소매상을 통한 한정판 출시가 소비자 평가에 미치는 영향 - 모 브랜드 컨셉과 희소성 메시지의 역할 - (The Effect of Brand Concept Type and Consistency and Scarcity Message on Consumer Evaluation of Limited Edition Products)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국유통학회
· 수록지 정보 : 유통연구 / 22권 / 1호 / 19 ~ 37페이지
· 저자명 : 백재은, 류강석, 한영지

초록

본 연구는 한정판 신제품의 소비자반응에 관한 이해를 확장하기 위해서 두 개의 실험을 실시하였다. 특히 브랜드 확장의 관점에서 한정판 신제품을 규정하여 모 브랜드와 신제품 간의 컨셉 유사성과 모 브랜드 컨셉 유형이라는 두 개념에 주목하였고, 한정 마케팅 영역의 주요 변수인 희소성 메시지의 조절작용도 고찰하였다. 실험 1에 의하면, 모 브랜드 컨셉과 유사할 때 보다는 유사하지 않을 때 소비자는 한정판 신제품 (vs. 비 한정판 신제품)을 더욱 호의적으로 평가하였고, 해당 효과는 모 브랜드가 기능 컨셉 보다는 명성 컨셉을 지녔을 때 더욱 크게 나타났다. 또한 명성 컨셉 브랜드만 다룬 실험 2에 의하면, 한정판 신제품이 모 브랜드 컨셉과 유사할 때는 기회 제한 희소성 메시지에 대해 소비자는 더욱 호의적으로 반응한 반면, 한정판 신제품이 모 브랜드 컨셉과 유사하지 않을 때는 독특성 메시지에 대해 더욱 호의적으로 평가하였다. 본 연구는 희소성 마케팅 문헌에서 상대적으로 연구가 적은 편인 한정판 제품 효과에 영향을 미치는 새로운 변수들을 제시하였고, 기존 변수와의 상호작용도 발견하였다. 더불어 한정판 제품에 대한 실무적 시사점을 논의하였다.

