Message framing and buying behavior: A field experiment

The article examines the impact of message framing on real life buying behavior. Customers of a credit card company who did not use the card for a three-month period received a communication explaining the benefits of the card. These benefits were explained either in terms of gains the customers could obtain from using the card or in terms of losses they could suffer from not using it. Card usage was monitored for two months after the message. Results indicated that the impact of the loss-framed message was much stronger than the impact of the gain-framed message. The percentage of customers who started to use the card in the loss condition was more than double the percentage in the gain conditions, and the charges of the former customers were more than twice as much as the charges of the latter customers. In addition, an interview conducted with some of the customers 6 months after the initial contact revealed an effect of framing on persuasiveness and recall of the message and on involvement with the method of payment.