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Many brand manufacturers are facing increasing competition from competitors entering the market with extremely aggressive prices. To face this new competition the branded manufacturers traditionally lower their own prices or do not react to such attacks at all. Both strategies are not optimal. A third alternative is the two‐product strategy which can be successful in many cases. This strategy foresees a second, lower positioned product to be added to the existing higher positioned brand product, which is targeted directly against the low‐priced competitors. The most important aspect for such a strategy is that the two products are differentiated strongly enough to minimize cannibalization. This can be achieved by differentiating brand, quality, price and/or distribution. A two‐product strategy has proven successful in many countries and markets, but can also help in a less competitive environment by opening new distribution channels or offering more customized products for specific market segments.

A study of the price discounts granted by Morton Salt Company and other producers of table salt in the U.S. on their sales of table salt to grocery wholesalers and retailers. The discounts were found to be illegal under the Robinson-Patman Act by the Federal Trade Commission and the Supreme Court. The Commission and the Court believed that the discounts were unjustified price concessions granted to “large” buyers, consistent with the concerns of the Robinson-Patman Act. However, the evidence indicates that the most common discount – the “carload discount” – was received by virtually all buyers, regardless of the buyer’s size; the other discounts – “annual volume” discounts – though received primarily by “large” buyers, were likely cost based. The history of the discounts and likely reasons why they were granted are explored in detail.

This paper aims to examine the equilibrium limit price charged by a producer trying to deter the entry of a firm that can choose one of the two markets of complementary goods.

The authors model a dynamic game of incomplete information solved using a “perfect Bayesian equilibrium” approach.

It is shown that an incumbent will be willing to spend more resources – i.e. charge a lower limit price – to deter entry into its market as products become more complementary. This is because additional benefits are gained from entry deterrence by facing a more competitive market in the complementary product. The additional benefits of entry deterrence are shown to be a function of the degree of complementarity between goods.

A managerial implication of this article is that firms are willing to compete more fiercely to send an entrant to the other's incumbent market as the degree of complementarity between goods increases. An interesting conclusion that is derived from the above analysis is that managers should invest to understand the interdependences (e.g. complementarities) of the goods they sell, since the strategic variables chosen to compete may be affected by them, in some cases in a non‐trivial way.

From a public policy perspective, the main contribution of this paper is to point out that regulators who analyze predatory pricing, or other (probably) illegal “low‐price strategies”, should consider the degree of complementarity between goods and its effect on pricing.

As far as the authors' knowledge goes, there are no other papers that analyze entry decisions involving multiple markets of complementary goods.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the configurations of short life cycle, low quality, design and price, influence customer purchase intention in fast fashion and high technology industries in China.

The traditional thinking is that products with high quality and low price will win more customers. However, the authors can notice that high quality products usually have high cost. Therefore, it is necessary to do more research on how customers can accept low quality products. The authors take fast fashion products and smart phones as empirical studies, collecting data from customer’s online survey. Based on the methodology of fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, the authors analyse the relationship between the factors of short life cycle, low quality, design and price and influence customer purchase intention.

The authors find that price is the most important influencing factor. Low price is a strong competitive factor in the market. As to low quality products, low price can be achieved relatively more easily than with high quality products, resulting from relatively poorer raw material or configurations. Hence the connection between quality and price may give an idea to enterprises that customers will accept low quality products with low price. Moreover, according to the research, different generations are equally affected by the low price condition, regardless of customer gender and household income.

Because the study only focuses on fast fashion and smart phones industries, future work needs to replicate this study with individual data for different industries and with alternative methods to reinforce the confidence in the research. Meanwhile , this research studied mainly the customer perspective, it would be desirable to extend the study to the enterprise perspective and find out the difficulties that limit them in using low quality products to meet market needs. This may revel some cultural differences in purchase behavior among different countries and the discussed industries can be expanded to a larger area.

The study offers a number of managerial implications. With the rapid changes in people’s aesthetic sense and developing high-tech, it is more and more necessary for companies to think about how to win more customers and earn more profits. Low quality products have advantages as they will lower companies’ costs in many dimensions, improving the speed of supply. It helps firms to take low quality products into consideration and think whether they will influence different aspects of the company assistance firms to get a deeper understanding of customer psychology and make better decisions on their products.

The paper fills the gap in the research field by exploring how consumer behavior is affected by different conditions.

This study aims to investigate how narcissistic consumers perceive and respond to variations in price and store image in retail settings.

The data for this study were collected from a sample of 248 respondents who participated in an experiment with a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design.

The findings show that while narcissists and non-narcissists do not differ in their perceptions of product quality, they show completely different behavioral intentions. For instance, narcissistic consumers ascribe more importance to store image than to product price, whereas price is more critical in non-narcissists’ decision-making.

Using a young sample and only one product category (i.e. clothing) may affect the generalization of the findings. The inherent drawback of experiments (i.e. gaining internal validity at the cost of external validity) is another limitation of this work.

