萝莉社官网

Have you ever been to an estate sale or scrolled through Facebook Marketplace and noticed a seller drop the price? Sometimes it鈥檚 not about hard bargaining. Instead, the seller offers a discount because the buyer 鈥渞eally gets it鈥濃�攎aybe the buyer went to the same school as the seller, grew up in the same town, or has a family connection to the item鈥檚 past. In these moments, money isn鈥檛 the only thing being exchanged; something deeper is at stake: whether the item鈥檚 heritage will be honored and carried forward.

A by Katherine L. Christensen and Suzanne B. Shu explores exactly this phenomenon. They call it the heritage discount: the tendency for sellers of sentimental or heritage goods to accept lower prices from buyers who share a meaningful connection to the goods鈥� past. Surprisingly, this happens even when sellers believe the buyer would have been willing to pay more.

They call it the heritage discount: the tendency for sellers of sentimental or heritage goods to accept lower prices from buyers who share a meaningful connection to the goods鈥� past. Surprisingly, this happens even when sellers believe the buyer would have been willing to pay more.

How the Heritage Discount Affects Markets

The implications of this research extend far beyond individual sales, shaping outcomes for consumers, marketers, and policymakers alike. Heritage value plays a role in massive industries鈥攆rom the $58 billion self-storage market and the $43 trillion U.S. housing market to the $200 billion secondhand sector and the $450 billion collectibles market.

For marketers, these insights open the door to designing new products and experiences that help consumers maintain a connection to their heritage, whether through family heirlooms, brand storytelling, or collaborations like 23andMe鈥檚 partnership with Airbnb鈥檚 heritage travel. Such efforts can create offerings that resonate across generations.

Heritage framing also carries weight in the policy sphere. Conservationists, for example, may increase support for protecting natural resources by highlighting their ties to past generations, reducing the public鈥檚 willingness to lease or sell them for short-term gain.

Curious about the bigger picture, we asked the authors to share additional takeaways from their study:

Q: Your research uncovers a surprising 鈥渉eritage discount,鈥� whereby sellers are willing to accept lower prices from buyers with shared heritage. What emotional or psychological dynamics might explain this? Were there any reactions or patterns that genuinely surprised you during your studies?

Dr. Shu: From a more theory-driven perspective, I鈥檝e done other work on the endowment effect and psychological ownership. What intrigued me about this project and what Kate brought into it was that you usually put more value on it when you own something. That鈥檚 the endowment effect.

But with heritage, we were proposing something different: you might be willing to accept a lower price. That鈥檚 the opposite of the endowment effect, and that flip was fascinating. I鈥檓 always curious when a well-established finding in the literature is robust across many studies but then you discover a specific context where it reverses.

In this case, the heritage discount shows up when you sell to someone who can continue the story and respect that heritage. For instance, if Kate were selling her teacups to a collector who didn鈥檛 care about continuing the heritage, she would ask for a higher price. But if the buyer valued the teacup’s heritage and wanted to keep it alive, she鈥檇 be willing to accept less.

To me, that鈥檚 the most interesting part: the heritage discount only applies when the buyer is someone who will keep the story and the heritage alive.

Q: How might the concept of heritage connection help brands support sustainability goals, such as encouraging product longevity, reducing waste, or fostering intergenerational value?

Dr. Christensen: One of the significant trends we鈥檙e seeing right now is the rise of vintage. While our paper primarily focuses on transactions, we define heritage goods as goods linked to the past, whether historically or symbolically.

The idea that the past carries symbolic value can increase how much heritage buyers value a product. This is particularly relevant when people use vintage items, such as fashion inspired by the 鈥�90s or 鈥�70s. By wearing these pieces, people aren鈥檛 just dressing themselves鈥攖hey are bringing a piece of their past into the present and sharing it with others. This act becomes a “gift,” offering a glimpse into a different world.

If sellers believe that the past carries value, they may also be more willing to sell. The past can be defined in many ways: an era, a community鈥檚 history, even a nation鈥檚 identity. That鈥檚 why we see a rise in vintage fashion and, in some cases, a rise in nationalism. Both are ways people try to connect to the past.

This concept plays out in sustainability and the environment, too. Think about how people connect to the human past and are tied to the land (in meaningful ways). For example, I recently learned that my uncle鈥檚 family were Adirondack guides who once took Theodore Roosevelt through the Adirondacks. When I return to those mountains, I experience them differently鈥擨 feel connected to that history, which increases the value of the place for me.

Q: How can environmental organizations and policymakers leverage your findings that framing natural resources as shared heritage reduces public support for exploitation?

Dr. Christensen: National parks provide one of the easiest examples of an intergenerational tie to the land. For me, that鈥檚 also my tie to the Adirondack Mountains. I was just there recently, and I had this powerful feeling that the trees were changing, connecting me back to my grandmother, even though she鈥檚 no longer here. That is why the natural landscape holds tremendous value to me.

I think that鈥檚 something you see often in regional marketing: how it ties people to the past. You also see it in the national parks. Their retro branding, for instance, emphasizes the idea of connecting to your ancestors. In a way, the parks themselves are marketed as a type of heritage good.

