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Draws from various theoretical bases and empirical research to offer managerial recommendations concerning the communication of sale price information in advertisements. Addresses the manner in which the manipulation of price cues, semantic cues and product cues in an advertisement can enhanceperceptions of utility via increases in the internal reference price, the perceived value implied by the offering price, and perceptions of product quality.

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in consumers’ perceptions of an acceptable price range and their responses to the advertised reference price in terms of internal reference price, price‐search intention, and perceived value between online and offline retail channels. This research uses a 2 (plausible and implausible reference prices) x 2 (online and offline retail channels) between‐subjects experimental design. A convenient sample of 151 Taiwanese graduate students that have prior experience shopping online are recruited as subjects. Results are shown and managerial implications and directions for future research are then discussed.

Are retail advertisers using price‐featuring tactics effectively? After a review of past findings on the effectiveness of comparative price formats, this study conducted a content analysis of retail newspaper advertising. The study revealed that advertisements for service retailers and service products consistently used the least effective approaches. Nearly half of all the clothing and department store advertising examined used less effective tactics. Other retailers and retail items tended to use the more effective approaches.

A study is reported, which investigated Singapore consumers’ price thresholds and saturation points for price discounts. The study shows that consumers discount the offered price discount, i.e. they lower the dollar gain value. This discounting of discounts increases significantly with the increase in advertised discounts. Very similar patterns of responses are obtained for products and services. The study also indicates that the saturation point for price discounts of 20 to 30 percent is found to be the same in Singapore and the USA. However, a price threshold of less than 10 percent is found for Singapore consumers, compared to 15 percent in the USA. Frequent price promotions in Singapore may have lowered the products’ expected price and appear to lead consumers to defer purchases when regular prices are offered.

One main concern regarding the use of reference prices in advertisements relates to the possibility of deception due to consumers' positive response towards exaggerated or implausible claims. This paper examines the moderating roles of a contextual variable‐market price dispersion for a product category, and that of an individual level variable‐need for cognition, in influencing consumer evaluation of reference prices across two experiments. The results support the hypothesized effects of need for cognition and demonstrate that, for low need, for cognition individuals, increasing the level of reference price results in positive effects on value perception and shopping intention.

This research paper aims to examine the relationships among the factors associated with changing shopping environment, consumer knowledge and reference price.

A self administered online survey was used to collect data (final sample size was 265). After checking for non‐response bias, data was factor analyzed and checked for reliability and validity. Hypotheses were tested using structural Equation Modeling procedure.

Product search opportunity is associated with product and price knowledge. Price volatility is negatively associated with internal reference price. Further, consumers' price comparison propensity and price knowledge positively influence external reference price. Finally, price volatility has a significant negative influence on consumer knowledge and IRP orientation.

The sampling frame is a major limitation, in addition to not including variables such as product type and other measures of price volatility. Future research should expand the sampling frame and include other variables as well as other aspects of price volatility.

These findings provide insights into advertised price claims in the information rich internet age. Managers also benefit from the finding that the internet, particularly price comparison, influences external reference price. Consequently, managers must be cautious with their advertised price claims and not exaggerate the value of offerings or cost savings too much.

This topic is important because retailers extensively use reference price or price comparison to increase consumers' perception of the product value. However, not much research attention has been given to this topic.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of advertised reference price (ARP) and sales price (SP) as anchor points on the latitude of expected price, and subsequently on purchase intention (PI). The research involves the theoretical lens of selective anchoring mechanism, which allows investigation of the influence of ARP and SP in a situation where price estimation task is a “non-thoughtful processes”.

On the basis of quasi-experimental design, the study involves intercept survey of 142 shoppers.

The study finds that due to anchoring effect, the highest and the lowest expected prices shift toward ARP and SP, respectively. Consequently, it influences the latitude of expected price, which in turn influences purchase intention. In addition, the study proposes and tests a method to forecast expansion and contraction of the latitude of expected price.

It suggests a new mechanism to understand the simultaneous influence of ARP and SP, provides a mechanism to understand shifts in price latitude’s end-points and investigates a phenomenon with two externally provided anchors.

The study highlights the role of the latitude of expected price in understanding consumers’ response. Results suggest that a plausible ARP, when joined with an above-expectation SP, can fetch better consumer responses.

The study uniquely investigates a problem with two anchor points and two estimation targets, and proposes a construct of internal price uncertainty (IPU).

This paper deals with the issue of mood effects on perceived transaction value in the context of price promotions. Specifically, mood states appear to bias evaluation and judgments in mood congruent direction. Based on Grewal et al.’s model and mood congruent effects, we propose that when encountering price promotions, buyers in a positive mood, as opposed to buyers in a negative mood, will perceive a greater transaction value. Moreover, we hypothesize that the effect of advertised selling price on perceived transaction value is likely to be moderated by buyers’ mood states. Our results support these hypotheses. In addition, we also find asymmetric moderating effects on discount levels in positive mood state vs. in negative mood state. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed.

This study aims to examine whether adding a quantity scarcity message to a monetary discount helps to improve consumers’ offer-related perceptions and intentions, and how the effectiveness of that message compares with adding time restriction to the offer.

Two experiments, where participants evaluated retail ads and responded to relevant measures, were conducted in two country markets.

Adding either a quantity scarcity message or time restriction to a monetary discount increases the potency of a retail offer. Further, when an offer ad emphasizes product and price-related cues in a balanced manner, time restriction results in more favorable consumer perceptions than scarcity. However, this difference in the messages’ efficacy disappears when the offer strongly emphasizes price-related cues.

The US market sample is more homogeneous than the Indian one. Discounts were presented in terms of advertised reference prices; further research with other discount formats is desirable.

Understanding the relative efficacy of quantity scarcity message and time restriction in discounted retail offers can give managers flexibility in the use of these tools.

This paper addresses scholars’ call for theory-grounded research that provides guidance to retailers on the use of sales promotional tools.

Retailers are known to present tensile price claims (TPCs) stating high discounts to entice shoppers. Prior research on TPCs suggests that high TPC discounts increase purchase intentions. However, the current study proposes, first, that the TPC discount shifts expected price discount (EPD) and, second, that the gap between the actual price discount and the EPD influence perceptions of the discount deal. Support for these propositions would suggest that high TPC discounts will only be effective when they closely match the actual price discount. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of exaggerated maximum-discount TPCs.

Two experiments were used. Study 1 investigated the effect of exposure to a TPC on EPD. Study 2 examined discount discrepancy as a mediator of the relationship between a TPC and consumer perceptions (i.e. perceived savings and price fairness) and purchase intentions. PROCESS and ANOVA were used for the analysis.

This research showed that exposure to a TPC influenced consumers’ EPDs. As TPC discount increased, EPD increased and the discount discrepancy (i.e. actual price discount minus EPD) decreased (and, in some cases, became negative). The discount discrepancy influenced consumer perceptions of savings and fairness, as well as purchase intentions. Consequently, when the actual price discount encountered was not as large as the advertised TPC discount, the results showed a negative, indirect influence of exaggerated maximum-discount TPCs on consumers’ discount perceptions, mediated by the discount discrepancy.

Previous TPC studies found that the size of the TPC discount positively influences consumers’ discount perceptions, implying that larger discounts are more effective. However, this approach does not take into consideration the notion that larger TPC discounts increase consumer expectations about the size of discount and these expectations are used as a frame to evaluate a discount deal. The findings of the current research show a negative, indirect influence of exaggerated TPC discount on consumer perceptions and purchase intentions through discount discrepancy. Therefore, this study provides a new perspective to explain the influence of TPC discount size on consumer perceptions.