Empirical Study Of The Relations Between Emotions And Post-Purchase Behavior In Product Consumptions

Consumption emotions have important influence on behavior. In consumption behavior, consumption emotion was among the key factors deciding consumers' post-purchase behavior. Many authors have studied about consumption emotions since the 1980s. The impact of emotions elicited by marketers' controllable factor upon post-purchase behavior would be greater than emotions caused by other factors. In product consumption, regardless many possible marketers' controllable factors that could evoke consumption emotions, most studies however tended to limit their interests on those emotions aroused by product attributes, store atmosphere and their consequent impacting upon satisfaction, however, beyond product attributes, other factors, such as advertising, sales promotion, and public relations, might also impact on post-purchase behavior, through the mediation of emotions, because of dilution effect. At the same time, brand loyalty, as an important post-purchase behavior, is increasingly being of concern, but research on the relationship between consumption emotions and brand loyalty is seldom. This study divides the consumption emotions, which are elicited by marketers' controllable factor in product consumption, into Attribute-level Emotions (ALE) and Beyond Attribute-level Emotions (BALE), then using qualitative research (focus group discussion), the paper studies the concept of BALE, reason of educing BALE, and the relationships between ALE,BALE and post-purchase behavior. Based on the qualitative research, using quantitative research (survey), the paper proposes theoretical models to depict the relations between ALE, BALE and satisfaction, repurchase intention and word-of-mouth, and ALE, BALE and brand loyalty respectively, then the author makes empirical research to test these theoretical models. Structure equation model is employed, and the software, including SPSS11.5 and LISREL8.54, is used.The study is beneficial complement about the research of consumption emiotions, at the same time, the study can also provide useful guidance to marketing activity of enterprise. As a result, this study has great theorical and practical significance, not only for academic, but also for marketing practice of enterprise.Firstly, the paper summarizes the concepts of consumption emotions and post-purchase behavior, and the literature about relations between consumption emotions and post-purchase behavior. Based on the literature review, the author divides the consumption emotions into ALE and BALE, and then, through qualitative research, in which focus group discussion is employed, the author deeply study the concept of BALE, reason of educing BALE, and also study the relations between ALE,BALE and post-purchase behavior. The results indicate that there is BALE in product consumption experience, and the reason educing BALE that is controllable by marketers includes services, including post-purchase services of product and the services provided by stores, store environment, advertising, sales promotion and public relations. ALE and BALE all has influence on consumer satisfaction, repurchase intention, word-of-mouth, brand trust, brand affect and brand loyalty.Based on the qualitative research, the author use four quantitative research to empirical study the relations between ALE, BALE and satisfaction, word-of-mouth; the relations between BALE, especially consumption emotions induced by marketing communication activity, and satisfaction, repurchase intention, word-of-mouth; the relations between ALE, BALE and brand loyalty; and the relations between the consumption emotions, induced by marketing communication activity, and brand loyalty in different product consumption experience. The results indicate that ALE directly impact on satisfaction, and there is no gender difference, and in BALE, only negative emotions directly impact on satisfaction, and there is gender difference, that is to say, the influence of BALE on satisfaction of female sample is greater than that of male sample. Moreover, attribute-level positive emotions and negative emotions, beyond attribute-level negative emotions have indirect influence on word-of-mouth behavior, mediated by satisfaction. Further the author study the relations between consumption emotions, induced by marketing communication activity, and satisfaction, repurchase intention, word-of-mouth. The results indicate that these consumption emotions have direct impacts on satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth, and have indirect impacts on repurchase intention and negative word-of-mouth, mediated by satisfaction. At the same time, negative emotions have direct impact on negative word-of-mouth, and positive emotions have direct impact on repurchase intention.The results of the empirical study of relations between product consumption emotions and brand trust, brand affect, brand loyalty indicate that ALE has directly influence on brand trust and brand affect; but in BALE, positive emotions directly impact on brand trust and brand affect, and negative emotions have no significant impact on brand trust. Brand trust and brand affect all directly impact on brand loyalty, and the impact of brand affect on brand loyalty is greater than brand trust, moreover, the measurement model of female is different from that of male. What is more, in different consumption experience, consumption emotions, induced by marketing communication activity, have different impact on brand trust, brand affect and brand loyalty. In positive experience, the impact of positive emotions on brand trust and brand affect is greater than negative emotions, and is the greatest in all kind of experiences, but the impact of negative emotions on brand trust and brand is minimum in all kind of experiences. In other consumption experience, the impact of negative emotions on brand trust and brand affect is greater than positive emotions.