“He was telling me how much he loved making a particular painting,” says Teeny, “but he caught himself and added, ‘But I put a lot of work into it and it took a long time to make it.’ Like he had to justify the fact that he enjoyed making it, or I might discredit it.”
Unbeknownst to this artist, it was exactly the kind of phenomenon that Teeny, an assistant professor of marketing at Kellogg, is exploring in his research.
Specifically, Teeny is curious about how our perception of how much someone enjoys making a product or providing a service—or “production enjoyment”—can affect how we view the quality of that product or service. service. “When you hear someone say they liked something, like this artist, you might think they’re being flippant or not taking it that seriously,” says Teeny.
One concern, then, is that this perception may lead us to believe that the quality of the product is lower — and potentially lead us to want to pay less for it. But is this concern justified?
To understand the relationship between how much one enjoys creating a product and people’s perception of its value, Teeny and colleagues Anna Paley and Robert Smith of Tilburg University and Daniel Zane of Lehigh University conducted several studies on the interactions between buyers and sellers for a variety of products and services.
Taken as a whole, the studies showed that buyers actually associate the enjoyment of the product bigger quality and value of the product, thereby increasing the amount they were willing to pay for it. And yet sellers often charge less for the products and services they like to provide, even though they thought they were of higher quality.
Exploring the joy of production
In an early study, researchers looked at Facebook ads for peer-to-peer sellers and small businesses for clues about how shoppers perceived product enjoyment.
“Facebook sellers have an opportunity to communicate their enjoyment in different ways,” says Teeny. “It could be in the ad itself or in their personal bio on the landing page, which might include quotes from a chef who made the meal or the person who made the jewelry.”
The researchers showed over 30,000 Facebook users one of two ads for an SEO expert. One of them conveyed production enjoyment (“I really like SEO”), while the other ad did not. The team found that the ad that conveyed production enjoyment had a 40 percent higher click-through rate and a 17 percent lower cost-per-click than an otherwise identical ad that did not mention production enjoyment.
In another study, researchers handed out brownies at a campus fair. Over 300 people stopped by to choose one of two handmade brownies in exchange for taking a short survey. Although the brownies were identical, each one had a different note next to it from the pastry shop. One indicated high production enjoyment (“I really enjoy making it”) and the other, high popularity (“It’s a very popular item”). The results showed that people were more likely to choose the brownie that signified high production enjoyment and to rate it as higher quality compared to the other (identical) one.
Collectively, these and several additional studies revealed that buyers associated the enjoyment of production with greater quality and value in products and services and were therefore willing to pay more for them. Buyers associate the enjoyment of production with intrinsic motivation—or how people derive value from a process itself rather than its outcome or extrinsic rewards.
“Intrinsic value often comes from enjoyment,” says Teeny. “And there’s a lot of research that shows people produce better work when they’re intrinsically motivated, like studies of ‘flow’ or when people are in the ‘zone’ and just feel a piece of music or something else creative pouring out of them. “
Production enjoyment, then, reflects intrinsic value on the part of the seller, which buyers may associate with a better end product.
A surprising deviation
In another study, researchers published a real data entry job opportunity for people who were able to perform many different tasks that require a similar skill level. Participants indicated which of their jobs they enjoyed the most, along with the minimum hourly rate for each. The researchers found that participants were willing to charge 14.5 percent less than the average price for the job they liked best.
In other words, while buyers were willing to pay more for the high enjoyment of production, sellers were willing to charge less.
Sellers also see the intrinsic value of enjoying their work and therefore believe that these products are of higher quality, but ultimately charge less. Why? “When sellers set the price, they take into account factors like hardware and advertising costs and the market they’re trying to reach,” says Teeny, “but also less tangible things like the work that’s going to go into the product and how much they enjoy it. If a plumber is going to take on an unpleasant job, he will demand higher compensation for it.”
Additionally, when someone enjoys the job, they may see the emotional satisfaction as part of their compensation and therefore charge a lower price. “Sellers may rely more on the cost of emotional labor than on the expected quality of the product,” says Teeny.
Importantly, certain factors can increase or decrease this discrepancy between sellers and buyers. One of these factors is perceived competence. That is, when buyers infer that a production activity requires low skill—as in one of the researchers’ studies that compared a simple-to-make mixed drink to a more complex one—production enjoyment on the part of the creator (bartender) was not.” It is likely to increase the buyer’s perception of quality or willingness to pay.
“If the work is something AI-oriented or automated, for example,” Teeny says, “the enjoyment of signaling won’t be as valuable as it is for higher-skill, high-intensity kinds of activities, like something that requires a lot of manual detail.”
Buyers and sellers, take note
The results have practical implications for both buyers and sellers.
“Buyers should try to be more aware of the sometimes unconscious influences in the buying process,” says Teeny. “There are classic things like paying more when you perceive scarcity, but we show that enjoyment of production also enhances willingness to pay, so that’s something to watch out for.”
Sellers, meanwhile, should understand that buyers like to see evidence of production enjoyment. “Very rarely do sellers on Etsy or Fiverr or other sites mention the word ‘enjoy’ in their listings or bios,” Teeny says. “If you like an activity, don’t be afraid to share it.”
Teeny acknowledges that sellers, like the art show seller, may worry that the enjoyment of signage could diminish the emotional labor that has gone into the work, but in general, buyers are more concerned about the quality of the work.
“One way to show you have a great product is to show you enjoy the work,” he says. “If you’re a chef in an open kitchen, enjoyment will be a particularly strong signal for shoppers to see.”
