Consuming Functional Innovations: Are Utilitarian Behaviors Enhanced or Undermined?

A frequent practice in marketing is the introduction of products with new functionality; that is, a product is modified with attributes that afford consumers with additional opportunities for action (Dourish 2001; Ziamou and Ratneshwar 2003). Examples include functional foods (e.g. omega-3 ice cream) and green products (e.g. natural detergents) that provide benefits over their traditional counterparts, and which represent substantial portions of their respective consumer markets (Price Waterhouse Coopers 2009). The present research examines how functional innovations may unexpectedly and ironically undermine the very outcomes their novel functionality is intended to support. Although prior research has deeply studied factors which influence preference for (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982, Naylor, Droms, and Haws 2009) and categorization of (Moreau, Markman and Lehmann 2001; Moreau, Lehmann, and Markman 2001) functional innovations, research is sparse examining the downstream consequences of consuming these products. Extant research has demonstrated that evaluative processing of novel innovations results in a heightened focus upon incremental benefits versus traditional products (Alexander, Lynch, and Wang 2008; Meyers-Levy and Tybout 1989). We propose that this “functional focus” may influence subsequent consumption patterns. Prior research has demonstrated that explicit self-perceptions of utilitarian behavior have the tendency to subsequently increase hedonic behaviors through a variety of mechanisms, including reducing perceived risk (Bolton, Cohen, and Bloom 2006), guilt reduction, (Wansink and Chandon 2006), executive resource depletion (Vohs and Heatherton 2000), and utilitarian goal-release (Laran, Janiszewski, and Cunha 2008).