The relationship between psychological types, demographics and post-purchase buyer's remorse.
详细信息
文摘
Organizations employ massive marketing efforts to generate sales. However, when a customer leaves a store with a purchase, there is the possibility that upon post-purchase consideration, the customer will return the merchandise for a refund. Businesses such as realtors, auto dealerships, and swimming pool salesmen often operate under the threat of a customer choosing to cancel a sales contract. Leon Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957) first outlined the notion that decision-making is an anxiety-inducing activity that leads to mental conflict. It is this conflict that leads a consumer to make post-purchase decisions that function to erode sales, revenue, and profitability. If, however, an organization could identify, at the point of sale, which customers are more likely to return merchandise or cancel a contract, then properly trained salespeople and marketing managers could defuse the future post-purchase regret that leads to product returns and contract cancellations. To do this, the organization must first identify which customers are likely to experience post-purchase regret, as demonstrated by the product return. Literature listed eight marketing-related cognitive dissonance questions, one of which asked: "What can a salesman do in the pre-decision conflict period?" To help answer this question, a salesman would be aided by any information he has access to or could surmise about the buyer before the actual sale. If a particular personality trait or temperament could be identified as being dominant in a large number of those individuals experiencing post-purchase regret, this can be used to help salespeople and marketing managers develop pre- and post-sales strategies that can minimize dissonance and subsequent product returns. This research examined the relationships between temperament styles and back-out behavior and between demographics and back-out behavior. Two questionnaires were administered to the test subjects. The first questionnaire collected demographic data and also measured the subjects' relative likelihood to return merchandise when presented with dissonance-inducing scenarios. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator then determined psychological types and temperaments. Correlation analysis demonstrated no association between temperament and back-out behavior and no relationship between demographic variables and back-out behavior.