edf40wrjww2CF_PaperMaster:Desc
Unique Features
Companies often introduce products with enhanced or unique features to compete with the dominant brands in the market. This paper examines the moderating role of product familiarity in consumer preferences of products with enhanced or unique features in two experimental studies. Study 1 (208 participants) operational product familiarity at the product category level and Study 2 (168 participants) measures it at the individual level as one’s prior experience with the product. The findings of two experiments show that when consumers are unfamiliar with a product category, they prefer a product with enhanced features to one with unique features. In contrast, when consumers are experienced, they perceive a product with unique features more favorably than an enhanced one. Furthermore, this effect is due to consumer perceived differentiation of and performance uncertainty about new products with enhanced or unique features.
Companies often introduce or reintroduce their products with improved performance along existing attributers (thereafter enhanced features) or new, unique features (thereafter unique features) to compete with dominant brands in the market
(Tholke, Hultink, & Robben, 2001). These enhanced and unique features can help firms differentiate their products, though in different ways. For instance, enhanced features enable a new product to claim superiority over competitors on the basis of a common ground (e.g., “Xerox [printer] is
3X faster than HP’s fastest.” In contrast, with unique features, a product heavily advertises that it offers something that other brands lack. For example, Enterprise Rent-a-Car advertises that “We will pick you up;” 7Up Plus emphasizes that “W ...