Mood affects consumer inferences of marketers’ scarcity claim as a sales tactic

Participants were 130 undergraduate students at a large university, who made product evaluation ratings (i.e., attitude toward a brand) and rated their perceptions of scarcity claims as a sales tactic, after we had manipulated their mood. Results showed that when individuals were in a negative mood, their preference for mood repair led them to rely on the heuristic of scarcity = value inference to improve their mood. Therefore, scarcity had a positive effect on consumers’ product evaluation when they were in a negative mood. In contrast, when individuals were in a positive mood, they were motivated to retain their mood by avoiding negative events. Thus, consumers in a positive mood were more sensitive to the possibility of a scarcity claim being a sales tactic used by marketers to artificially increase demand. Further, their increased inference of scarcity claims being a sales tactic attenuated the positive effect of scarcity on their product evaluation.