Spillover Effects: How Consumers Respond to Unexpected Changes in Price and Quality

This article examines how unexpected changes in the marketing mix of one product in a retail setting can influence demand for other, unrelated, items. Results from two laboratory studies show that spillover effects can occur in response to both positive and negative changes in either the price or quality of a product, such that positive changes increase total spending on other items and negative changes reduce it. The results also demonstrate that an attributional process underlies these effects, indicating that consumers experience specific affective responses directed at the retailer that lead them either to reward or punish the retailer accordingly.