Prominent Attributes Under Limited Attention
研究了在竞争环境中，企业如何选择突出产品的某个属性（如图像或性能）来引导消费者的有限注意力，发现当消费者同时评估两个属性时，同一属性内的感知差异化会被稀释，导致企业可能选择相同的突出属性。
Evidence shows that marketers can direct consumers’ limited attention to specific product attributes by making them “prominent.” This research asks: How should firms decide which attribute to make prominent in competitive environments? A key feature of this setting is that consumers’ preferences are context-dependent and that a firm’s choice of an attribute affects the evaluation of all products in the category. We develop a model in which firms selectively promote one of two attributes (e.g., image or performance) before competing in price. We find when consumers evaluate both attributes, perceived differentiation within an attribute can become diluted; we call this the dilution effect. This implies that making the same attribute prominent can arise in equilibrium. Only if there is a sufficient quality advantage in an attribute do we find equilibria with firms making different attributes prominent. We also show how the dilution effect can be a disincentive for investments in quality improvements. Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1037 .