Diagnóstico y determinación de necesidades.

Consumers anticipate regret in a variety of circumstances. Zeelenberg (1999) provides a review of the situations in which people may anticipate regret. In this section an attempt is made to relate to situations in which consumers may anticipate regret before making a purchase decision.

With an ever increasing number of options available for consumers to choose from during a shopping trip, making purchase decisions has become ever more difficult. 66

The decision can be made still more difficult when two or more options have nearly the same attractiveness. Under this situation, consumers will worry more about the purchase decisions they take. They will consequently compare the two or more equal alternatives very carefully because they anticipate regret they might feel at a later date should the option they reject prove to be superior to the one they choose.

The second reason why consumers may anticipate regret is because clear knowledge of the outcomes of the purchase decisions is not available. When the benefits of purchasing certain products are clear, no anticipated regret is foreseen. However, as the purchase benefits keep becoming unclear, anticipated regret is expected to increase. An example for this can be products which are new on the market, and about which, as a result, there exists little feedback on function and performance.

A closely related phenomenon to the above where anticipated regret can occur is when consumers are choosing between a conventional product and a new alternative. The conventional product is generally perceived to be the safe option while the new alternative is generally perceived as the riskier option. The latter therefore requires a greater initiative than the former on the part of the consumer. Also, with the conventional product, the outcome is clear because of personal use, or because of the popularity in the market. The new product, especially when not tested by other consumers or the decision-maker, causes most consumers to think longer than they would do before purchasing the conventional product. In a situation such as this, when consumers have to choose between a conventional product and a new product, it is typical for anticipated regret to occur. Consumers, therefore, anticipate regret more before purchasing a new product than when purchasing a conventional product.

Anticipated regret need not occur only when choosing between two comparable brands or products. It can also occur when deciding between two significant attributes in a single brand or product. An example for this could be choosing between two colours of the same brand.

Drawing upon research on intertemporal choice (Loewenstein 1992), it is known that people making decisions have an inclination to give more emphasis to short term than long term outcomes. In other words, ‘intertemporal choice theory’ suggests that people are generally more worried if a decision will affect them in the short term than in the long term. Extending the same approach to consumer behaviour, it can be posited that when purchase decisions are either not known within a short span of time or are realised quickly enough, consumers might tend to play down the possible regret the purchase decision can cause. However, if in the short term, consumers can foresee the product not suiting their needs, anticipated regret tends to be higher.

The more important the decision, the greater is the anticipated regret. This is because as decisions become more important, the intensity of regret if the decision turns out to be wrong increases. In a typical shopping experience, a product bought for, say, £1 will not be regretted if it turns out bad. However, the intensity of regret will be much greater if a product purchased for £100 turns out to be bad or not useful. In between the range of £1 and £100 when a purchase decision turns out wrong, it can be said that greater the price of the product, greater the post purchase regret. From this example, ‘rational process theory’ would suggest that before a product of higher price is purchased, consumers would anticipate regret in case the purchase decision turns out to be bad.

The previous example showed how anticipated regret increased with the price of the product. However, it is not price of the product and the product not being useful to the consumer him/herself that can cause anticipated regret. Social reference groups have been shown to play a vital role in decisions made by people in their day-to-day lives. Janis and Mann (1997) in their work specifically link anticipation of regret to social factors. When the outcome of purchasing a product is important socially, consumers will anticipate regret and try to make the best purchase decision. This finding may be truer in collectivist societies than individualistic societies. Consumers in collectivist societies need to think more about the acceptance of the product they purchase by family, friends and society in general. This in turn may put more pressure on them while making purchases in the form of anticipated regret.

Zeelenberg (1999) discusses the role of significant persons in influencing anticipated regret. He notes that when significant persons in the social network of the decision- maker are not expecting a decision to be made soon, the decision-maker tends to take his/her time before making a decision. This is also true when the significant persons in the social network expect the decision-maker to delay making decisions till all available options have been evaluated carefully and in detail. An example for the latter would be when a decision-maker is shopping with a significant person who always evaluates all options before making a purchase decision. In this scenario, the decision-maker also tends to evaluate all options, foreseeing anticipated regret before making the purchase decision.

Anticipated regret can also increase for consumers when it is difficult to undo a purchase decision. This argument is supported by the studies of McAllister, Mitchel

and Beach (1979), who show that when results are perceived to be irreversible, people engage in a more detailed and involved decision-making process. In the retail context, shops which do not have a return policy or products that cannot be returned, may force consumers to be more careful before making purchase decisions. This is evidence of consumers anticipating future regret and thereby modifying their decision-making process.

2.4.4.1 Anticipated Regret Due to Change in Significance

The ‘means-end theory’ in the context of consumer behaviour suggests, as pointed out by Lee and Cottee (2009), that consumers have a propensity to evaluate products on the basis of the ability of that product to fulfil the desired purpose. To decide whether the purchase is worthwhile, consumers look to see to what level the purchase meets the initial expectations. These initial expectations are, however, subject to change over a period of time, and if the expectations rise, consumers start to feel that the product is not serving the purpose and that another product or item should have been purchased in the first place. This kind of regret is witnessed when the same product is evaluated at two or more different time periods, whereas regret due to selection of foregone alternatives compares two different products or items. The greater the difference in utility experienced by consumers of one product over two periods of time, the greater is the regret they experience. An example for this kind of regret can be preparing a meal for guests, only for them not being able to make it that day.

2.4.4.2 Anticipated Regret Due to Under-consideration

Consumers experiencing regret for this reason become sceptical of the heuristic process that led them to the purchase decision in the first place. While regret because of unknown foregone alternatives and regret due to under-consideration seem similar, there is a fundamental underlying difference between the two. Reflecting on unknown foregone alternatives obliges the consumer to think of hypothetical products that could have been purchased instead of the one actually purchased. However, reflecting on how consumers under-considered their purchases necessitates rethinking the buying process itself and not just choosing an alternative product. Simply put, regret arising because of under-considerations is regretting the process itself by which consumers arrived at the decision. This form of regret can arise because consumers feel they could have put in more thought and effort or acquired more information before purchasing the product. Regret due to under-consideration can also be further divided into two categories. As Pieters and Zeelenberg (2005) point out, regret can be experienced if individuals have failed to execute the decision-making process as originally intended. On the other hand, regret can also be experienced if on hindsight, there is a belief that the desired quantity and/or desired quality of information that was needed to make the correct decision was lacking.