The Effects Of Price Fluency And Duration Frame On Attitude Towards AD,purchase Intention And Willingness To Pay: The Moderation Of Product Type And Consumer Gender

Marketers usually use various ways to present the price information and promotion duration of products,which will change consumers’ processing fluency of price information and subjective perception of time.It has been found that in promotional advertising,there is a fit effect resulting from the match between price fluency and duration frame.Specifically,when fluent processing is combined with discount duration presented in a small unit(e.g.,7 days),or when disfluent processing is combined with discount duration presented in a large unit(e.g.,1week),consumers have a greater purchase intention.However,it is unclear whether the fit effect is robust and whether it is modulated by product type and consumer gender.In addition,the mediating mechanism for the fit effect remains to be explored.Based on construal level theory,the current study aimed to answer the above questions by manipulating price fluency and duration frame in different ways and designing promotional scenarios for utilitarian products and hedonic products.In Experiments 1 and 2,a 2(price fluency: low,high)× 2(duration frame: small unit,large unit)× 2(product type: hedonic,utilitarian)mixed design were used.In Experiment 3,a 2(price fluency: low,high)× 2(duration frame: small unit,large unit)× 2(product type: hedonic,utilitarian)between-subjects design was used.In the above three experiments,price fluency was manipulated by changing text color,price font and price numbers fluency,respectively;discount duration was set as 30 days or 1month;pictures of paper notebook and black chocolate were used for the scenarios of utilitarian and hedonic products,respectively.To test the moderating effect of gender,in Experiment 4,a2(price fluency: low,high)× 2(duration frame: small unit,large unit)× 2(product type:hedonic,utilitarian)× 2(gender: male,female)between-subjects design was used.The manipulation of price fluency was consistent with that in Experiment 1;discount duration was set as 720 hours or 1 month;pictures of shopping coupon and movie ticket were used for the scenarios of utilitarian and hedonic products,respectively.The results of Experiment 1(n = 124)were as follows: 1)No interaction was found between price fluency and duration frame;2)In terms of attitude towards AD and purchase intention but not willingness to pay,there was a significant interaction between duration frame and product type.Specifically,when the discount duration was presented in a large unit,purchase intention and attitude towards AD for the hedonic product were higher;and when the discount duration was presented in a small unit,there was no significant difference between purchase intention and attitude towards AD for different products;3)No interaction was found between price fluency,duration frame and gender;4)The mediating effect of emotion was not significant.The results of Experiment 2(n = 134)were as follows: 1)No interaction was found between price fluency and duration frame;2)No interaction was found between price fluency,duration frame and product type;3)In terms of purchase intention and willingness to pay but not attitude towards AD,the interaction between price fluency,duration frame and gender was significant,Specifically,for males,when prices were not fluent to process and the discount duration was presented in a large unit,willingness to pay was higher,but there was no significant difference under other conditions;for females,when prices were fluent to process and the discount duration was presented in a large unit,purchase intention and willingness to pay were higher,but there was no significant difference under other conditions;4)The mediating effect of emotion on was not significant.The results of Experiment 3(n = 133)were as follows: 1)No interaction was found between price fluency and duration frame;2)No interaction was found between price fluency,duration frame and product type;3)No interaction was found between price fluency,duration frame and gender;4)The mediating effect of emotion on was not significant.The results of experiment four(n = 229)were as follows: 1)No interaction was found between price fluency and duration frame;2)In terms of attitude towards AD,but not purchase intention and willingness to pay,there was a significant interaction between duration frame and product type.Specifically,when the discount duration was presented in a small unit,attitude towards AD toward the utilitarian product was higher;when the discount duration was presented in a large unit,there was no significant difference between attitude towards AD for different products;3)In terms of attitude towards AD,but not purchase intention and willingness to pay,there was a significant interaction between duration frame and gender.Specifically,when the discount duration was presented in a large unit,females’ attitude towards AD was higher than that of males;when the discount duration was presented in a small unit,there was no significant difference in attitude towards AD between males and females;4)The mediating effect of emotion was not significant;5)For the utilitarian product,in terms of attitude towards AD and purchase intention but not willingness to pay,feeling right mediated the fit effect of price fluency and duration frame when the discount duration was presented in a large unit.For the hedonic product,the mediating effect of feeling right was not significant;6)The mediating effect of perceived fit was not significant.The following conclusions were therefore drawn: 1)The fit effect resulting from the match between price fluency and duration frame was not robust;2)The above fit effect was modulated by consumer gender;3)The above fit effect was not modulated by product type,but there was a fit effect for the combination of product type and duration frame.When the scenario for the hedonic product was accompanied by discount duration presented in a large unit,or when the scenario for the utilitarian product was accompanied by discount duration presented in a small unit,consumers had a more positive attitude towards AD and higher purchase intention;4)For the utilitarian product(rather than the hedonic product),the fit effect on attitude towards AD and purchase intention was mediated by feeling right(rather than emotion and the perceived fit).This present research reveals a boundary condition for the fit effect and identifies a mediating mechanism underlying the fit effect,thus providing important experimental evidence for sellers in terms of how to enhance their price-based promotional ADs.