Overview Is masking really that effective when purchasing embarrassing products?

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1 | 25-06-2019

Is masking really that effective

when purchasing embarrassing

products?

Fabiola Smitsmans S3521184 June 26, 2019 Master thesis defense First supervisor: Dr. M. Keizer Second supervisor: Dr. S. Albalooshi

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1. Introduction

› Embarrassment

▪ In this research, embarrassment is defined as a short term, commonly occurring,

negative emotion that leads to loss of self-esteem

(Modigliani, 1971; Lau-Gesk & Drolet, 2008)

› Embarrassment in the consumer shopping behavior

▪ Embarrassment influences the consumer shopping process

▪ Embarrassment impacts the sales of companies

▪ When a consumer experiences embarrassment, one might:

- Forgo the purchase

- Add products to hide the embarrassing product - Go to another neighborhood to purchase the product

(Folkman & Lazarus, 1988; Arndt & Ekebas-Turedi, 2017)

→

But, embarrassment in the consumer shopping behavior has

received sparse attention

(Krishna et al, 2015)

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2. Hypothesis

Hypothesis 1:

› Embarrassment can be experienced when shopping for a particular product › Coping mechanisms are strategies consumers apply to deal with the negative

emotions they experience (e.g. embarrassment) (Goffman, 1955)

› Masking is adding more products to conceal the embarrassing product

› By applying this strategy, the anticipated embarrassment reduces (Blair & Roese,

2013)

Basket Composition

- Embarrassing product alone - Embarrassing product + additional products

Anticipated Embarrassment

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2. Hypothesis

Hypothesis 2 & 3

› Applying the masking strategy helps to reduce the anticipated embarrassment

(Blair & Roese, 2013)

› Consumers feel less judged or evaluated by other consumers

› Expected to increase purchase intention

H2

› One can add different types of products (symbolic vs utilitarian)

› Symbolic products can be used to restore the self image of a consumer and

also signal a positive self image to others (Gao et al., 2009)

H3

Purchase intention

- Embarrassing product alone - Embarrassing product + Symbolic product - Embarrassing product + Utilitarian product

Purchase Intention 6 | 25-06-2019

2. Hypothesis

Hypothesis 4

› Applying the masking strategy reduces the anticipated embarrassment › This will lead to an increase in the purchase intention of the embarrassing

product

› Reducing the embarrassment feeling influence purchase intention postively › When no embarrassment is experienced, the masking strategy will have no

impact

- Embarrassing product alone

- Embarrassing product + additional products Purchase Intention

Anticipated Embarrassment

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2. Hypothesis

Hypothesis 5

› Implicit theories of personality, two distinct types of personalities:

▪ Incremental theorists → personality is malleable (Dweck & Leggett, 1988) ▪ Entity theorists → personality is fixed (Dweck & Leggett, 1988)

› When experiencing a failure, entity theorists do experience a greater loss of self-esteem (Renaud & McConnell , 2007)

› They firmly believe that they cannot restore themselves through their own efforts › Search for opportunities to signal a positive self to others

Purchase Intention Anticipated

Embarrassment

Implicit theories (Incremental vs entity theorists)

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3. Conceptual model

- Embarrassing product alone

- Embarrassing product + additional product (Symbolic) - Embarrassing product + additional product (Utilitarian)

Purchase Intention Anticipated

Embarrassment Implicit theories

(Incremental vs entity theorists)

+

-+

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4. Method

› Two pre-tests

▪ 1stpre-test → Select the embarrassing product ▪ 2ndpre-test → Select the symbolic - & utilitarian products

Embarrassment Product + additional Utilitarian product Embarrassment Product + additional Symbolic product Embarrassment Product alone 10 | 25-06-2019

4. Method

› Main survey

▪ Survey via Qualtrics

▪ Respondents were reached through my network ▪ 198 respondents participated (65% female, age = 26)

▪ Between subject design → 3 (basket composition) x 2 (implicit theories)

Basket Composition: Embarrassing product

+ additional product SYMBOLIC +

Implicit theory: Entity Basket Composition: Embarrassing product

alone

Implicit theory: Entity

alone additional product UTILITARIAN +

Implicit theory: Entity

+ additional product SYMBOLIC +

Implicit theory: Incremental Basket Composition: Embarrassing product

alone

Implicit theory: Incremental

alone additional product UTILITARIAN +

Implicit theory: Incremental Control group Experimental group Experimental group

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5. Results

Hypotheses Description Findings

H1 A basket composition with an embarrassing product + additional item increases the anticipated

embarrassment relative to the basket composition with an embarrassment product alone. Supported

H2 A basket composition with an embarrassing product + additional item increases the purchase

intention relative to the basket composition with an embarrassment product alone. Not supported

H3 A basket composition with additional products that are Symbolic will increase the purchase

intentions relative to a basket composition with additional products that are utilitarian. Not supported

H4 The anticipated embarrassment mediates the impact of the basket composition on the purchase

intention. Not supported

H5

Implicit theories moderate the impact of basket composition on anticipated embarrassment in such a way that entity theorists will have a stronger weakening effect on the relation between basket composition and anticipated embarrassment compared to incremental theorists.

