？我们的研究显示，消费者倾向于从产品质量方面来理解为什么商店会如此慷慨。例如，他们会认为要是不来个跳楼大减价，这产品根本就卖不出去”

The authors also found exceptions to the “freebie devaluation” rule. For example, when the researchers explained that the products were paired so consumers would become familiar with the freebies, they were willing to pay more.

作者们还发现了“买赠贬值”法则的特例。当这些研究者们对消费者解释说买赠包里的商品是成双成对的时候，消费者反而会愿意为独立拆开的每个商品付更高的价钱。

The authors also discovered that consumers are willing to pay the same amount for a bundle describing one of the products as “free” as for a bundle without the “free” description. “Our research shows that consumers take a mental shortcut when it comes to thinking about the overall mixed bundle price—a shortcut that they do not resort to when thinking about the price of just one of the items in the bundle.” The mental shortcut skips the skeptical thinking that leads to “freebie devaluation.”

另外，给消费者两个一模一样的促销包，一个包里的某个商品被标记为“赠品”，而另一个包没有任何赠品标记，这时消费者愿意为每个促销包支付的价钱是相同的。“我们的研究显示，消费者在衡量促销包的价格时，他们会走一条思维捷径并将促销包作为整体考虑，而不再考虑促销包里单个商品的价值。”这种思维捷径可以使消费者绕过那些导致“买赠贬值”的想法。

“Our research findings have important strategic implications for retailers and manufacturers, suggesting that giving away something for free in the context of a bundle may come at the cost for the sellers,” the authors write. “Sellers’ hopes for immediate gains from freebie bundle sales might be countered by reduced long-term profits.”

“我们的发现对于零售店和厂商都有重要的战略意义。这意味着打包销售时附加赠品只会增加卖方的成本，”三位作者这样写道。“卖方采用买赠包的方式是为了获得立竿见影的销售增长，然而长期利润降低的抵销作用可能会使他们的愿望落空。”

Source: University of Chicago Press Journals

来源：芝加哥大学学刊

（本文译者：王一辛 | 转载请注明来自wangyixin.com及本文链接）