영어초록

Many companies and brands have launched limited edition products that are limited in quantity or in sales time, and marketing campaigns with scarcity messages, emphasizing on scarcity. These strategies are intended to increase the perceived value of their offerings, which have resulted in a huge popularity among the consumers who want to feel distinguished from others through their buying experience. Evidence from previous research on the effect of scarcity has shown that scarcity increases the actual value of products. As human wants are unlimited while resources are virtually limited, people tend to value scare goods more than readily available ones (Lynn 1991). As designed for a limited quantity for a predefined time to maximize the effect of scarcity, limited edition products are the result of combining marketing strategy and consumers’ desire to have a unique design that contributes to their distinctiveness from others (Balachander and Stock 2009). Limited edition, once signature for a luxury brand, is now frequently launched not only by SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel; e.g. H&M, UNIQLO, TOPSHOP, 8ight Second) but also by others as its market size is growing in tandem with popularity and consumption in the retail market.
As limited edition means a new product launch as a part of line extension while scarcity message is a persuasive marketing tool at the point of sales, research is needed on both of scarcity and limited edition. In particular, limited edition products recently launched by retailers assume similarity to the concept of existing brands from the perspective of line extension, and therefore their approach may be a marketing tactic to ensure higher odds of success in launching new products and to enhance brand images. In this regard, this study focuses on limited edition, predicting the impact of a new product launch as limited edition on consumer evaluation and interactions between different variables that can influence the effect of limited edition such as the concept of the mother brand itself, similarity of the concept between the mother brand and a limited edition product, scarcity heuristics related to limited editions.
Previous research has shown that the more similarity a limited edition product shares with the mother brand, the more favorable consumers become toward the product (Boush and Loken 1991) and the more influence their perceived value of the mother brand has on the assessment of brand extension (Keller and Aaker 1992). Therefore, the brand with a functional concept can be effective in extending its product portfolio with similar function while the one with a prestige concept may get a better result by extending the line with symbolic significance. Therefore, determining appropriateness of brand extension in consumer perception requires considering similarity in the product aspect and adequacy in the brand concept aspect.
First and foremost, when the concept of a limited edition product is similar to that of its mother brand, it would be reasonable to say that consumer evaluation on the product is positive. However, as information on limited edition represents rare and unique characteristics unlike general brand extension, a limited edition product with a concept similar to its mother brand may struggle to appeal to consumers. In this case, as the product image similar to the mother brand contradicts to the concept of limited edition, the effect of scarcity identified in previous research is expected to be muted.
On the contrary, when similarity between them is low, this may work negatively on the evaluation of the limited edition product. However, Milberg et al. (1997) points out that although brand extension can give a negative influence on the mother brand due to its inconsistency with existing product attributes and categories, it is found that sub-typing helps mitigate the negative impact while improving the evaluation of brand extension. If these findings are applied to the launch of limited edition products, the information on limited edition would assumes the role of sub-typing, and limited edition could lead to a sort of sub-categorization that makes the new product to be perceived as a different category. Therefore, despite low similarity to the mother brand, the effect of a new product launch as limited edition would be more significant in this case. As the innate unique and distinctive image of limited edition seems to be more appropriate when its similarity to the mother brand is low than it is high, its synergic effect would be bigger in the former.
Meanwhile, consumers tend to perceive that the quality of scarce limited edition products is higher than others regardless of their actual quality (Balachander and Stock 2009). Limited edition products draw on scarcity, and scarcity is linked to the heuristic judgement that scarcity covertly implies high quality or other good features. Therefore, the scarcity of limited edition products can reduce the shortcomings from their non-similarity to the mother brand and induce positive feedback from consumers. In this sense, although previous research on brand extension shows a negative response from consumers toward an extended product and its mother brand when they do not share similarity in concept, its launch as a limited edition can be predicted into different directions. In other words, hypotheses as follows are possible based on the aforementioned discussion: Hypothesis 1: When a limited edition product is not similar to its mother brand in concept, consumer evaluation would be more positive compared to other new products.
Moreover, the effect of the product launch in hypothesis 1 can differ depending on the type of the mother brand’s concept. Previous research shows that in case of horizontal brand extension, a higher recognition of the mother brand’s quality is associated with a more favorable attitude, in particular a higher possibility of the recognition transfer when the extended product more fits to the brand concept (Aaker and Keller 1990). In particular, consumers show a more positive response when a functional brand reflects functional concept to its brand extension and a prestige brand adopts prestige concept to its extension (Park, Milberg and Lawson 1991). When a new product is launched as a limited edition, however, the positive effect of the concept consistency can vary depending on the features of the mother brand’s concept. This means that when a functional brand launches a limited edition product with same concept, the general image of functional concept is inconsistent with the image of limited edition, which would dilute the effect of the product launch. However, in case of a prestige brand, as its distinctive image is consistent with the image of limited edition, its product launch can render more effect than that of a functional brand.
On the contrary, for the launch of a limited edition product not similar to the concept of its mother brand as is the case of a prestige product launch under a function brand, the inconsistency between them would lead consumers not to trust the quality of the new product. In this case, however, the information of limited edition aligned with the prestige image can lower the risk of the launch or anxiety consumers might feel. At the same time, for a functional product launch from a prestige brand, consumers cannot trust the product as much as they trust the brand due to the inconsistency in their images. However, if the feature of limited addition is added to the case, this would serve as a rational for the brand to launch a functional product, which might result in a more positive consumer response. These discussions lead to hypothesis 2.
Hypothesis 2: The effect of similarity in concept would be higher with a prestige brand than a functional brand.








