There are two distinct types of products . First, there is a type that is instantly acquired and shared , is lightweight, undamaged, easy to personalize, and impossible to lose. The second type, on the other hand, is cumbersome , easily lost, and can be damaged in many ways, and not many can fit in a single bag. Despite the obvious advantages of the first, the digital ones, companies find time and again that people are willing to pay more for the second , their physical counterparts, and behind this may be the feeling of ownership.
Widespread digitization has gone hand in hand with modernity, helping the environment and freeing consumers from the burden of accumulating objects. The first digital photographs arrived in 1990, and are already taken more frequently than printed ones . Yet physical goods still retain their appeal. Printed books still dominate, Blu-ray and DVD sales continue to grow, and consumers continue to print out their photographs. Preferences would not be determined by how useful or practical they found the innovations.
Hbr.org wanted to investigate this puzzling behavior. Tourists in Bonson were offered senegal phone number a souvenir photo with an actor dressed as Paul Revere. No charge was made for the photo, only a donation was requested to maintain Old North Church in exchange. Participants were unwittingly assigned to two groups. One group received a digital snapshot immediately via email, and the other a still-in-development Polaroid. While those in the first group donated an average of $2.29, the second group donated $3.39. That's 48 percent more for the Polaroid .
But it is not just tourists who are concerned. The digitalisation of products means that many consumers perceive a loss of value . The main reason is that digital goods do not offer the same sense of ownership as physical goods. Since digital goods cannot be touched, maintained and controlled in the same way as physical goods, this sense of ownership is perceived as impaired. When consumers, on the other hand, feel that they own something, they psychologically increase its value .
Other experiments have found that this tendency extends to a variety of products , from movies to novels to textbooks. Alternative explanations, such as physical goods lasting longer or being more pleasant to use, also failed to fully account for the difference. Ownership also explains why the value gap disappears when it comes to rented goods . For example, students were not willing to pay more for a physical textbook than for a digital one that they would return at the end of the course.
Since ownership implies a bond between a person and an object , the value gap increased when the bond was easy to form and disappeared when it was difficult to establish. For example, consumers only valued a physical copy of The Empires Strikes Back more if they identified with the Star Wars saga . Among non-fans, the valuation was similar.