In today’s digital world, uncertainty marketing tactics are gaining popularity, from well-known brands to emerging ones to invoke customers’ interest and attention. The purpose of this research is to investigate how epistemic motivations – need for cognition and need for cognitive closure interact with an Individual goal orientation (learning vs outsourcing) to influence responses toward uncertainty marketing practices.
Across six studies, this research demonstrates that motivational congruence elevates purchase intentions, trust and perceived self-efficacy.
Perceived self-efficacy mediates the relationship between need-goal congruence and behavioral outcomes, stating its role as a key psychological mechanism in navigating uncertain offerings.
Findings contribute to the existing knowledge on uncertainty marketing by identifying need-goal alignment as a critical predictor of its success, while integrating epistemic motivation into consumer decision-making process.
The findings reveal that goal-congruent messaging will be critical for marketers in the uncertainty marketing practices.
Results offer actionable guidance for designing segmentation strategies and goal-congruent messaging to increase consumer engagement in contexts involving ambiguity and information concealment.
