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En kvantitativ studie om kongruenta erbjudandens påverkan på köpintentionen
The technological development and increasing popularity for integrated multichannel solutions constitutes both severe opportunities and challenges for todays' and tomorrows' retailers. On the account of consumers leaving traces when using digital channels and the technological development enabling retailers to use this information to create relevant offers, goal-congruity is relevant to apply in the multichannel shopping context. Based upon previous research on goal congruity and channel integration, our main purpose in this study is to increase the understanding for how congruity in an offer increases the intention to redeem the offer. Several studies focus on and contrast the product characteristics hedonic and utilitarian. However, it has been stated that it is crucial that research also examines the difference in target audience, buying situation and as examined in this study: buying decision process. We distinguish between the two processes of a planned buying decision process and a spontaneous. Our secondary and tertiary purpose of this study is to examine if type of buying decision process affects the effect of congruity on purchase intent, and its underlying explanatory mechanisms. To fulfill our purpose we have conducted a scenario-based experiment with a survey taken by 550 respondents. We compare a congruent offer with an incongruent one to show that the purchase intent for the offer is higher in the congruent case. Using a moderation analysis we furthermore show that this main effect is not affected by what type of buying decision process the consumer has had. And lastly, by using a simple mediation analysis we demonstrate that in the spontaneous process, the effect of congruency on the purchase intent is mediated by utilitarian consumer benefit. In the planned process, the effect of congruency on the purchase intent is mediated by both utilitarian consumer benefit and regulatory fit. We contribute to the existing research by showing that retailers' benefit from creating congruent offers, and that channel integration enables this in a multi-channel context. We also contribute by showing that the underlying explanation behind this effect differs depending on the consumer's buying process.