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The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of priming on consumer emotions and willingness to pay as consumers experience two services with two opposite valences.

A 2 (service experience sequence: failure–success, success–failure) × 3(priming: positive, negative, no priming) between-subject experiment was conducted with 230 college students in China.

Results indicate that when priming information is included, people give greater decision weight to the second service. Specifically, in the failure–success scenario, priming information between two services increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions, raising willingness to pay. In the success–failure scenario, priming information decreases positive emotions and increases negative emotions, thus lowering willingness to pay.

First, if businesses discover the possibility of a service failure, then disclosing negative information is better than whitewashing the truth. Second, services following a campaign of positively framed messages should be carefully rendered. The damage of pre-failure positive priming is most certainly irreparable. Finally, in terms of communication, businesses and service providers should cater to consumers exposed to different levels of information accordingly.

Previous investigations focusing on a single purchase have argued that priming effects should cause consumers of varying tastes to react in a more unified manner to a service. This study extends the research scope to more realistic situations ”sequential service experiences with opposite valences” and asserts that differences in service experiences alter the influence of priming information.

Focus of previous research into family purchasing decisions has centred on the husband and wife. Children's influences on family decision making have increased in recent decades. The purpose of this paper is to investigate children's influences on Chinese family decision making in Hong Kong.

The study is based on a survey of 366 family members in Hong Kong.

Children are found to have more influence in the choice‐making stage of decision making and parents still control the final decision, which is consistent with previous research findings.

Parents and their children usually engage jointly in family decision making. Marketers should address the needs of both parties and work to help to resolve any conflict that may arise.

The study is framed within resources theory to examine children's influence in two decision stages of family decision making.