Sales promotions for preorder products: The role of time-of-release

Preorder offers are increasingly common for many types of products and services. Sales promotions, such as price discounts and free gifts, are frequently used to raise offer attractiveness and elicit a stronger sales response. Through a series of experiments, we show that a preorder promotion\u27s effectiveness depends on whether it matches the construal level associated with timing of the featured product\u27s release. When a match occurs, it increases consumers’ positive affect leading to higher purchase intention directly or by raising the perceived certainty of new product quality. In addition, we find interesting differences related to promotion type. Specifically, we show that a larger discount promotes low-level construals, which leads to stronger purchase intentions only when the product is scheduled for near-future release. Since a gift may elicit either high- or low-level construals, a premium offer of higher perceived value leads to stronger purchase intentions regardless of release timing