Just moseying around and happening upon it versus a master plan: Minimizing regret in impulse versus planned sales promotion purchases

This article proposes and tests a model of regret minimization in the consumer decision-making context of sales promotions. The work examines how regret is minimized in a risk-avoiding planned purchase by conducting information search and primarily rejoicing afterwards. For risk-seeking impulse purchases, the model proposes a one- or two-pronged strategy for minimizing the regret over lost opportunities to experience immediate pleasures of an impulse purchase. The one-pronged strategy is characterized by a rapid impulse purchase without prior intent, and the two-pronged strategy involves moseying around and deliberate placement in harm's way of an impulse purchase followed by the rapid conclusion of the impulse-purchase transaction. Results from three studies indicate that regret is minimized before and after planned and impulsive purchases in different ways. The results also indicate that, consistent with the idea of defending self-image by emulating a master plan where there was none, consumers will confess to moseying around and deliberate placement in the presence of a potential impulse purchase more readily when they actually conclude the purchase as opposed to walk away from the impulsive purchase. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.