The role of product newness in activating consumer regulatory goals

This paper examines the role that product newness plays in activating consumer regulatory goals. We propose that these fundamental goals may not only be endogenously triggered in the new product evaluation context, but also will be determined by the type of product innovation, as gauged by the extent to which it is an incremental (INP) or really new product (RNP). More specifically, ad exposure to an INP (RNP) may spontaneously trigger a promotion (prevention) goal (Study 1). Further, we show that consumer perception of the cost to buy the product (whether the price was perceived to be high or low) moderates the relation between the RNP and activated regulatory goal. When consumers perceive the price of the RNP to be high (low), a prevention (promotion) goal is activated. However, the moderating effect of price is not found in the case of goal activation by the INP. In addition, we show that the situational regulatory focus induced mediates the effect of the interaction of price and product newness on purchase intention (Study 2).