The 99 price ending as a signal of a low-price appeal

There is evidence that the rightmost digits, or endings, of retail prices can communicate meanings to consumers. To better understand how such meanings are formed, this paper addresses the question of how the 99 price ending can have a low-price meaning even though 99-ending prices tend to be higher rather than lower competitive prices. Analysis of two large samples of newspaper price advertising indicates that there is a strong and robust correlation between the use of the 99 price ending and the presence of a low-price appeal such as a claimed discount. It is suggested that the salience of price advertising leads it to dominate other sources of information in the consumer's learning of price-ending meanings.     

The effects of advertisement picture likeability on information search and brand choice

A considerable amount of advertising research has focused on the effects of affective cues such as likeable people, pictures, or music. The conclusions have been that ads relying on affective cues can influence choice only under limited conditions, when relevant brand information is either unavailable or not useful if present. However, the effects of affective cues on choice may not be as limited as previously thought. When respondents are allowed to explore diagnostic information but must do it sequentially after initial exposure to the ads with pictures varying in likeability, we hypothesize that the positive ad will influence brand choice, and this effect will be at least partially due to the initial effects of the ads on search of this information. Our study manipulated the likeability of pictures in print ads for a ??test brand,?? along with other similarly formatted ads for three other brands. Brand attribute information was not readily available but could be searched and showed clearly that the test brand was only the second-best. Results showed that the ad pictures biased search order in favor of the advertised test brand and increased choice of the second-best test brand when it was advertised with the likeable pictures. Subsequent analysis revealed that search order significantly but not completely mediated the effects of picture on choice. The results suggest that information search can be a useful, sensitive measure of the effects of advertising.     

Memory-Based Store Price Judgments: The Role of Knowledge and Shopping Experience

This paper investigates the processes underlying consumers’ memory-based store price judgments. The numerosity heuristic implies that the greater the number of relatively lower priced products at a store that consumers can recall, the lower will be their overall price image of the store. That is, people use the number of recalled low-price products to judge the overall store price image. We show that this expectation holds only for knowledgeable consumers. Instead, less knowledgeable consumers use the ease with which low-price products are recalled (i.e., the availability heuristic) as a cue to make store price judgments. Therefore, the fewer low-price products they recall, the easier their recall task, and the lower their price perceptions of the store.Field studies using different manipulations tested and confirmed these predictions. Managerial implications for retailers are offered. Theoretical implications for behavioral price perceptions, memory-based judgments, and the use of heuristic cues are also discussed.     

The influence of quality cues and typicality cues on restaurant purchase intention

Prior research on cue management has dominantly focused on cues consumers use to infer product quality. Only a few studies have dealt with cues that allow consumers to infer category typicality. Connecting these research streams we show how different cues affect both product quality and category typicality assessments, how these perceptions interact, and how they influence purchase intention. Results of this conjoint experiment among 113 restaurant patrons indicate that typicality cues can also serve as inferences for quality, and that cues influence purchase intentions via their effect on perceived typicality rather than on perceived quality. Once a consumer has determined the usage situation and his inherent consumption goals, he is much more inclined to search for the cues such as table setting that signal the subcategory that is expected to satisfy these goals, than finding cues such as guidebook rating that are diagnostic of product quality (only). After carefully addressing typicality cues which are instrumental in stressing points of parity, brand managers can use quality cues to show the product's points of difference in a category.     

“Surprise Gift” Purchases: Customer Insights from the Small Electrical Appliances Market

Surprise gifts offer more business opportunities than gifts suggested by recipients, because a larger part of the selection and purchase processes can be molded, and such gifts are especially valued by recipients. Yet the extant gift-giving literature explicitly takes into account neither the giver's intention to surprise nor the consequences for the gift selection and purchase processes. The present study investigates surprise gifts from the giver's point of view and disentangles the selection and purchase processes of surprise gifts and gifts that are not meant as surprises. The hypotheses emerge as a consequence of the enhanced pleasure and experiential motivation underlying surprise gifts, as well as their greater inherent perceived risk. According to panel data, design and money-back guarantees are more important for the purchase of surprise gifts (compared with non-surprise gifts), whereas good deals appear less important, and brand name does not seem to matter any more than it does for gifts not intended as a surprise. Also, surprise gifts more often are bought on the spot than non-surprise gifts, without extended information search (similar to impulse purchases), by women alone, and for someone within the household. Finally, the giver usually has a poorer idea of what he or she wants to buy before entering the shop and visits fewer stores to purchase surprise gifts. However, the last three results apply only to appliances which often serve as gifts. These insights lead to significant managerial implications for retailers and manufacturers.     

