The impact of consumers’ status - participant or nonparticipant - on the evaluation of empowerment strategies

Although the literature has documented the positive effects of empowerment strategies (empowerment to create and to select) for companies, the relative evaluation of these strategies as perceived by participants and nonparticipants has been neglected. Based on two qualitative studies (N = 23), we show that participants engaged in empowerment campaigns value the empowerment to select (vs empowerment to create) more if they have low self-confidence and limited expertise relating to the requested task. In addition, we emphasize that the empowerment to create provides a richer overall experience for participants compared with the empowerment to select. Nonparticipants have a better evaluation of empowerment-to-create campaigns because of a stronger authenticity of the brands launching them and a more positive evaluation of participating consumers’ motivations. This research provides managerial recommendations for the successful deployment of empowerment strategies.