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In promotional ads that contain both the Regular Price and Sale Price information, this paper aims to investigate whether changing the font sizes of these two prices has an effect on how consumers process the ad message. The authors use acquisition-transaction utility perspective to identify key differences in mechanisms invoked by the larger font size of the Regular Price vs that of the Sale Price.

Study 1 uses eye-tracking apparatus to study subjects’ responses to a full-color, realistic-looking ad for a digital camera. Study 2 uses a survey questionnaire to gauge subjects’ responses to a similar print ad. The font sizes of Regular Price and Sale price were manipulated while keeping all the other elements of the ad the same. Subjects were undergraduate students who participated in the study for a small incentive.

The authors find that making the relative font size of Regular Price bigger invokes a transaction-utility mechanism where customers’ attention is focused on the savings that can be had using the promotion. A bigger font size of Sale Price invokes an acquisition-utility mechanism that draws on the customers’ value consciousness.

The use of student subjects and only one product category in the experiments may limit the generalizability of the study’s findings.

In print ads, managers predominantly use a bigger font size for the Sale Price. This study suggests that the choice of a bigger font size should really be driven by the objective of the promotion: a bigger font size for Sale Price is advised if the objective is to take an acquisition utility approach, whereas a bigger font size for Regular Price is advised for using a transaction utility approach.

This study is the first attempt at using an acquisition-transaction utility perspective for understanding the use of relative font sizes in the context of price promotions.

This study aims to examine how the modern marketing expectation of treating the customer like a king can become a source of power differential in societies that already have a predisposition for hierarchical structures. The authors explore how this marketing-generated power differential might have an adverse impact on service providers in Eastern cultures with high power distance.

Four studies involving receivers and providers of services in Canada and South Korea were conducted. The experiments required participants to read service scenarios and respond to survey questions.

The authors find that practicing the “The Customer is King” philosophy does produce a power differential between the customer and the service provider in Eastern cultures. In such cultures, customers may feel superior in social hierarchy compared to the service providers, may develop a sense of entitlement that infringes on the rights of the service providers and may carry over that expectation from service to non-service contexts. The power differential is also a source of stress for the service provider.

The use of scenarios in our experiments may limit the generalizability of the study’s findings.

Although sharing of best practices across cultures can be a worthwhile goal for managers, blind copying of some Western practices in Eastern markets can be problematic. The cultural context of markets calls for caution. In their quest for excellent customer service, managers should not let customers expect the service provider to become subservient and servile.

This study is the first attempt at examining the social impact of a marketing philosophy (customer is king) and how the outcomes might be different depending on the culture in which the philosophy is practiced.

Current research on brand alliances has focused primarily on alliances between two known, national brands. However, there is significant benefit to both parties in an alliance between a national brand and a private brand. Such alliances are gaining importance in the industry but have not been studied by marketers. The basic question explored in this study is whether using a national brand ingredient can benefit a private brand without hurting the national brand. First, a theoretical framework to explain how consumers may react to such an alliance is presented. Next, an experiment was conducted which showed that a private brand with a name brand ingredient was evaluated more positively. However, the evaluation of the national brand was not diminished by this association. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

This paper examines adoption of really‐new products (RNPs) from a consumer perspective. The unique characteristics of RNPs which differentiate them from other innovative products are examined in relation to the role which these characteristics play in creating barriers to adoption of RNPs. These characteristics in turn affect different stages of the adoption process. Surrogate buyers, acting as agents used by adopters to provide guidance, direction, and/or advice related to marketplace activities, can significantly impact consumer adoption and commercial success of RNPs by minimizing or overcoming barriers related to the stages of the adoption process and characteristics of RNPs.

Sales and market share of store brands have been growing significantly at the expense of national brands. The decision to purchase a store brand or a national brand has been modeled in this paper. The proposed model provides an explanation for the existence of asymmetric price competition between store brands and national brands. The article proposes and empirically demonstrates the existence of a reference threshold as the key criterion underlying this choice. It also shows that the decision to buy the store/national brand is not influenced by the store brand’s price or price promotions, or the magnitude of the difference between the threshold and the national brand’s price.

This study aims to examine cultural differences between Easterners and Westerners in processing preference‐inconsistent information. The focal question that the study addresses is as follows: When faced with negative information about their preferred alternative, do Easterners and Westerners respond differently? If yes, how do these differences impact purchase intentions?

A total of 102 students from a major Korean university and 96 students from a major Canadian university participated in the study. The experiment involved reading fictitious but realistic product reviews about a new car model and responding to survey questions.

