This study examined the impact of membership fees on consumer attitude and purchase behavior. Subjects participated in a computerized simulated shopping experiment, and chose between three competing videotape rental stores, receiving feedback about purchase utility on each occasion. Manipulations included the presence or absence of an initial membership-fee requirement at the dominant store and the timing of a lowering of that store's utility to the same level as that offered by a competing establishment. Store loyalty is shown to vary as a function of membership fees and utility changes in a manner consistent with hypotheses generated from prospect, escalation-of-commitment, cognitive-dissonance, and self-perception theories. Β©1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
A common thrust of the marketing activities of a retailer may be viewed in terms of the development, maintenance, or enhancement of consumers' ongoing store patronage. Yet the requirement that consumers pay a membership fee before being allowed to purchase a store's merchandise or services (two-part pricing) -a strategy seemingly aimed at inducing continuing patronage -has received little attention in the consumer-behavior literature.
Once associated primarily with prestigious concerns such as country clubs, membership fees have in recent years been attached to an