Consumption Vocabulary and Product Discussions

Marketing research has recognized the relevance of consumption vocabulary on consumers' preference formation and choice in various contexts. Little research, however, investigates how consumption vocabulary can guide the development of product discussions. This question is particularly relevant with regard to an increasing importance of online forums as consumer information and learning sources. We argue that labelling certain product features influences which product aspects are discussed by consumers in interpersonal settings. The current research reports a field experiment that we conducted in cooperation with an automobile manufacturer. We set up 40 online discussion groups about a concept car that each lasted three weeks. The discussion groups were manipulated with regard to the labeling of product features. We find support for the premise that the labeling of product features supports communication about the associated features. More specifically, discussions referred more intense and more enduring to certain features if these features were labelled compared to if these features were visually highlighted or not labelled. Above that, labeling of certain features resulted in less pronounced discussions about other product features. We further found evidence for the notion that labels lead to a higher probability to recall their associated features while reducing consumers' probability to recall other product features. Implications of our findings and directions for future research are discussed.