Intangibility of Products Decreases Demand, Research Finds

Research shows consumers assign more value to products they can touch before purchase.
Intangibility of Products Decreases Demand, Research Finds
HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH? Research finds that consumers are more willing to pay for products physically presented to them. (Photos.com)
9/12/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
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HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH? Research finds that consumers are more willing to pay for products physically presented to them. (Photos.com)

In a paper published this month in the American Economic Review, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) present their findings showing that consumers assign more value to products they can touch before purchase.

The research offers insight into how businesses should present their products to maximize the number of consumers willing to pay for them.

For the study, the researchers asked participants to indicate how much they were willing to pay for some food that was presented to them as a written description, a photograph, or in a tray in front of them.

“Some models suggest that choices amongst objects shouldn’t vary with their descriptions or by the procedure by which the choice is made,” said Caltech graduate student Benjamin Bushong in a press release.

“However, our experiments show that the form in which the items are presented matters a lot. In fact, our research measures in monetary terms just how much those different displays matter.”

The researchers found that the results were similar when the food was presented as text or a picture; but when it was placed in front of the participants, they were willing to pay, on average, 50 percent more.

“We were quite surprised to find that the text display and the image display led to similar bids,” Bushong said. “Initially, we thought people would bid more in the face of more information or seemingly emotional content.”

In order to make sure the food didn’t become more appealing because of its smell, the researchers replicated the experiment with trinkets, and found similar results, with participants being willing to pay 50 percent more if the trinkets were presented in front of them.

To further investigate, the researchers presented products in front of participants, but separated them with a plexiglass barrier. In this situation, the participants were no longer willing to pay 50 percent more for those items.

The researchers concluded that if there is the possibility for consumers to touch the products, even if they don’t physically touch them, the thought of touching the products would increase the consumers’ desire for them.