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Research Brief
A Research Brief is a brief summary of research
findings.
Enjoy! Hedonic Consumption and
Compliance with Assertive Messages
THE PROBLEM
People are typically taught to speak to others politely, especially when requesting something.
If asked to perform a small favor, most of us would prefer a gentle, “please do [this]” rather
than a more directly worded “do [this].” Indeed, prior research has repeatedly shown that
people tend to react against assertive commands that use the imperative tone, whereas
gentler requests are more effective to elicit compliance.
However, a fair amount of marketing communication is actually highly assertive (as in Nike’s
slogan “Just do it” or U.S. Airways’ “Fly with US”). Considering our preference for politeness,
Luc Wathieu
Professor of Marketing and Contributing Researcher at the Georgetown
Institute for Consumer Research
is assertiveness an effective way to convince consumers to comply? Are there consumption
situations where consumers may be more easily persuaded by assertively phrased slogans?
Wathieu’s research combines eco-
Recent research by Luc Wathieu and his colleagues (Ann Kronrod and Amir Grinstein) finds
nomics and psychology to under-
that compliance with assertive or non-assertive messages is product and context depen-
stand consumer engagement -- the
dent. For example, consumers more often comply with assertive language in the context of
motivation of consumers to interact
hedonic products. In contrast, non-assertive language is more persuasive in the context of
with firms and actively explore the
utilitarian products. In an examination of actual existing slogans, the authors find that while
relevance of products and benefits.
for utilitarian products like banking, diapers or real estate, about 8% of the slogans are assertive, a dramatic 24% of slogans for hedonic products, like ice-cream, designer jeans or beer,
are assertively phrased.
FINDINGS
To explain this highly contrasted situation, Wathieu and colleagues looked at interpersonal
situations where assertive language is prevalent. The researchers found that when people
are in a good mood they tend to use more direct language (an observation supported by literature in linguistics). While in a good mood people say “Give me some ketchup” instead of
a more polite form “Could I please have some ketchup?” Additionally, people in good mood
actually expect direct communication and assertive language. And when we hear language
that fits our communication expectations, it sounds more convincing.
Wathieu and colleagues examined their hypothesis over three studies. In one study, participants read messages encouraging them to try chocolate or to open a bank account. When
viewing messages about chocolate, respondents displayed higher purchase intentions when
the language was assertive (e.g., “you must try our chocolate!”) as opposed to non-assertive.
In contrast, when viewing messages about a bank account, the respondents’ purchase intentions were higher following a non-assertive message (“you could open a bank account with
us”). Wathieu suggests that this can partially be explained by differences in mood induced
in partnership with
Ann Konrad
Amir Grinstein
by each product; respondents reported better mood when they were thinking of chocolate,
Key Points
but when thinking of a bank account, no positive mood was detected. Further, Wathieu con-
• Considering our preference
nected respondent’s positive or negative mood to expectations of assertive or non-assertive
for politeness, is
language.
assertiveness an effective
Wathieu and colleagues then demonstrated context (hedonic or utilitarian) alone could induce
consumers to comply (or not) with messages. They used two utilitarian products (business
services); one of them was presented as hedonic (ad featuring a flight to the moon), and
way to convince consumers
to comply?
• Compliance with assertive
the other was presented as merely utilitarian (ad featuring an office scenario). Mirroring the
or non-assertive messages
results of the first study, assertive messages achieved better compliance in the hedonic con-
is product and context
text ad but non-assertive messages achieved better compliance in the utilitarian ad context.
dependent.
A third study showed the indispensable role of communication expectations. Wathieu and
• In the marketplace,
colleagues advertised a group of imaginary brands like Quile and Dezlik through either
assertive messages are
assertive or nonassertive messages. Consumers were more likely to assume assertively
more persuasive than non-
advertised fictitious brands were hedonic whereas non-assertively advertised brands were
assertive messages for
assumed to be utilitarian.
consumption contexts that
5.00
induce positive mood.
Compliance with Messages
Compliance Intention
4.50
4.00
3.50
3.00
Assertive
2.50
Non-Assertive
2.00
1.50
1.00
Hedonic (Chocolate)
Utilitarian (Bank)
IMPLICATIONS & CONCLUSIONS
Wathieu and colleagues conclude that in the marketplace assertive messages are more persuasive than non-assertive messages for consumption contexts that induce positive mood.
One such example is hedonic consumption. When thinking of the pleasure of hedonic goods,
such as chocolate, spa or a vacation, the consumer is in positive mood, and therefore, she may
expect to be addressed with more assertive language. Consequently, assertive slogans like
“love yourself a little” would be more convincing than less assertive language like “you could
love yourself a little”. By contrast, in utilitarian consumption, such as banking or insurance, no
positive mood is experienced, and therefore non-assertive phrasing is expected and would
consequently yield higher compliance than assertive language.
Source: Kronrod, A., Grinstein, A., and Wathieu, L. (2012). Enjoy! Hedonic Consumption and Compliance with Assertive
Messages, Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 51-61.
This Brief, based on the work of Luc Wathieu, was composed by Chris Hydock in collaboration with Luc Wathieu.
The Georgetown Institute for
Consumer Research, Sponsored
by KPMG, develops innovative,
ground-breaking research to illuminate
the challenges and opportunities
of understanding and marketing
to consumers.
For more information, visit
http://consumerresearch.
georgetown.edu