Effects of promotional framing on consumers' impulsive buying behaviors

Abstract

Objectives: The two studies investigated the effect of promotional framing and stock-up characteristic on consumers’ impulsive buying behaviors.

Methods: In Study 1, 52 undergraduate students, who were either exposed to positive promotional framing (i.e., “Buy 1, get 1 free”) or negative promotional framing (i.e., “50% off, for two”), were asked to indicate their impulse buying for the stock-up and non-stock-up items through a computer program. In Study 2, 80 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of the four following condition: (1) positive promotional framing and stock-up items, (2) positive promotional framing and non-stock-up items, (3) negative promotional framing and stock-up items, and (4) negative promotional framing and non-stock-up items. Then, they were asked to indicate their impulse buying through a computer program.

Results: More impulse buying was found when promotional framing was positive than negative, however, this effect was not significant. Both studies indicated that there was an interaction effect between promotional framing (positive vs. negative) and stock-up characteristic (stock-up vs. non-stock-up) on the number of impulse buying. The results suggested that the main effect of promotional framing on the number of impulse buying was qualified by items’ stock-up characteristic.

Discussion: The present findings on the relationship between promotional framing and stock-up characteristic on consumer’s impulsive buying behavior are highly applicable to various situations other than within the supermarket context per se. For example, a restaurant should frame their meals using a negative promotion (e.g., discount rate), instead of a positive promotion (e.g., free lunch set), because food is generally considered as non-stock-up.