Marketing Seminar（2013-06）

Title:To Be Excellent at One Aspect or Good at All Aspects?: The Effect of Dominant Attribute Design on Product Sales

Speaker:Xuefeng Liu (University of Toronto)

Discussant:Ying Zhang, Peking UniversityTime:: Monday, 30 Dec.15:00-16:00pm

Location:Room217, Guanghua Building 2

Organizer:Department of Marketing, Behavioral Sciences GSM, PKU

Abstract:

To compete with existing products, firms must develop new market offerings with performance-enhanced attributes that are important to consumers. When the focal product has more than one important attribute, firms must decide on the number of attributes to improve vs. the degree to which these selected attribute could be improved. The authors propose that firms can either improve upon a particular attribute significantly (the dominant attribute design strategy) or enhance as many important attributes as possible moderately (the general attribute improvement strategy). Each strategy is likely to influence consumers’ evaluations and purchase of the new offerings differently. From five studies the authors found that when the product quality is low, the product is an extension, or the marketing competition is high, the dominant attribute design strategy is more effective for increasing sales and product evaluations, whereas the general attribute improvement strategy is more effective when the product quality is high or the marketing competition is low. Limitations and future directions of this study are also discussed.

Your participation is warmly welcomed!