IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v36y2025i3d10.1007_s11002-024-09748-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Easter eggs: Signaling quality via intrinsic motivation

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Fuchs

    (HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland)

Abstract

Easter eggs are initially hidden elements of a consumer experience that have little direct commercial benefit for the brand. While Easter eggs may have been present in video games and software since the 1970s, they are now found in more and more consumer products such as cars, fashion, and fast food. This work explores the possible motivations for brands to include Easter eggs in their experiences by testing their effects on consumers during the post-purchase experience. It is found that Easter eggs serve as a new type of quality signal and positively affect perceived quality. The positive effect of Easter eggs on perceived product quality appears to be mediated by increased perceived intrinsic motivation of the brand’s employees. One study on Amazon.com reviews data on video games, and three online experiments on fashion, candy, and cars lend support to these hypotheses.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Fuchs, 2025. "Easter eggs: Signaling quality via intrinsic motivation," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 327-340, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:36:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11002-024-09748-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-024-09748-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-024-09748-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-024-09748-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:36:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11002-024-09748-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.