The effects of regulatory focus and mixed valence imagery and analytical attributes on product decisions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of regulatory focus (promotion vs prevention) and mixed valence attributes (positive imagery and negative analytical vs negative imagery and positive analytical) on consumers’ evaluation and purchase intention for a product. Design/methodology/approach A pre-test followed by a single between subject’s experiment was conducted to test the major hypotheses in the study. Findings Results show that promotion (prevention) focus prefers the product when it is described in terms of positive imagery but negative analytical (positive analytical but negative imagery) attributes in terms of both evaluation and purchase intention. Research limitations/implications Future research may validate and extend the current findings with other product or service categories, and study the underlying processes that guide decision making. Practical implications Findings from this study will help managers devise a range of marketing strategies in the areas of advertising, segmentation and product positioning. Originality/value The current research is novel as it addresses lack of research that engages imagery and analytical attributes with different valences, and fills in a gap as to how regulatory focus will rely on imagery (analytical) attributes with different valences while making product decisions.