The Research On The Effect Mechanism Of Price Frame On Consumer's Preference In Promotional Information

Pricing strategy is an important weapon for the firms to participate in market competition. Consumer's price perception is not objective but subjective. In fact, the different format of price clues can affect the consumer's evaluations and judgements which result in their different price perception and choice.Thus it is urgent that marketers should know the mechanism that price frame affects consumer's preference. The field of price frame affecting consumer's preference in promotion information will enrich consuming decision theory which is based on traditional economics and it is the new trend of behavioral pricing. Based on the experimental researches which are often used by behavioral economics, we explore the two different price frames, combined and partitioned pricing triggering consumer's different cognitive and affective responses and how these responses result in consumer's preference changes by three studies.Firstly, the results empirically indicate that under two types of information perception model——recall-driven and stimulus-driven, consumers with different need for cognition(NC)have different perceptions of offer value and buying intentions when they are facing two different pricing frames——combined and partitioned pricing. When perception of information model is recall-driven, high-NC consumers have higher perceptions of offer value and buying intentions to combined pricing products than partitioned ones, while there is no significant difference for low-NC consumers. When perception of information is stimulus-driven, high-NC consumers have higher perceptions of offer value and buying intentions to partitioned pricing products than combined ones, but it is reverse for low-NC consumers.Secondly, we test in the overall assessment of a product, the consumers have more selective attention and thus higher weight on secondary attributes under partitioned pricing than combined pricing. Under partitioned pricing, the higher the evualbility of the attribute's price, the more selective attention on the attribute and thus higher weight on it in the overall assessment of a product.Lastly, this research finds when a hedonic product is sold bundled with a utilitarian one, the consumers have different buying intentions to the bundles when framing a discount as savings on different items. Framing a discount as savings on hedonic versus utilitarian items makes consumers have less expected guilt and higher buying intentions to the bundles. Expected guilt mediates price frame and consumer's buying intention.