Will That Color Bring Me Good Luck? The Effect of Package Color Saturation of Probabilistic Goods on Consumers’ Purchase Intention

Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China

^* e-mail: zhaoyichen@stu.scu.edu.cn

Abstract

Probabilistic goods are unique products or services that consumers obtain from sellers at a discounted price for any one of different goods. They are also common in everyday life, such as blind boxes and lucky bags. However, there are still many consumers unwilling to pay for them, and the current research on probabilistic goods fails to reveal the mechanism behind it, and cannot solve the marketing problem well. In this regard, based on construal-level theory, three empirical studies were conducted to investigate the effect of package color saturation of probabilistic goods on consumers’ purchase intention. The study found that compared with low saturation, high saturation packaging can significantly increase consumers’ purchase intention, which is mediated by subjective probability and moderated by transaction utility. Specifically, in the context of low transaction utility, the higher the saturation, the stronger the consumers’ purchase intention; in the context of high transaction utility, the effect of saturation is not significant. The conclusion of this paper expands the research on the visual effect of probabilistic goods packaging, and provides theoretical basis and practical guidance for marketers to consider probabilistic goods packaging design.