What makes consumers believe: the impacts of priming and sequential service experiences on consumer emotions and willingness to pay

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of priming on consumer emotions and willingness to pay as consumers experience two services with two opposite valences. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (service experience sequence: failure–success, success–failure) × 3(priming: positive, negative, no priming) between-subject experiment was conducted with 230 college students in China. Findings Results indicate that when priming information is included, people give greater decision weight to the second service. Specifically, in the failure–success scenario, priming information between two services increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions, raising willingness to pay. In the success–failure scenario, priming information decreases positive emotions and increases negative emotions, thus lowering willingness to pay. Practical implications First, if businesses discover the possibility of a service failure, then disclosing negative information is better than whitewashing the truth. Second, services following a campaign of positively framed messages should be carefully rendered. The damage of pre-failure positive priming is most certainly irreparable. Finally, in terms of communication, businesses and service providers should cater to consumers exposed to different levels of information accordingly. Originality/value Previous investigations focusing on a single purchase have argued that priming effects should cause consumers of varying tastes to react in a more unified manner to a service. This study extends the research scope to more realistic situations ”sequential service experiences with opposite valences” and asserts that differences in service experiences alter the influence of priming information.