关键词: 医药符号线索, 感知有效性, 规避情绪, 购买动机

Abstract:

In the current market, some common products add iconic elements and symbols of pharmaceuticals to product packaging. Drawing from schema-based information processing, the current research proposes that these iconic cues to pharmaceuticals have a “double-edged sword” effect: while consumers expect a product with pharmacological cues on its packaging to be more effective, such cues also trigger aversive emotions. Study 1 (N = 200) examined the main effects of pharmacological cues on perceived effectiveness and aversive emotions. In a 2-cell between-subjects design, participants viewed the package of a facial mask without pharmacological cues (control condition) or a package of the same product with quasi-needle and red cross elements. The participants rated the product’s perceived effectiveness and their aversive emotions. The results showed that when the product with (vs. without) pharmacological cues on the packaging was evaluated, consumers perceived the product to be more effective but also felt heightened aversive emotions. Studies 2A (N = 299) and 2B (N = 300) provided further evidence for the “double-edged sword” effect by using different products and manipulations of pharmacological cues. The results replicated the effect observed in Study 1 and showed that perceived effectiveness and aversive emotions have a parallel mediating effect on the influence of pharmacological cues on product attitude. We further propose that purchase motivation moderates the strength of the two paths. When the purchase motivation is utilitarian, the mediating effect of the perceived effectiveness path surpasses that of aversive emotions, making consumers prefer products with (vs. without) iconic pharmaceutical cues on their packaging. When the purchase motivation is hedonic, the mediating effect of aversive emotion becomes stronger, weakening or reversing consumers’ preference for products with (vs. without) iconic pharmaceutical cues. To test the role of purchase motivation, in Study 3 (N = 150), the participants were assigned to one condition in a 3-cell between-subjects design (purchase motivation: utilitarian vs. hedonic vs. baseline). They were first primed with purchase motivation and then selected between the two masks used in Study 2B. The results showed that participants preferred the product with pharmacological cues on its packaging over the control product when they were primed with a utilitarian purchase motivation. However, their preference was reversed when the purchase motivation was hedonic. Studies 4A (N = 500) and 4B (N = 400) tested the overall model. The results of these two studies consistently showed that the perceived effectiveness path was stronger under the utilitarian purchase motivation than the aversive emotion path. In contrast, the aversive emotion path was stronger under the hedonic purchase motivation than the perceived effectiveness path. The findings imply that consumers’ interpretation of iconic cues for specific product categories is largely formed by memory-stored product category schema and that the schema for pharmaceuticals is elaborate and not unidimensional. By showing that iconic pharmaceutical cues on packaging can induce aversive emotions, we partially address the lack of research on consumers’ emotional reactions to packaging design. This study further identifies the role of purchase motivation in synthesizing the competing paths of perceived effectiveness and aversive emotions. In doing so, this study adds evidence to the dual-system literature and the goal-dependent nature of cue utilization and offers rich managerial implications.

Key words: iconic cues to pharmaceuticals, perceived effectiveness, aversive emotion, purchase motivation