The construct of narcissism plays a critical role in the way people evaluate products’ symbolic value and ultimately decide to purchase goods from a store which has a certain type of image, including the expected price of the merchandise. Therefore, the findings of this study have significant managerial implications for critical areas of retail business such as segmentation using narcissism, store image management and merchandise pricing.

Despite a long history in social and clinical psychology, few empirical studies have examined narcissism and its impact on consumer behavior. The present study is an attempt to address this gap in retail settings and provides insights into the joint effects of product price and store image on narcissists’ purchase behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the negative effect of lower prices on perceived brand quality that has been demonstrated in evaluation tasks arises in a brand choice context.

The effects of lower prices on perceived quality are assessed via two laboratory experiments in which college students participated.

A lower price is associated with lower perceived brand quality in Study 1's evaluation task environment. However, Study 2's results indicate a reversal of the negative effects of lower prices on perceived brand quality in an evaluation task to generally positive effects when the lower price is offered in the form of a discount in a choice task.

In addition to providing evidence that fears of the detrimental effects of lower prices may be overblown, the results also provide insight to managers of brands of different levels of quality on how to manage discounts to build, or at least to insulate, perceptions of the brand's quality.

The paper's findings may guide both managerial practice and future research on the effects of lower prices, particularly those in the form of a discount.

The paper proposes investigating the timing of consumer requests for price‐matching refunds, the relationship between the refund timing and consumer repeat store purchase and the reasons for buying from the price‐matching store when a lower competitive price is found before purchase.

In Study 1, qualitative research (consumer interviews) was conducted; Study 2 uses a shopping simulation in which the timing of consumer refund‐seeking behavior is observed, and Study 3 involves a consumer survey in which information on consumer refund‐seeking behavior at real stores is gathered.

The paper finds that consumers request price‐matching refunds more frequently at the time of purchase than after the purchase. Seeking (and receiving) the price‐matching refund is associated with higher repeat store purchase behavior than not having had a refund‐seeking experience. Key reasons for buying from the price‐matching retailer when a lower competitive price is found before purchase include convenience, tangible extras, and store reputation/service quality.

A student convenience sample was used. In Study 2, fictitious stores were used. In Study 3, the timing of refund seeking may have been different on other (not reported) occasions. Ability to seek the refund was not accounted for.

The majority of the retailer's price‐matching cost will come from issuing at‐the‐time‐of‐purchase refunds, when consumers possess more bargaining power. A positive refund‐seeking experience may create a more loyal customer. In addition to being a low‐price signal, price‐matching policies can serve as signs of retailers' customer orientation.

This research fills the gap in understanding the consumer price‐match refund‐seeking behavior and offers practical implications for retailers employing price‐matching guarantees.

As sales of store brands increase, retailers are shifting their store branding strategies by raising store brand prices, extending their store brand assortments to high‐risk categories, and marketing store brands in high retail image formats. The purpose of the research is to explore the effects of these changes on consumers’ judgments of store brands. The conceptual framework is derived from pricing, prospect, and information processing theories. It is tested in two experiments. The study finds that consumers’ use of price information varies by decision‐making context. In particular, price‐based effects for store brands are moderated by the contextual factors of category risk and retail image.

The nature of competition between different tiers (e.g. high‐tier vs low‐tier brands) has become an important research domain for academic researchers and marketing managers. Although research on inter‐tier competition is growing at an increasing rate, there has not been a comprehensive attempt to summarize the research in this stream. The objective of this article is to synthesize the research on inter‐tier competition, extract the key findings, discuss managerial implications, and offer future research directions.

The paper aims to test seven marketing‐orientated factors that have the potential to discriminate between the setting of successful high and low prices. The significant factors are then applied by means of a decision support model that can be used by managers to aid their price decision‐making.

Following exploratory research, a mail survey was conducted using a questionnaire based on the dual scenario technique.

Six marketing‐orientated factors – i.e. ability of customers to pay, brand value, degree of competition, price acting as a barrier to entry, demand compared to supply, and the use of a building market share objective – significantly discriminated between the use of successful high versus low price strategies. Using these variables, a highly statistically significant model was developed based on discriminant analysis.

The sample excludes services and is based on responses from managers. Cost‐orientated factors were excluded from investigation to provide focus. The study demonstrates the potential for using the dual scenario technique in survey research, provides measures for seven constructs and highlights the dangers of using reverse‐polarity items to measure constructs.

The decision support model can be used by managers to aid their price decision‐making. The significant factors can also be helpful in market segmentation and targeting analysis.

The study supports a marketing‐orientated theory of price determination based on market, customer and competitor factors. It is the first to provide a systematic and cogent analysis of marketing‐orientated variables that have the potential to affect the high versus low pricing decision. By applying these variables in a decision support model, marketers have access to a tool that can aid their marketing decision‐making.