Variety Seeking Behavior

Variety Seeking Behavior and its Implications

Variety seeking behavior is a wide topic in marketing literature and it is researched a lot about it. In simple terms, the presence of numerous varying brands of a similar product in a consumer’s purchase repertoire would be categorized under variety seeking behavior (Kahn, Kalwani, & Morrisson, 1986). There are two schools of thought which are popularly known for involving in variety seeking buying tendency. The first school of thought looks at this behavior which is variety seeking buying behaviour to be unexplainable in its nature. In the second school of thought, variety seeking buying tendency is explained in a other way as being a function of some other motivation (derived) or as a motivation

In addition, previous research has argued that some factors may reinforce or weaken variety seeking behaviors, such as mood (Kahn & Isen, 1993), store atmosphere (Menon & Kahn, 1995), and characteristics of a product category. These studies also state that people seek a greater variety when they are making multiple choices for their future consumption (simultaneous choices for sequential consumption) than when they are making a single choice individually (sequential choices for sequential consumption). More clearly, it is posited that as compared with sequential choices, simultaneous choices tend to yield more variety-seeking behavior.
Previous research has explored some factors that may moderate variety-seeking; however, consumers’ goal orientation has not yet received much attention in the studies on variety-seeking. While the previous literature highlights that goals are central to consumer decision-making (Bettman, Luce, & Payne, 1998), this research centers on examining the mediating effects of shopping values (utilitarian and hedonic values) on shopping behavior.
Kahn and Louie (1990) and Kahn and Raju (1991) have explored the effect of price

However, researchers have begun to view them as those who seek hedonic value from bargain hunting. For instance, Jin and Kim (2003) found that hedonic and recreational shoppers exhibited high price sensitivity by hunting bargains and using coupons. Other researchers (Babin et al., 1994; Arnold & Reynolds, 2003) also noted a positive relationship between bargain perception and hedonic shopping value. They expected that the consumers’ bargain perceptions to influence shopping value. They discussed that price discounts create transaction utility or smart shopper feelings, which may increase hedonic value. In addition, price discounts could create utilitarian value by facilitating an efficient end to the product-acquisition task. Consistent with this reasoning, they found that consumer bargain perceptions relate significantly to both hedonic value and utilitarian value. They suggested that if substantiated by future studies of price discounts and shopping value, these findings may indicate that the subjective emotional component of price promotions is at least as important as the more tangible component. However, Lee et al. (2009) found that there is a negative relationship between price sensitivity and hedonic shopping value. In addition, there was no relationship between price sensitivity and utilitarian value. This