DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE LOYALTY PROGRAM USING GOAL-GRADIENT BEHAVIOR IN TOURISM INDUSTRY

Abstract

Customers make more of an effort the closer they are to earning rewards. Our study examined how this effect might be moderated with differently described rewards when temporal distance differs. For benefits of varying descriptions, we applied the temporal construal theory. We used a moderated mediation analysis to examine the influence of preferred description on the motivation of customers' goal-gradient behavior. The results show that participants who made a significant progress toward earning a reward prefer concrete descriptions of the reward to abstract descriptions. Furthermore, the targeting of appropriate construals in reward descriptions increases participants' motivation to make additional purchases.