방향의 은유적 표현이 소비자 평가에 미치는 영향: 소비자목표의 조절효과를 중심으로 (The Effect of Metaphoric Expression on Consumer Evaluation: The Moderating Effect of Goal Priming)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅학회
· 수록지 정보 : 마케팅연구 / 27권 / 3호 / 145 ~ 161페이지
· 저자명 : 조성완, 김희진, 윤성아

초록

소비자의 선택에 영향을 주는 요소 중 하나가 “거리”이다. 같은 제품이나 상점이라면, 소비자들은 가깝고 쉽게 접근할 수 있는 곳에 위치한 것을, 멀고 접근이 어려운 곳에 위치한 것보다 선호한다. 기존의 심리학, 마케팅연구들은 사람의 “거리”에 대한 인지 (심리적 거리)는 비단 객관적인 물리적 거리뿐 아니라, 시간적, 사회적 거리에 의해서도 결정됨을 보여주었다. 이러한 연구흐름의 일환으로, Nelson과 Simmons(2009)의 최근 연구는 소비자의 거리에 대한 인식이 “은유적 표현”(metaphoric expression)에 의해서도 결정됨을 보여주었다. 구체적으로, 사람들은 북쪽으로 이동하는 것을 ‘위로 올라간다’는 은유적 의미로 해석하여, 북쪽에 위치한 상점으로 가는 데 동일 거리의 남쪽에 위치한 상점에 가는 것보다 많은 시간과 노력이 소요될 것이라고 생각하였다. 이러한 인식의 오류는 북쪽 상점에 대한 방문 및 구매의도를 저하시켰다. 본 연구는 개인에게 순간적으로 부여된 상향적 목표 (예: 직장에서의 프로모션을 생각하게 만드는 것)가 어떻게 이러한 은유적 표현 효과를 완화 또는 반전시키는지를 보여주고자 한다. 우리는 상향목표가 제시된 소비자들은 북행을 남행보다 더 가깝고 쉽게 인지하여, 북쪽에 위치한 제품을 더 선호할 것이라고 예측한다. 상향목표(upward goal)가 활성화된 소비자들은 상향이동에 드는 시간/노력의 비용을 짧게 지각하고 상향이동에 대한 가치를 높게 평가하며, 상향이동을 수월하게(fluently) 느껴, 은유적 표현의 효과가 반전 또는 완화될 것 이라고 생각한다. 이들 가설은 두 실증 연구를 통해 검증되었다. 실험 1에서는 피험자의 목표방향이 상향(upward)일 경우, 피험자들은 북쪽 대상물에 도달 시간이 같은 거리에 위치한 남쪽 대상물에 비해 짧을 것으로 예측하여 상향목표가 예열되지 않은 피험자들(즉, Nelson의 실험)과 반대의 결과가 도출되었다. 실험 2 에서는 매장 내 “남”과 “북”에 위치한 제품에 대한 구매의도가 소비자 목적예열(goal priming)여부에 따라 다르게 나타남을 보여주어 본 연구의 마케팅적 시사점을 제시하고 있다.

영어초록

Consumer evaluation is influenced not only by the inherent quality of the marketing stimuli, but also by the contextual factors surrounding that stimuli. One such important factor is "physical proximity", that is, how far or close the stimuli is located from a consumer. In general, consumer prefers a product or a store that he or she has an easy access to. Past studies in psychology and marketing show that human perception of "distance"(i.e., psychological distance) is a function not only of the actual physical proximity, but also of the temporal and social distance. Extending this stream of research, Nelson and Simmons (2009) demonstrated that metaphoric expression can determine consumer's psychological distance, which in turn affects the subsequent evaluation of an object. In the study, people mistakenly believing that travel to "north" (vs. south) takes longer time and more efforts show less intention to visit stores located in north versus south.
The current research proposes and shows the moderating effect of temporally accessible goal in the previously demonstrated metaphoric expression of cardinal direction on consumer evaluation. In particular, we hypothesize that situationally primed upward goal (e. g., thinking about their future promotion in the workplace) makes people perceive the travel to north (vs. south) easier, leading them to prefer a product located in north than the same product located in south. We expect that the following three mechanisms are responsible for the moderating effect of upward goal. First, upward goal evokes a greater motivation for upward movement, rendering upward travel seem shorter and easier. Second, the upward goal leads to increases in the perceived values attached to upward movement. Third, the escalation goal makes upward movement psychologically more fluent, causing people underestimate the travel time.
The hypotheses were tested in two laboratory studies. In study 1, the participants were presented with a map showing a hypothetical city located either north or south to their current place. Then they estimated the time, efforts, and difficulty of traveling to the designated place. Prior to the estimation, a half of the participants was given a chance to think about the process which they have to go through in order to promote to the top rank in their desired work place (upward goal priming condition). The other half of the participants was given a filler task (control condition). The estimation of time, efforts, and difficulty of moving to north and south differed significantly by the goal priming condition. In the control condition, participants estimated the travel to the north (vs. south) longer, more effortful and difficult. However, as expected, the opposite pattern emerged in the upward goal priming condition.
Study 2 shows the marketing implication of our research by testing the hypothesis in a consumer purchase setting. In particular, we attempted to show that consumer's intention to purchase a product is a simultaneous function of the cardinal direction of the product and a primed direction of the goal. In this study, we compared participants' willingness to purchase a product when it is located in north versus south in a store and when participants are primed with upward goal versus no such goal. The results show partial support for our hypothesis. When there was no goal priming, participants were more inclined to purchase the product located in south versus north. However, although the preference for south versus north was attenuated by primed goal (i. e, people equally liked south and north), there was no overriding effect of goal priming in purchase intention.
This research is the first study that investigates the potential condition under which the effect of metaphoric expression on consumer evaluation is moderated. Also, we add to the goal priming literature by demonstrating that nonconscious pursuit of goal in a domain irrelevant to the target evaluation can have a substantial impact on consumer choice. On a practical side, we suggest that marketing managers can improve the effectiveness of their marketing communication through the selective use of upward framing of message for consumers with dominant upward goal motivation. Also, marketers can expect an increase in the sales of products associated with hi-end status (e.g., luxury product) through a strategic placement in a location of the store that matches with the symbolic meanings implicated by the product (e.g., top floor).

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