Abstract: Visualization refers to the mental process in which consumers imagine themselves interacting with a product. In the era of Internet marketing where users are deeply involved, visualization is an effective marketing tool to improve consumers’ evaluation of new products. Through three experiments, this paper explores the interactive effect of the temporal perspective of visualization and consumers’ regulatory focus on new product evaluation. This study finds that the temporal perspective and regulatory focus have a matching effect on new product evaluation: the past perspective is matched with the prevention focus and the future perspective is relatively matched with the promotion focus. Further research indicates that the vividness of imagination is the underlying mechanism of this matching effect. In addition, for consumers with lower imagery capacity, the matching effect would disappear.

Key words: visualization, new product, temporal perspective, regulatory focus