Which Product to Retain? The Effect of Product-Related versus Person-Related Product Features

Owning a product and choosing a product often go hand in hand. In some cases, ownership precedes choice; consumers first acquire redundant products, like when they receive two toasters as wedding gifts, and then they choose which of these products to retain. In other cases, the reverse happens, where consumers first choose which toaster to acquire and only then obtain the product. Can the timing of choice, before or after ownership, affect decision making? The vast research on the ownership-choice interplay has examined the endowment effect, studying how owning versus not owning a product increases preference for that same product (Thaler 1980). However, relatively little is known on how owning rather than not owning multiple products affects preference among these different products, namely how choice among owned products, or retention, differs from choice among unowned products, or acquisition. The present research suggests that, compared to consumers who face acquisition, those who face retention care more about product features that are primarily applicable to describe people (and less so to describe products). We refer to this class of attributes, which includes hedonic and pragmatic features (e.g., beautiful, resilient) as well as variety of brand personalities (e.g., outdoorsy), as person-related features. By contrast, consumers facing retention may care less about features that are primarily applicable to describe products (and less so to describe people), namely product-related features. This range of attributes includes other hedonic and practical features (e.g., esthetic, portable) as well as a distinct set of brand personalities (e.g., fragile).