Consumer Evaluation of Reference Price Advertisements: Effects of Other Brands’ Prices and Semantic Cues
通过两个实验研究其他品牌的外部价格信息如何影响消费者对参考价格广告的评价，发现合理范围内的外部价格会增强抽象语义线索下的正面感知，而离谱价格下外部信息无效但参考价格水平本身影响价值感知和购买意向。
Although consumer behavior and policy researchers have contributed to legislation and legal decisions for reference price advertising, there is hardly any research on how “other” external price information may influence the effects of reference prices and associated semantic cues. The authors study these issues with two 3 × 2 × 2 experiments. Results of the first study indicate that consumer evaluations are influenced by other external price information within a plausible reference price range. In addition, presence of other external price information results in more positive perceptions of the offer when respondents are exposed to an abstract semantic cue. The results of the second study show that other external price information has no effect when the respondents are exposed to implausible or highly implausible prices, but the reference price level affects consumers’ perceptions of value, attitude toward the deal, and search intentions. The authors discuss the possible public policy and managerial implications.