Marketing Research Seminar - Debora Thompson, McDonough School of Business

Many firms offer a variety of premium services that provide ease, expedience, exclusivity, or enhanced quality, with clear benefits to the individuals who can afford them. Our research shows that these services are not met with universal acceptance in the marketplace. In a series of five studies, we find that zero-sum perceptions, that is, the extent to which premium services are believed to have detrimental effects on other (non-premium) consumers, is an important predictor of the perceived fairness of these services. In addition to influencing judgments of fairness, we find that zero-sum perceptions may lead to more negative attitudes towards firms, and, ultimately, diminished consumer demand among non-premium customers.  We examine individual- and firm- level variables that attenuate zero-sum perceptions in the context of premium services, and discuss implications for marketers and consumers.