There鈥檚 also this initiative where fourth graders get a free national parks pass for a year, and their whole family can enjoy it. That鈥檚 positioned almost like a gift parents can give their kids鈥攕omething that connects to what they did as children while creating new memories for the next generation.

So, the parks are marketed as timeless destinations, where parents, children, and even grandparents can share a sense of continuity and connection across generations

Q: Your research touches on the power of heritage in shaping value, but heritage can also be a sensitive area, especially regarding things like Indigenous crafts, national symbols, or traditional foods. What can marketers learn from your findings about why some communities push back against the commercialization of culturally significant goods?

Dr. Christensen: If you look at almost any nation鈥檚 history, there鈥檚 usually an original group that owned it, and then there was a loss of ownership. So, when another group comes in, and it鈥檚 not the original group, not the Indigenous group in your example, it can feel like a massive loss of heritage connection. If the transaction is viewed as purely about money, then that sense of loss and disutility is very high.

Often, when we see cultural trends that borrow from historically disempowered groups, there鈥檚 a sense that the practice isn鈥檛 really connected to the past. It鈥檚 just being used as a visual signifier. And that disconnect leads to tremendous backlash.

One of the most interesting examples I鈥檝e seen in the work of some wonderful colleagues, focuses on restoring heritage to people who have lost that connection. The forced relocation of many Indigenous communities has had a lasting impact. In their new locations, these communities often lose traditional access to vital resources, such as water needed for growing crops. Unlike those who were not forcibly moved, they may lack the resources or the ability to maintain a connection to their ancestral lands and history.

Rebuilding that connection strengthens the whole ecosystem. It鈥檚 not just the consumer. The producer makes the food and knows how to cook it, and then the consumer eats it. When all those layers feel connected to heritage, I hypothesize that the value increases for the end user and everyone along the line. Everyone who opts in wants to maintain that link to the past.

But it also matters who is doing it. Sometimes, groups want to separate from others鈥� histories because, in a sense, it鈥檚 not theirs, and that creates complications. Heritage can become competitive, and tensions around commercialization often emerge.

Q: In today鈥檚 digital world, consumers express their identities through social media memories, digital collectibles, and even AI-generated family stories. Do you see a heritage connection evolving in these virtual spaces?

Dr. Christensen: The growing digital world may increase our need to connect to the past. In terms of how it happens technically, social media makes it much faster and easier. Right now, you can create a virtual person or save your mom鈥檚 phone messages from the human desire to preserve memories. As people contemplate how to connect with and share their own memories, they find value in these digital artifacts. These things give us value as human beings, and I believe we鈥檙e losing some of that, which is why I think there鈥檚 a growing need for heritage in the digital world. It鈥檚 now easier to create products that resurface those connections. For example, how do we bring back memories from childhood? They鈥檙e there, just buried.

Do we want to preserve the ideas of our grandparents? For some, that might feel weird or even like a violation. But for others, it鈥檚 a powerful sense of connection to the past, something they鈥檇 likely pay more for not just for themselves but to pass on to future generations. I think that at moments when the future becomes present, the past becomes especially valuable. For example, that intergenerational link suddenly comes alive when you have a child. You鈥檙e both giving something to the future and wanting to preserve the past.

Q: How might this shift influence how people assign value or feel a sense of ownership over digital goods, and what could this mean for brands trying to build emotional connections online?

Dr. Shu: For some reason, my social media feeds have been filled lately with stories about people doing DNA testing and trying to trace their ancestors. It鈥檚 fascinating how technology makes it so easy now. People say, 鈥淚 have a grandparent I know nothing about, and I don鈥檛 know how to trace them,鈥� but DNA testing opens that door and gives them access. They can then do a bit more searching and find previously impossible connections.

That ability to rediscover heritage is powerful. It also opens space for brands to build emotional and heritage connections. Kate had a great example, but it didn鈥檛 make it into the paper, of Airbnb offering heritage-based vacations. Imagine someone whose family was originally from Turkey but lived elsewhere for generations. A descendant might say, 鈥淚 wish I understood my connection to Turkey.鈥� A trip could then be designed to take them back to their ancestral hometown.

We live in a society where people move around much more than in the past, when several generations might have stayed in the same small town. Today, companies can help people reconnect with their roots and their history. That鈥檚 something consumers respond to. They lack that connection and search for it, and brands can help fill that gap.

Source: Katherine L. Christensen and Suzanne B. Shu (2024), “,” Journal of Marketing Research, 61 (3), 571鈥�86. doi:.

References

Absolute Reports (2023), 鈥�7.5% Growth in Self Storage Market by 2023鈭�2028: Exploring the Growing Trend Regional Analysis Competitive Scenario,鈥� GlobeNewswire (March 14), .

Credit Suisse (2020), 鈥淐ollectibles: An Integral Part of Wealth,鈥� research report, Credit Suisse Research Institute and Deloitte (October).

Market Decipher (2023), 鈥淐ollectibles Market Size, Statistics, Growth Trend Analysis and Forecast Report, 2023-2033,鈥� .

ThredUp (2023), 鈥淩esale Report,鈥� (accessed August 9, 2023), .

Go to the Journal of Marketing Research