Study 1 was designed to test hypotheses 1 and 2 to examine consumer response toward launch of limited edition products in tandem with the concept of the mother brand (functional vs. prestige) and similarity (yes vs. no) between the limited edition product and the mother brand. We utilized a 2 (mother brand concept: functional vs. prestige) x 2 (similarity: yes vs. no) x 2 (limited edition information: yes vs. no) design, and participants were randomly allocated to one of the eight conditions. Participants included 180 college students in Seoul, Korea. They were exposed to a newspaper article on the launch of a new watch product with manipulated brand concept, similarity and information of limited edition, and as a dependent variable, their attitude toward the new product was assessed. Familiarity with the mother brand and involvement with watch products were also measured as covariates.
In the result analyses, the concept of the mother brand (functional vs. prestige), similarity (yes vs. no) and information of limited edition (yes or no) were set as independent variables between groups, and familiarity and knowledge of the mother brand and involvement with watch products were included as covariates while using consumers’ attitude as a dependent variable. As one of major findings, the two-way interaction between similarity and information of limited edition was significant (F(1, 170) = 9.02, p<.01). As depicted in Figure 1, consumer response toward the limited edition product was more positive when it was not similar to the mother brand in concept. This supports hypothesis 1.
Hypothesis 2 assumes that the effect of hypothesis 1 is stronger with a prestige brand. Although the three-way interaction between similarity, information and concept was not significant (F(1, 170) = 1.25, p=.26), a predicted pattern was identified when sub-analyzing mother brand concepts. This means that while the two-way interaction between similarity and information was not significant for a functional concept (F(1, 80) = 1.65, p=.20), it was found significant with a prestige concept (F(1, 88) = 9.28, p<.01). As presented in Figure 2, the impact of similarity on the evaluation of a limited edition product was higher with a prestige brand than a functional brand. This means that hypothesis 2 is supported.
Meanwhile, according to Griskevicius et al. (2009), scarcity message can be categorized into distinctiveness scarcity (e.g. a unique product not found in other brands) and limited-opportunity scarcity (e.g. summer-only offerings). Study 2 was designed to examine the effect of these two different types of scarcity messages with a limited edition of a prestige brand. Consumer response is predicted to be better when emphasizing distinctiveness scarcity as product extension not similar to the mother brand assumes rare and distinctive features. On the contrary, as extension with a similar concept offers easy accessibility, focusing on limited-opportunity scarcity message with extended products would lead to a better evaluation. This leads to hypothesis 3.
Hypothesis 3: When the limited edition product from a prestige brand has a similar concept to its mother brand, consumers would be more positive toward the product as exposed to limited-opportunity scarcity message, and when they are similar in concept, consumers would be more positively as exposed to distinctiveness scarcity message.
To test hypothesis 3, study 2 utilized a 2 (similarity in concept: yes vs. no) x 2 (scarcity heuristic: distinctiveness vs. limited-opportunity) full factor design, and 96 college students were randomly assigned into one of the four conditions. They were exposed to a news article on the launch of a new watch product, which manipulating similarity of product concept and types of scarcity messages.
The findings resulted from the analysis with preference of the limited edition product as a dependent variable showed that the two-way interaction between similarity and scarcity heuristic was statistically significant (F(1, 90) = 5.64, p < .05). As illustrated in Figure 3, consumer response was more positive toward the limited-opportunity heuristic for the similar extension and to the distinctiveness heuristic for the non-similar extension. The finding supports hypothesis 3.
This research extends the scope of research on scarcity into limited edition products. By building up on findings from previous research on brand extension, the current research examined multiple aspects of limited edition products including the concept of the mother brand, concept similarity between the limited edition product and the mother brand, and different types of scarcity messages related the limited edition product.
This research also holds practical implications. As many brands resort to limited edition marketing campaigns, research on limited edition can substantially contribute to business marketing strategies. When launching a limited edition product, it is essential to offer more persuasive scarcity heuristic information depending on concept of the mother brand and concept similarity. The findings of this study shows that limited edition can be an effective and persuasive marketing tool when attempting to change brand image with new product launch or targeting a new consumer group or penetrating into a new market.

참고자료

· 없음