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ABSTRACT
Counter-experiential marketing communication refers to a marketing message that runs contrary to what a customer has actually experienced through product or service use. The impact of counter-experiential communications on consumers, as measured by levels of customer satisfaction and repurchase intention, is analyzed through an empirical study. It is demonstrated that after a negative experience, a positive message about the product leads to lower levels of satisfaction and repurchase intention as compared to when that negative experience is followed by a more neutral message. Recommendations are offered to best prevent the detrimental effects of de facto counter-experiential advertising in the face of negative consumption experiences. Direction for future research in this area is provided.
INTRODUCTION
A consumer's expectations and subsequent satisfaction level are often shaped by marketing communications. Marketing communications, such as advertising, serve as a source of information and motivation for the consumer before the purchase is made, and continue to inform prospective, current, and past customers even while a product is in use. As such, marketing communications present the focal product or service in the best light. There are many strategic and creative approaches that a marketer might take toward presenting a product offering using marketing communications, such as advertising, with the overall effect of displaying benefits while creating and managing consumer expectations.
For the most part, purchases (whether provoked by marketing communications directly, indirectly, or not at all) have outcomes that are
satisfying, or at least satisficing, with the performance of the product or service measuring as expected. However, when the service or product performance is below acceptable
standards, customers suffer from the disappointment of their suboptimal consumer experience, what might be called a product-harm crisis (Dawar and Pillutla 2000), with the consumer blaming the company for the experience (e.g., Laufer, Silvera, and Meyer 2005). This is reflected in the loss of time, money, and other costs associated with an unexpectedly inequitable exchange. If the purchase outcome somehow goes awry, negative thoughts and feelings, such as dissatisfaction, anger, and regret, might be expected to follow. Consider, for example, two different purchases:
1. A woman living in the Midwestern United States purchased a living room set from a well-known regional furniture retailer whose light-hearted and family-oriented ads appealed to her. The...