The authors find that, compared to Eastern consumers, Western consumers are affected differently by preference‐inconsistent information. They experience a greater level of cognitive discomfort, exhibit a stronger motivation to reduce that discomfort, and attempt to resolve the conflict between their original preference and inconsistent information. These factors lead to a significant reduction in their purchase intentions.

The use of student subjects may limit the generalizability of the study's findings.

Marketers can benefit by knowing that negative information about a product (as, say, in an online review) does not have a uniform effect across cultures. Consumers in Eastern cultures are more capable of handling negative information without reversing their product preferences. Western consumers, on the other hand, will strive to resolve the conflict between their preference (positive affect) and the negative product review (negative affect) by either changing their preference or discounting the review. Mostly, the damaging effects of a negative review are likely to be greater in Western cultures.

This study is the first attempt at examining the effect of cultural differences on processing preference‐inconsistent information. As organizations become more global, understanding culture‐based differences in information processing can help marketers create a more nuanced marketing strategy.

Models the role and impact of a relatively new intermediary, the surrogate buyers, on the new product adoption process. Existing diffusion models have ignored the impact of this intermediary who is becoming increasingly influential in many product categories/ purchase situations. Given the increasing product complexity and a plethora of product‐related information in the market, buyers are delegating the task of processing this information and making purchase decisions to surrogate buyers (such as wardrobe consultants, interior decorators). Examines the impact of such delegation on the adoption process. The inclusion of surrogate buyers not only makes the adoption process two‐staged, but also has other important managerial implications because of the unique characteristics of surrogate buyers. Develops a conceptual model to examine the impact of these characteristics on the adoption process and presents strategies to market new products successfully in situations where the surrogate buyers are the primary adopting units.

While there has been much debate in the reference pricing literature on the most appropriate conceptualization of internal reference price used by consumers in evaluating deals, the question of whether consumers may use different internal reference prices at different stages of the purchase process has not been addressed. In this article, we hypothesize that consumers may use one type of internal reference price to form their deal attitude and another to determine their purchase intentions. We also show that different dimensions of internal reference price are used to determine deal attitude and purchase intention and that price uncertainty moderates the relationship between these internal reference prices and deal evaluation.

Pricing is always a fundamental marketing element. In the digital marketing/e-commerce context, there are two universal phenomena: desire to micro-segment and customize, and the adverse reaction upon unfair perception of price. A third related question is how should firms consider price increases and decreases? Specifically, this paper aims to address the following three research and practice questions: What are the theoretical underpinnings of perception of fairness/unfairness in pricing, and what are the findings? What are the theoretical underpinnings of response to price increases and decreases? What should be online pricing strategy, consistent with the findings on (un)fairness perception of pricing and response to price increases and decreases?

The present approach is integrative review and critical analyses, and synthesis. The review dates back to 1960s, and is inter-disciplinary, including apposite findings in behavioral science, economics, marketing and operations management/research. The authors search for insights with significant empirical support to address these questions.

Perception of unfair price impacts consumer choice, probability of purchase, intent to buy and attitude to product/service/firm adversely. Consumers react differently to perceived unfair and fair prices. Consumers react more strongly and negatively to perceived unfair prices (compared to prices perceived to be fair) in their intent to buy and other related metrics. Consumers react differently to price increases and price decreases relative to the reference price. Consumers react more strongly to price increases than to price decreases. There is substantial heterogeneity in the magnitude of loss-aversion effect, depending on the product/service category and estimation methods.

The authors review and discuss potential viable pricing strategies. Based on the generalizable findings, this study provides actionable insights to managers for pricing in digital marketing context. Also, the authors provide useful directions for future research.

This paper aims to explore the factors for self-help groups (SHGs) women empowerment in the state of Uttar Pradesh using the primary data.

The primary data have been collected by a household survey in the four districts of Uttar Pradesh. Factor analysis is used to estimate the odd of improving women empowerment after participating in SHG.

Factor analysis extracted four factors which were economic development, improvement in family matters, decision to use public amenities and political empowerment. Also, analysis of variance and t-test was used employing SPSS. The results, therefore, show that education has a significant impact on all the aspects of SHGs people.

The findings of the study can help policymakers to adopt appropriate policies that integrate empowerment in development projects with women.

The results of this research could encourage more women to participate in SHG activities and development projects.

This research provides the most updated data from a primary survey in the state of Uttar Pradesh.