Research by Melissa Cinelli, University of Mississippi assistant professor of marketing, is set to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research in April 2013.
Cinelli collaborated with Joshua Clarkson, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati and Chris Janiszewski, professor of marketing at the University of Florida, on the article “The Desire for Consumption Knowledge,” which focuses on the habits of consumers when it comes to certain products.
“The idea sprang from a discussion Josh and I had about what seemed like an odd behavior — trying a new product when you are pretty sure you are not going to like it,” Cinelli said. “Of course, there are some novelty products that are intended to be disliked such as jelly beans in flavors like pencil shavings, but there are examples of people forgoing their favorite product to choose something they probably won’t like as much, and we wanted to know why these consumers were doing this — what separated them from the average consumer who tends to pick his favorite variety each time.”
The research found that this behavior is linked to consumers expanding their knowledge of the product category.
“[Our] work demonstrates that people who consider themselves experts and novices in a product category choose different types of novel consumption experiences, but both types of consumers make choices that increase their knowledge about the product category,” Cinelli said.
Cinelli is continuing her research through several different topics. She is presently researching how social media affect body image and how brands and different product information influence purchase decisions.