The Effects of MPPA (Mileages/Points to Purchase Amount) Ratio on Consumers' Preference

구매금액 대비 마일리지/포인트의 비율이 소비자 선호에 미치는 영향

Consumers earn a number of points for every purchase and then they can exchange a specified number of points for a desired reward in a typical loyalty program. The immediate payoff of their effort given as points is not the real reward they actually care about. It is merely an instrument (or medium) which has no value in itself. In a real world, consumers frequently choose the option with a bigger medium even though the economic value of the option is not changed by the medium. We call it 'medium effect'. In this study we explored if the size of medium affects on consumers' preferences. For this we controlled the reward options with three types of medium (small, medium, big) and measured the magnitude of preference difference among the three types of reward options. In addition, we manipulated comparability of reward options with wine and gas discount coupon. We confirmed that choosing one of two wines was easier than that of the two gas coupons. 164 respondents were allocated into three experimental groups and one control group. In three experimental groups, the ratios of the focused reward option's medium to the compared reward option's medium were different. For example, the focused reward option has 10 million points whereas the compared reward option has 10 million points for 1 million won purchase amount in the first group. Then each respondent was asked to choose one of two loyalty programs (focused program vs. compared program) in two different conditions (comparability between reward options: easiness vs. difficulty). To compare the medium effects among the experiment conditions we used chi-squares tests. The empirical results show the medium effect increases and then decreases as the ratio of reward mileages/points to purchase amount increases. Additionally, they let us know that comparability of alternatives affects on the medium effects depending on the ratio of reward mileages/points to purchase amount.