A Glossy Relationship - How consumers form a relationship with curated subscription box brands
(2018) BUSN39 20181Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- The following study investigates subscription commerce, a new form of e-commerce which delivers boxes with diverse products to consumers in a periodical manner. Thereby, this work focuses on a special type of subscription commerce, namely curated subscriptions, implying that the content of each subscription box is unknown to consumers and adapted to their individual needs. Previous research has found that curated subscription boxes are characterised by the concepts of gift giving, surprise, and personalisation, which together form a hedonic consumer experience. Since firms are striving for the development of long-lasting consumer-brand relationships, this thesis aims to provide a deeper understanding of the concepts of curated subscription... (More)
- The following study investigates subscription commerce, a new form of e-commerce which delivers boxes with diverse products to consumers in a periodical manner. Thereby, this work focuses on a special type of subscription commerce, namely curated subscriptions, implying that the content of each subscription box is unknown to consumers and adapted to their individual needs. Previous research has found that curated subscription boxes are characterised by the concepts of gift giving, surprise, and personalisation, which together form a hedonic consumer experience. Since firms are striving for the development of long-lasting consumer-brand relationships, this thesis aims to provide a deeper understanding of the concepts of curated subscription boxes that contribute to forming a meaningful relationship between consumers and curated subscription box brands. By conducting a netnography and twelve in-depth interviews, a deep understanding of the previously detected concepts was developed, as well as three additional concepts were discovered, namely exciting uncertainty, overcoming obstacles and cheap exclusivity.
All of the six investigated concepts that are connected to curated subscription boxes were found to have an impact on the relationship quality between consumers and their curated subscription box brands and lead to different relationship forms. Moreover, this study found that the relationships consumers form with the subscription box brand depend overall on two types of consumers, namely hedonic-oriented and utilitarian-oriented consumers. While more hedonic-oriented consumers enjoy the hedonic experiences delivered by the concepts of curated subscriptions, more utilitarian-oriented consumers value these joyful experiences less. Therefore, this study found that rather hedonic-oriented consumers were able to build durable and long-lasting relationships, while more utilitarian oriented consumers usually terminated their subscriptions after a trial period.
The present study contributes to the body of research by providing a comprehensive theoretical framework, which links the concepts of curated subscription boxes to the aspects which define the consumers’ relationship quality with a brand. Thus, the present study builds a basis for further research in this field and entails relevant implications for practitioners. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8955170
- author
- Lehre, Nina LU and Frevel, Fiona LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- BUSN39 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Subscription Commerce, Subscription Boxes, Curated Subscription Box Brands, Relationship Marketing, Consumer-Brand Relationship, Relationship Quality
- language
- English
- id
- 8955170
- date added to LUP
- 2018-07-30 14:26:14
- date last changed
- 2018-07-30 14:26:14
@misc{8955170,
abstract = {{The following study investigates subscription commerce, a new form of e-commerce which delivers boxes with diverse products to consumers in a periodical manner. Thereby, this work focuses on a special type of subscription commerce, namely curated subscriptions, implying that the content of each subscription box is unknown to consumers and adapted to their individual needs. Previous research has found that curated subscription boxes are characterised by the concepts of gift giving, surprise, and personalisation, which together form a hedonic consumer experience. Since firms are striving for the development of long-lasting consumer-brand relationships, this thesis aims to provide a deeper understanding of the concepts of curated subscription boxes that contribute to forming a meaningful relationship between consumers and curated subscription box brands. By conducting a netnography and twelve in-depth interviews, a deep understanding of the previously detected concepts was developed, as well as three additional concepts were discovered, namely exciting uncertainty, overcoming obstacles and cheap exclusivity.
All of the six investigated concepts that are connected to curated subscription boxes were found to have an impact on the relationship quality between consumers and their curated subscription box brands and lead to different relationship forms. Moreover, this study found that the relationships consumers form with the subscription box brand depend overall on two types of consumers, namely hedonic-oriented and utilitarian-oriented consumers. While more hedonic-oriented consumers enjoy the hedonic experiences delivered by the concepts of curated subscriptions, more utilitarian-oriented consumers value these joyful experiences less. Therefore, this study found that rather hedonic-oriented consumers were able to build durable and long-lasting relationships, while more utilitarian oriented consumers usually terminated their subscriptions after a trial period.
The present study contributes to the body of research by providing a comprehensive theoretical framework, which links the concepts of curated subscription boxes to the aspects which define the consumers’ relationship quality with a brand. Thus, the present study builds a basis for further research in this field and entails relevant implications for practitioners.}},
author = {{Lehre, Nina and Frevel, Fiona}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{A Glossy Relationship - How consumers form a relationship with curated subscription box brands}},
year = {{2018}},
}