Analysis of Sales Promotion Effects on Household Purchase Behavior

less likely to seek variety. More educated people may be less likely to be mavens (Feick
and Price 1987), more pressured for time (Narasimhan 1984), and more likely to seek
variety (Raju 1980).
Van Trijp et al. (1996) explicitly separated intrinsically and extrinsically
motivated variety seeking. Intrinsic variety seeking refers to variety seeking behavior that is
intrinsically motivated, there are no external factors that caused the variety seek behavior.
Extrinsic variety seeking behavior refers to externally motivated variety seeking behavior,
for example driven by sales promotions. One <strong>of</strong> the aspects <strong>of</strong> extrinsic motivation that was
incorporated in the study by Van Trijp et al. (1996) was whether the new brand was on
sale. It was pointed out that variety seeking and promotion response do not have to be
related at all. Table 3.8 shows a summary <strong>of</strong> empirical findings regarding the relationship
between variety seeking and promotion response.
Based on the mixed bag <strong>of</strong> results found, we propose a priori that there is no
relationship between intrinsic variety seeking and observed (extrinsic) promotion response.
Table 3.8: Summary <strong>of</strong> studies relating variety seeking with promotion response
62
Sign Relationship Study
+ Montgomery (1971)
Ailawadi et al. (2000)
-
Urbany et al. (1996)
0
Van Trijp et al. (1996)
Hypothesis H10: Intrinsic variety seeking and promotion response are not
related.
The possible drivers <strong>of</strong> promotion response discussed so far relate to household
characteristics. But, as mentioned in the introduction, household purchase characteristics can
also influence promotion response. Brand loyalty is one <strong>of</strong> the purchase characteristics that is
<strong>of</strong>ten said to be related with promotion response. But, in this research, brand loyalty itself is
not incorporated as a possible driver <strong>of</strong> promotion response, because <strong>of</strong> its close negative
inter-relatedness with variety seeking (see also Steenkamp et al. 1996). Kahn et al. (1986)