Consumer Responses to Gift Bundle Receipt in Business-to-Consumer Contexts

The current paper aims to examine the differential effect of the type of gift bundle (homogeneous vs heterogeneous) offered to consumers by brand (Study 1) and how the impact occurs (Study 2). Further, drawing upon the categorization theory and the semantic conflict theory, the current work tests how this effect vary by the customer mindset(connecting mindset vs separating mindset) in a business-to-consumer gift-giving context (Study 3) on this relationship, examining that homogeneous-products-bundle composition would be inferior to heterogeneous-products-bundle composition to convey effort in gift-giving context, thus it would be less effective in fostering favorable attitude and repurchase intention. Our findings offers substantive implications for both marketing research and gifting practice.