Entertainment Product Decisions, Episode 2: Search Qualities and Unbranded Signals

Abstract

Consumers have to decide whether to spend money or time for an entertainment product without knowing whether it is of high (experience) quality. They have to determine the quality of an experience product in advance using search qualities or ``pseudo-search'' ones—signals that help consumers to infer whether they will enjoy a product or not. We explore the signals that consumers use to aid in their search for which entertainment products to buy. In this chapter, we explore technology as a major search quality of entertainment, followed by a discussion of several signals, namely the product's genre or theme, any age restrictions and the critical content that underlies them, and the country of origin.