Personal vs. non‐personal sources of information used in the purchase of men’s apparel

This study identifies and examines the relationship between several segmentation variables and the personal and promotional (non‐personal) cues used in the information‐gathering step of the purchase decision process. In the context of this study, personal cues refer to family members, coworkers and friends. Promotional or non‐personal cues refer to magazine advertisements, television advertisements, store displays and salespersons. Information regarding the use of personal and promotional cues was gathered from a national, random sample of 440 male consumers. The study found that adult male consumers report using promotional cues more frequently than personal information sources.     

The concept of the “Big Middle”

Although several hypotheses have been proffered to explain changes in the structure and evolution of retailing institutions, none provides a comprehensive explanation of how and why retail institutions evolve. This editorial first introduces the concept of the “Big Middle,” the marketspace in which the largest retailers compete in the long run. It then hypothesizes that these large retailers generally originate as innovators or low-price retailers that focus on a particular niche but migrate into the Big Middle in search of greater revenues and profits. The goal of this editorial is to suggest an initial framework for investigating those factors that create the structure and motivate the evolution of retailing institutions.     

Japanese consumers' use of extrinsic and intrinsic cues to mitigate risky food choices

The stated preference data were used to simulate and examine consumers' valuation of important extrinsic and intrinsic cues that are associated with risky foods. This analysis generates information on how consumers assess trade‐offs between price and selected intrinsic and extrinsic cues to determine their choice among alternative products. From this, optimum level of product quality attributes (i.e. intrinsic cues) and optimum price level for import products can be derived. Also, most effective sources of communicating food safety and risk management can be identified. The results show that the country origin cue is a key factor in understanding consumers' choice behaviour for food product that entails potential risk, which may suggest that consumers are using this information as a risk‐reduction strategy.     

Is transparency a good thing? How online price transparency and variability can benefit firms and influence consumer decision making

The internet has empowered consumers and changed the way they search and shop for products and services by increasing the availability and transparency of pricing and other comparative information. However, what is less clear from a managerial perspective is just how transparent pricing information should be. While it might seem that increasing price transparency would reduce consumer search, we find that it may actually increase search and delay. In this article, we review the use of firms’ application of price transparency in practice and propose that specific types of information can influence how transparent prices are to consumers, and how such transparency can influence consumer decisions in a way that is beneficial for the firm. We focus on a specific form of transparency: whether or not the consumer knows the range of pricing. We also discuss whether a high variability pricing approach versus a low variability pricing approach influences consumer decision making—and whether this influence is moderated by transparency.     

Still Searching (Systematically)<Superscript>1</Superscript> for Entrepreneurial Discoveries

We examine how entrepreneurs can search deliberately for discoveries. We use consideration sets to impose constraints on how and where they search. A consideration set is a promising set of information channels, which entrepreneurs can select and search based on prior knowledge. To decide how to search the channels in a consideration set, we apply existing mathematical formalism to illustrate a maximal search sequence. Because there is some probability that a search sequence could continue indefinitely, we determine stopping rules. We argue that entrepreneurial search is more feasible within a consideration set than it is in the rest of the world.     

Use of intrinsic and extrinsic cues to assess textile product quality*

Use of intrinsic and extrinsic cues to assess quality of textile items was studied. Product-knowledgeable subjects rated the quality of socks and sweaters and completed a questionnaire which asked how they judged quality. Subjects relied more on product information (intrinsic cues), i.e., compositional features and performance properties, to assess quality than on price and warranty/certification seals (extrinsic cues). Significance lies in increased understanding of the process involved in quality assessment of textile items in the marketplace.     

