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Cited by 95Consumer Market Behavior and PricingConsumer Behavior and Marketing InfluenceConsumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification

On Consumer Beliefs about Quality and Taste

Spiller, Stephen A., Belogolova, Lena·2016·Journal of Consumer Research
DOI 10.1093/jcr/ucw065
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Abstract

Marketers and researchers alike typically regard products as differentiated by quality (modeled via vertical differentiation) or taste (modeled via horizontal differentiation). This research examines consumer beliefs about product differentiation. For a wide variety of product pairs, different consumers hold divergent beliefs about whether each pair is a matter of quality (such that one product is objectively better) or taste (such that one product is a better match with their own personal preferences). These beliefs have meaningful consequences. When consumers believe their chosen products are objectively better rather than better matches with their preferences: (1) they are willing to pay more for the chosen product over the alternative; (2) they self-reference less when explaining their choices; and (3) they are more likely to make transitive inferences from choices across other consumers. Observing others’ contradictory choices increases the likelihood of believing those products differ by taste rather than quality. Understanding consumer beliefs about product differentiation has implications for understanding consumer decision delegation and decisions that are made in group contexts and for strategic decisions including customer segmentation, product positioning, and pricing policies.

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Crossref · 10.1093/jcr/ucw065

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  • Dynamic pricing has become a widespread practice in different business sectors, including hotels.

    “It has become a widespread practice in different business sectors, mainly thanks to the development of the world wide web, e-commerce, and other online services [98, 28, 63], and, crucially, hotels [113, 51, 10, 61, 59, 86].”

    From Consumer perception of price fairness and dynamic pricing: Evidence from Booking.com (2022) · cites this paper as [98]

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Authors
Spiller, S. A., & Belogolova, L.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
  • Meta (United States) (US)
Corresponding author
Spiller, Stephen A.
ORCID
Spiller, Stephen A.
Venue
Journal of Consumer Research
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2016-10-24
Pages
ucw065
ISSN
  • 0093-5301 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5277
DOI
10.1093/jcr/ucw065
OpenAlex
W2536318189
Cited by
95
References
91
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 5
FWCI
15.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Journal of Consumer Research (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior and Marketing Influence
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
Keywords
consumer beliefs, product differentiation, vertical differentiation, horizontal differentiation, quality, taste, willingness to pay, self-reference, transitive inference, group decision making, customer segmentation, product positioning, pricing

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