Not supported 12 | 25-06-2019

5. Results

› Hypothesis 2 and 3

▪ Both not supported

▪ Purchase intention decreases when adding products

3.77

3.19

3.77

3.15 3.24

Embarrassing product Embarrassing product + Embarrassing product Symbolic Product Utilitarian Product

Purchase intention of hemorrhoid cream

Purchase intention › Hypothesis 1

▪ Supported

▪ Adding products does decrease the anticipated embarrassment

4.09

3.49

Embarrassing product alone Embarrrassing product + Additional

products

Anticipated embarrassment

Anticipated embarrassment

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5. Results

› Hypothesis 4

▪ Not supported ▪ Mediation Model

▪ Adding products does reduce anticipated embarrassment but does not increase the purchase

intention

Basket Composition (X) Purchase intention (Y) Anticipated Embarrassment (M) a= -0.3585, p=.0170 b=.0749 p=.2955 Indirect effect c’ = -0.3386, p=.0261 Direct effect c = -0.3655, p=.0150 Mi=0.0268, SE=0.0319, CI[-0.1147, 0.0197] 14 | 25-06-2019

5. Results

› Hypothesis 5 ▪ Not supported

▪ Moderation Mediation Model

▪ The relation between basket composition and anticipated embarrassment is not moderated by

the implicit theories

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5. Results

› Additional analysis and control variables:

▪ Control variables

- Age (+), gender (female) and education (-) do have an impact on the relation between basket composition and anticipated embarrassment

- Familiarity has an impact on the relation between basket composition and purchase

intention

▪ Additional analysis

- The relation between basket composition and purchase intention mediated by product

prominence was investigated

- Product prominence can be described as the observability other consumers have of the embarrassing product

- This additional analysis is not supported

16 | 25-06-2019

6. Discussion

› Adding products to the embarrassing product reduces the anticipated

embarrassment consumers experience →this is supported by the research of Blair and

Roese (2013)

› Adding products to the embarrassing product does not increase the purchase intention of the embarrassing product

▪ Adding a symbolic product led to the lowest purchase intention

- An explanation could be that symbolic meanings were not clearly visible

› The impact of basket composition on purchase intention through anticipated embarrassment not significant

▪ An explanation could be that product might not contain the symbolic meanings needed

- Identity balance basket (Blair & Roese, 2013)

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6. Discussion

› Implications for practice

▪

Place the embarrassing product close to the cashier or exit

▪

Increase familiarity of embarrassing products

› Theoretical contributions

▪ The impact of the masking strategy on anticipated embarrassment extended with

impact on purchase intention

▪ The role of symbolic- and utilitarian products

› Future research

▪ Field experiment to research difference between imagined ’real’ social presence

and the actual real social presence.

▪ Display a variety of different products that can be added to the embarrassing

product 18 | 25-06-2019 18 | 25-06-2019

Thank you for your attention

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References

› Arndt, A. D., & Ekebas-Turedi, C. (2017). Do men and women use different tactics to cope with the embarrassment of buying condoms? Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 499–510.

https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.1648

› Blair, S., & Roese, N. J. (2013). Balancing the basket: The role of shopping basket composition in embarrassment. Journal of Consumer Research, 40 (4), 676 - 691. http://doi.org/10.1086/671761 › Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality.

Psychological Review, 95 (2), 256-273. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.95.2.256

› Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988). Coping as a Mediator of Emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (3), 466-475. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.3.466

› Gao, L., Wheeler, S. C., & Shive, B. (2009). The ‘Shaken Self’: Product choice as a means of restoring self-view confidence. Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (1) 29-38.

https://doi.org/10.1086/596028

› Goffman, E. (1955). On face-work: An analysis of ritual elements in social interaction. Psychiatry, 18 (3), 213-231. http://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1955.11023008

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References

› Krishna, A., Herd, K. B., & Aydinoğlu, N. Z. (2015). Wetting the bed at twenty-one: Embarrassment as a private emotion. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25 (3), 473–486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2015.02.005

› Lau-Gesk L., & Drolet, A. (2008). The publicly self-consciousness consumer: Prepared to be embarrassed. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 18 (2), 127-136.

http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2008.01.007

› Lewittes, D. J., & Simmons, W. L. (1975). Impression management of sexually motivated behavior. The Journal of Social Psychology, 96 (1), 39-44.

http://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1975.9923160

› Miller, R.S., & Leary, M. R. 1992. Social sources of interactive functions of emotions: The case of embarrassment. In M. S. Clark (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology, Vol. 14. Emotion and social behavior (pp. 202-221). Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc.

› Modigliani, A. (1971). Embarrassment, facework, and eye contact: Testing a theory of embarrassment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17 (1), 15-24. http://doi.org/10.1037/h0030460

› Renaud, M.J., & McConnell, A. R. (2007). Wanting to be better but thinking you can’t: implicit theories of personality moderate the impact of self-discrepancies on self-esteem. Self and Identity, 6(1), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860600764597