Pricing · Field experiment and pricing model
Paying with Money or Effort: Pricing When Customers Anticipate Hassle
Journal of Marketing Research · 2012
Summary
The field experiment provides evidence that customers prefer contracts that match periods of lower benefits caused by hassle costs with lower payments.
For your marketing
Possible founder application
Consider whether customers' willingness to pay changes when setup, migration or usage requires effort. Test packaging and timing against observed adoption and retention rather than assuming a fixed price is experienced uniformly.
Reported result
What the study found
The field experiment provides evidence that customers prefer contracts that match periods of lower benefits caused by hassle costs with lower payments.
Research question
What the authors investigated
How should firms price when customers anticipate hassle or effort that varies over time?
Design
A field experiment compares pricing contracts that align payment levels with periods in which customers anticipate different hassle costs.
Sample and setting
Customers in a service-pricing field experiment; the publisher summary reviewed does not provide the sample size or full industry details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The study's service and hassle context are specific. Its abstract does not provide effect sizes, and software usage effort may differ from the costs studied.
Research sources
Journal of Marketing Research publisher summary and DOI metadata; abstract-level profile.