Abstract

Many brands distribute promotional merchandise like branded pens, flash drives or mugs in the hopes that it will improve consumers’ reactions to the brand. Yet, consumers often use them purely incidentally, i.e. they casually use them and pay no attention to the brand, such as when borrowing a pen from a colleague. We query whether even such incidental use of promotional merchandise affects consumer response. Drawing on the specifics of merchandise use and a combination of prior insights on persuasion, we suggest that incidental use of promotional merchandise affects in particular unfamiliar brands. In two controlled lab experiments, we find that consumers react more positively to an unfamiliar brand after incidentally using its merchandise. The effect emerges even though consumers do not consciously notice the brand’s logo but does not extend to a familiar brand. Equivalent incidental visual exposure to advertising stimuli, i.e., posters, was less effective than the haptic incidental use of promotional merchandise. Durable promotional merchandise may be a worthwhile investment, in particular for unfamiliar brands.

摘要

许多品牌分发促销商品，如品牌笔、闪存驱动器或杯子，希望能提高消费者对品牌的反应。然而，消费者往往纯粹是随手使用，即随手使用，不注意品牌，例如向同事借笔时。我们质疑即使是这种偶然使用促销商品是否会影响消费者的反应。根据商品使用的具体情况，并结合先前对说服的见解，我们建议偶然使用促销商品会影响特别不熟悉的品牌。在两个受控实验室实验中，我们发现消费者在偶然使用其商品后对陌生品牌的反应更为积极。即使消费者没有有意识地注意到品牌的标志，但不会延伸到熟悉的品牌，这种效果也会出现。对广告刺激物（即海报）等价的偶然视觉暴露不如促销商品的触觉偶然使用有效。耐用的促销商品可能是一项值得的投资，尤其是对于不熟悉的品牌。