It's Not what you Get but when you Get It: The Effect of Gift Sequence on Deposit Balances and Customer Sentiment in a Commercial Bank

The authors examine the impact of gifts on deposit balances and customer satisfaction in a longitudinal field experiment conducted at a commercial bank. They find that gifts increased deposit balances, survey response rates, and customer satisfaction compared with the no-gift control. They manipulated several factors within the gift treatment: gift type, the accompanying message, and the sequence of gift value, which improved ($35 then $100 gift), worsened ($100 then $35 gift), or was a single gift. A highly detrimental effect of decreasing gift value occurred on deposit balances. This “deterioration aversion” persisted in a long-term follow-up analysis of deposit balances. A vignette experiment replicates deterioration aversion and extends the results, demonstrating increased effectiveness of improving gifts over constant gift sequences and indicating that the mechanism underlying deterioration aversion involves the violation of expectations.

• 저널Journal of Marketing Research · 48(1) · 103–115
• 토픽Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Safety Research
• DOI10.1509/jmkr.48.1.103
• 저자Emily Haisley, George Loewenstein