Too assertive to recommend: The effect of assertive tone on referral behavior

Brands and retailers are increasingly adopting referral reward programs (RRPs) as a customer acquisition strategy. RRPs provide existing customers with referral messages and incentivize them to share those messages with other potential customers. Despite their growing popularity, there is a limited understanding of how to effectively promote RRPs, especially with regard to message tone assertiveness. In a large-scale field experiment (N = 61,401, Study 1), we discovered that consumers (i.e., senders) are less inclined to participate in referral programs when they are provided with a pregenerated referral message with a more assertive tone than when they are provided with less assertive alternatives. We found that an assertive message leads senders to anticipate greater psychological reactance from their recipients, a metaperception that diminishes their willingness to engage in RRPs (Studies 2A and 2B). Additionally, we identified two significant moderators: the detrimental effect of an assertive tone is mitigated when the product offers important benefits to recipients (Study 3) or when the referral promotion is time limited (Study 4).

in Journal of Retailing