Increasing hotel customer value through service quality cues in Taiwan

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how service quality cues and customer value are related, and explores the internal composition of this relationship. Samples were collected using a questionnaire, which had assessed the quality of the researcher's measurement efforts by investigating reliability and validity. Functional value is found to be affected mainly by reliable cues and accuracy of service quality, whereas conditional value is influenced by responsiveness of service quality. Furthermore, emotional value is found to be affected mainly by empathy of service quality, whereas social value is influenced by tangible cues of service quality. Finally, epistemic value is affected by responsiveness service quality. For future research, other external cues may influence perception of customer value with extrinsic information should be discussed. In practice, hotel managers can hone the relevant cues and optimise investments to raise service quality. Finally, this study provides a new shape of ‘structural’ relationships among five service quality cues and five types of customer value.     

The Link Between Surprise and Satisfaction: An Exploratory Research on how best to Measure Surprise

This research examines the emotion of surprise and its influence on consumer satisfaction. After having discussed the relevance of this particular marketing issue and the concepts of surprise and satisfaction, it is explained how the emotion of surprise is theoretically related to consumer satisfaction. Then, the general research methodology and the main results of the first part of the exploratory research - the goal of which was to define how best to measure surprise in studies on satisfaction – are then described. Finally the section on conclusion, discussion and contribution brings the paper to an end.     

Optimal low-price guarantees with anchoring

Many low-price guarantees are offered by small local firms who compete against much larger rivals. The prices of these larger rivals are often set nationally and thus are independent of local market conditions. Our objective in this paper is to explain why small firms in such environments might nevertheless adopt low-price guarantees. We characterize when offering a low-price guarantee is profitable, and assess which form it should take (i.e.,?conditional on offering a low-price guarantee, should the small firm offer to match or beat its larger competitor??s prices). We also assess the implications thereof (i.e., do the low-price guarantees benefit or harm the small firm??s customers).     

The interaction between reputation and information search: Evidence of information avoidance and confirmation bias

This paper investigates how the valence of reputation affects the information search, and how the outcome of the search can result in a reevaluation of reputation. The protocol uses a digital version of the Information Display Board (IDB) to examine the dynamics of information search and reputation building. A sample of 1811 respondents was asked about their perceptions of the reputation of specific performing arts events, pre- and post-information search. The findings provide evidence of a confirmation bias (between positive information and the information search), and support information avoidance theories. Specifically, our results show that prior reputation only affected the online information search for consumers with no opinion, or with a positive opinion of a show's reputation. Furthermore, the information search only modifies reputation when consumers have no prior opinion.     

Consumer Information and Discrimination: Does the Internet Affect the Pricing of New Cars to Women and Minorities?

Using a large dataset of automobile transaction prices, we find that offline African-American and Hispanic consumers pay approximately 2% more than do other offline consumers; however, we can explain 65% of this price premium with differences in observable traits such as income, education, and search costs. Our estimates of unexplained race premia are smaller than previous estimates in the literature. Online, we find that minority buyers pay nearly the same prices as do whites controlling for consumers' income, education, and neighborhood characteristics. These results are consistent with the Internet facilitating information search and removing cues to a consumer's willingness to pay. Our results imply that the Internet is particularly beneficial to those whose characteristics disadvantage them in negotiating.     

It's Closing Time: Territorial Behaviors from Customers in Response to Front Line Employees

Retailers can benefit from an increased understanding of how human territoriality affects their relationships with customers. In the context of closing time, we show that issuance of boundary markers, or closing time cues, before the closing time boundary can result in perceptions of territory intrusion and territorial responses from customers. In study 1, we identify six types of cues used by employees to signal to customers the closing time boundary is approaching: productive, personal, audio–visual, withdrawal, hostility, and blocking cues. Three additional studies show these cues affect customers’ perceptions of intrusion pressure and their subsequent territorial responses, including: retaliation, abandonment and accession (studies 2–4) and negative word of mouth and temporary abandonment (study 4). Additionally, identification with the store can heighten or dampen the effects of customers’ perceptions of encroachment on their territorial responses (studies 3 and 4), depending on the retail context.     

基于价格竞争理论的旅行社产品创新策略研究

目前,国内旅行社产品低价竞争状况严重。旅行社产品在产品同质化的情况下,价格必然成为影响旅游消费者购买偏好的决定性因素,只有施行差异化竞争战略才能有效规避低价竞争;同时旅行社必须充分了解并有效把握市场需求,在产品中不断添加创新元素,创造性的以新产品引导消费,通过品牌识别和服务创新巩固旅行社产品差异化,才能不断强化旅行社产品的排他性,持久增强旅行社企业的竞争优势。