When physical movement affects perceived value
In a physical retail setting, customers engage in physical movements around the store to interact with the marketing mix, for example, to find the best chocolate products or evaluate whether a pair of sneakers are worth the price. Digitisation further provides handy tools for marketers to trace the movements of their customers on an industrial scale and use such data to influence behaviour. However, physical movement has been under-researched by the marketing literature, especially with a lack of understanding of how this affects customers’ value perceptions, which are critical to developing customer trust, purchase intentions, and loyalty.
This study extends previous research by addressing two issues. Firstly, it contributes to closing the research gap by investigating how the interaction between physical movements and individual differences can influence customer’s perception of value in advertisements and their willingness to pay. Secondly, it adds to the research on regulatory fit, which proposes that customers who use decision strategies that reflect their general motivations value the products more, compared with customers who do not experience this type of fit.
Specifically, according to regulatory mode theory, individuals may experience two regulatory functions, which are assessment and locomotion. Assessors are predominantly motivated to evaluate and spend more cognitive resources on making the right decision, while locomotors are motivated to manage change and progress directly towards the goal through state-to-state movement. As a result, physical movement is a fit for locomotors. Based on previous research focusing on regulatory fit produced by the congruence between decision-making strategies and general motivations, this article posits that physical movement also results in high regulatory fit with the motivation of locomotors. It explores the relationship between physical movement and customer’s perceived value, moderated by their locomotion motivation and mediated by the strength of the engagement.
Method and sample
This study comprises three studies. Study 1 involved participants from an Australian University and randomly assigned them to either the high or low movement condition as part of product search, after which they made an offer for the product. In Study 2, participants from a university in the US also between-subject experiment that manipulated physical movement (low vs. high) during product evaluation, then were asked to evaluate the price of the product. Study 3 is a field experiment in which participants from a Dutch university were exposed to 15 minutes of 15- or 30-second advertisements for products from five different brands (McDonald’s, Sprite, Durex, Listerine & Burger King), while a pedometer smartphone application covertly measured their steps per second. They then answered questions about their engagement and perceived value of advertisements, on a scale of 1 Strongly Disagree – 5 Strongly Agree. After the experiments in all three studies, participants were also asked about their locomotion and assessment motivations, measured using the established 12 items for each construct on 6-point scales from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”.
Key findings
1. Study 1 found that high predominant locomotors, with a strong motivation for movement from one state to the next, paid a higher price for the products they chose compared to low predominant locomotors.
2. In Study 2, customers who performed movements to evaluate a product’s main function indicate a higher willingness to pay when they had a higher locomotion orientation.
3. Study 3 showed how walking while listening to advertisements increased engagement, and in turn the perceived value by locomotors of those messages.
4. All three studies demonstrated that regulatory fit between physical movements and consumers’ predominant locomotion motivation influenced perceived product value during product search, product evaluation, and marketing communication from the brand.
Recommendations
Motion sensing in physical retail environments is a source of advantage compared to pure online retailing, enabled through digitisation. Retailers can trace customer’s location, direction, and speed using mobile sensors such as gyroscopes, GPS, and WiFi. At the same time, locomotion motivations can be primed, for instance, by using in-store advertisements, to produce fit in a physical retail environment.
Moreover, customers’ physical movement can influence their response to mobile marketing. The results from this study suggest that mobile advertisements are most engaging for the locomotor segment, and in general are received more favourably by them. Locomotion predominance can also be measured through surveys on mobile applications, in order to enhance customer engagement with a stronger regulatory fit.
Overall, the ability to identify customers’ movement and regulatory mode, and to do so in real-time, offers a competitive edge and help improve customers’ perception of value in the marketing mix for physical retailers.
Researcher
More information
The research article is also available on eprints.