Prefactual Thinking, Regulatory Focus and Unplanned Purchase

Abstract

Unplanned purchase is very pervasive in daily life, which is characterized by the combination of cognition and affect. This study aimed at investigating the question of how to influence consumers' unplanned purchase decision when they hesitate on whether to buy or not. Previous studies confirmed that prefactual thinking can affect consumers ' behaviors through signifying possible results of a certain behavior. The results demonstrate that marketers can enhance consumers' justification perception of the unplanned purchase by designing anticipated rejoice and anticipated regret impetus, through which to enhance their unplanned purchase intention. This study broads our understanding on consumer behavior by inquiring into unplanned purchase behavior, which is in the middle of impulsive purchase and planned purchase and characterized by combining both cognition and affect. In order to enhance unplanned purchase intention, retailing managers should encourage consumers to imagine the potential results of purchase or non-purchase. When designing marketing tactics, mangers should keep consumers characteristics in mind. They should encourage promotion-focused consumers to imagine the possible pleasure or rejoice of making purchase, and encourage prevention-focused consumers to imagine the possible pain or regret of making non-purchase. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)