Laochumnanvanit and Bednall / Consumers’ Evaluation of Free Service Trial Offers
Consumers’ Evaluation of Free Service Trial Offers
Krongjit Laochumnanvanit
Department of Marketing, Monash University
David H. B. Bednall
Bowater School of Management and Marketing, Deakin University
Krongjit Laochumnanvanit, Department of Marketing, Monash University, Level 3, 26 Sir John Monash Drive, Caulfield East ,
Victoria 3145, Australia, Voice: + 61 3 9903 2476, Fax: +61 3 9903 2900, Krongjit.Laochumnanvanit@Buseco.monash.edu.au. David
H.B. Bednall, Bowater School of Management and Marketing, Deakin University, Burwood Highway, Burwood Victoria 3125,
Australia, Voice: +61 3 9244 6904, dbednall@Deakin.edu.au.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Largely unexplored, a free service trial may be defined as an offer to the consumer to experience, at no monetary cost, all
or part of a core, augmented or facilitating service from a provider that the consumer does not currently use. Free service
trials are worth studying for two reasons. First they are one of the important examples of inequitable exchange between
supplier and purchaser – one that is likely to lead to a sense of obligation among those who adopt the trial offer. Second,
they are a very common promotional device. This paper proposes that free service trials are more problematic than
tangible product trials. The value of what is offered may be limited by time, the scope of trial, or because only a partial,
facilitating or augmented service is offered. Judgments about the perceived value of the complete service in its paid form
will also contribute to the evaluation of the trial offer. In deciding whether they accept the trial, the paper proposes that
consumers make attributions about the motives of the service trial provider and the consumer’s consequent obligations if
they accept it. Obligations are likely to be felt more acutely where the trial is interpersonal (e.g. a facial massage) rather
than impersonal (e.g. anti-virus service). Such evaluati