The Effect Of Product Popularity On Consumer's Purchase Intention

In recent years,it is a common practice for marketers to use product popularity as an advertising cue.It's very important for enterprises to realize the relationship between product popularity and consumers' purchase intention.Product popularity is considered as a quality cue in previous studies,and consumers tend to adopt the popular product because they believe the product has high quality.However,it is really that some consumers' purchase intention is lower when the product is more popular.Prior research provides significant insight into the positive effects of product popularity on consumers' purchase intention,but a few studies have investigated its negative effects.Therefore,it is theoretically and practically significant to further study the effects of product popularity on consumers' purchase intention.On the basis of the existing literatures,we examine the effects of product popularity as a quality signal and an identity signal.This research suggests that consumers' reactions to the popularity of functional products or self-expressive products vary as consumers,need for uniqueness(NFU).In order to prove the hypothesis,we conducted a 3(popularity:high/moderate/low)×2(product type:functional/self-expressive)×2(NFU:high/low)between subject design experiments.Finally,we collected 382 valid questionnaires.The empirical results indicate that,first,the effect of product popularity on purchase intention is moderated by product type and consumers' need for uniqueness.Consumers' purchase intention for the functional products increases with product popularity.The popularity of self-expressive products has a positive effect on purchase intention for low-NFU consumers,but it is not significant for high-NFU consumers.Second,the impacts of product popularity on purchase intention are mediated by perceived quality and desires for association.And the effect of product popularity on desires for association is moderated by consumers' need for uniqueness.There is a negative relationship between product popularity and desires for association for high-NFU consumers.Third,the influences of perceived quality,and desires for association on purchase intention of different product are associated with consumers' need for uniqueness.For functional products,the impact of perceived quality on purchase intention is more significant than the impact of desires for association on purchase intention regardless of consumers' need for uniqueness.For self-expressive products,the effect of perceived quality on purchase intention of low-NFU consumers is significant,but it is not significant for high-NFU consumers.And the impact of desires for association on purchase intention is more significant than the impact of perceived quality on purchase intention of high-NFU consumers.Finally,we conclude with a discussion of the results and managerial implications of this research.