According to Binghamton University and State University, New York, companies that express remorse to customers after product failures may encourage age repurchase.
The study appeared in the Journal of Consumer Marketing.
“This paper aims to examine how the fit between the consumer’s promotion/prevention regulatory orientation and the promotion/prevention frame of a message of contrition (retaliation), such as an apology from a chief executive officer (CEO) (a class action suit threat by a lawyer), affects such forgiveness (retaliation) intentions in the form of product repurchase decisions,” the journal article states.
The findings show that refraining from retaliation in the wake of product failures may facilitate increased repurchasing among customers.
“This paper finds that, following a message of apology, a frame-focus fit (compared to a frame-focus misfit) elicits sympathy and encourages repurchase universally across promotion and prevention-oriented consumers,” the authors stated in their findings.
“However, following a message encouraging retaliation, the same fit elicits anger and discourages repurchase more among prevention-oriented than promotion-oriented consumers.”
