El efecto de compartir experiencias de personalización en el comportamiento del consumidor

Zusammenfassung

Traditionally, product managers were the only ones responsible for designing the products the company launched. In contrast, nowadays many companies allow consumers to customize their products according to their individual preferences and needs, especially in the online environment. At the same time, and increasingly often, consumers tend to tell others about their consumption experiences and the related emotions. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the consequences of sharing one's customization experience on consumer behavior. More specifically, we analyze whether sharing the personal experience associated with consumers' engagement in product customization has a positive impact on consumers' affective reactions. Based on previous literature, we focus on pride as our outcome variable as it has repeatedly been shown as an important emotion driving the value resulting from product customization. Hypotheses are tested through seven studies that include both experiments and a field study. In study 1.1 we find a positive effect of sharing one's customization experience on taste perceptions of the customized product. Then, study 1.2 complements the first one by demonstrating the high intention to customize products across consumers and, in case of social sharing, how consumers mainly talk about the steps followed during the customization process and the selected attributes. Then, we argue that the effect of social sharing of customization experiences not only affects specific attribute perceptions but also delivers a more generalizable increase in the value of the self-designed product. Therefore, we consider the effect of sharing on emotions so that in study 1.3 we demonstrate that sharing customization experiences with a friend increases feelings of pride taken in the customized product. We also rule out introspection as an alternative explanation. In that regard, study 2.1 shows that it is only when the consumer actually shares the customization experience with a recipient (compared to the mere reflection on the customization experience in private) that there is an effect of sharing on pride. In order to get a better understanding of this effect, study 3.1 tests the moderating role of type of customization based on the customizable attributes of the product (hedonic vs. utilitarian). We find that sharing the customization experience leads to taking higher pride in the customized product for hedonic customization, wherein self-expression can occur, but not for that merely functional in purpose. Then, study 4.1 confirms the second moderator, need for uniqueness. Results show that sharing the customization experience prompts greater feelings of pride for consumers with a high need for uniqueness. We argue that sharing enables the consumer to differentiate him/herself from other consumers by communicating unique aspects of his/her identity. Finally, in study 4.2, with the aim of confirming the robustness of the results, we introduce the two moderators simultaneously and, as expected, it turns out that the positive effect of sharing one's customization experience only occurs for hedonic customization and for individuals scoring high in need for uniqueness. A main recommendation derived from this thesis relates to marketers' decisions regarding product and communication activities. Our findings suggest that marketers design customization tasks that allow consumers to express who they are (i.e. their personality) while communicating and encouraging customers to talk to other people (friends, for example) about their customization experiences. This combination of product and communication will take consumers to reaffirm their uniqueness and, as a result, to generate more favorable responses toward the self-designed product.