Effects of absence positioning of unknown product ingredients on consumer evaluations

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of positioning unknown ingredients either with the presence or absence of framing; both are common in marketplace (e.g. Secret® deodorant visibly claims “aluminum chlorohydrate” while Crystal® promotes “no aluminum chlorohydrate”). Design/methodology/approach The authors used three scenario-based experiments. The participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk online panel and randomly assigned to a variety of experimental conditions. Findings Initial study results show that consumers have more positive evaluations and purchase intentions for absence positioning than presence positioning, because absence positioning induces greater perceptions of protection. In the second study, these results are extended using multiple ingredients, along with competitor products; they show that absence positioning leads to better evaluations than presence positioning and replicate the mediation effect that was found earlier. In the final study, through manipulating participants’ regulatory focus, the authors show that absence-positioned ingredients have a higher choice share when consumers are in the prevention mindset. Conversely, when customers are in promotion mindset and looking for better performance, presence positioning of ingredients seems to have higher choice shares. Research limitations/implications The research has implications for product development, promotions, labeling and packaging, showing the positive influence of absence positioning of unknown ingredients. Practical implications Marketers may emphasize the absence of unknown ingredients in their products instead of following a strategy that highlights the inclusion of them. Originality/value To the authors’ extant knowledge, this research is an initial attempt to understand how consumers react to promotion of product ingredients. In addition, it contributes to the literature in unknown attributes by showing that absence positioning of certain types of ingredients is perceived better than presence framing of them.