The Effect Of Hidden Price Promotion Strategies On Consumer Participation Intention:The Mediating Role Of Positive Anticipatory Utility

In practice,more and more online retailers are beginning to use hidden price promotion strategies in order to gain consumers’ attention and traffic,and further improve consumers’ participation in promotional activities.As a new uncertainty promotion strategy,hidden price promotion has just begun to be paid attention to in academic circles.Based on a review of existing relevant literature,this paper finds that the only studies generally reveal the negative impact of hidden price promotion,and mainly focus on exploring "whether" to hide the overall price,while there is no research on "how" to hide price(such as only hiding part of the price)to produce better marketing effect.The in-depth exploration of this problem will help people better understand the market behavior and provide corresponding guidance for marketing planners.In this paper,based on a systematic review of the relevant literature on uncertain promotion and hidden price,positive anticipatory utility and consumer willingness to participate,this paper uses the theory of innate optimism to build a theoretical model of the impact of hidden price digits(left-hand digits vs.right-hand digits)on consumer willingness to participate.Through three online experiments and one field experiment,the mediation mechanism and boundary conditions of hidden price digits on consumers’ willingness to participate were clarified.The research found that: compared with the left-hand digit of the hidden price,the right-hand digit of the hidden price can more effectively improve consumers’ willingness to participate in promotional activities,and the positive anticipatory utility plays an intermediary role in it.In addition,the influence of the promotion strategy of hidden price digits on consumers’ willingness to participate is moderated by the discount size.In the case of low discount,right-hand digits(vs.left-hand digits)of hidden price digits can better improve consumers’ willingness to participate.In the case of medium discount and high discount,the influence of hidden price digits on consumers’ willingness to participate is not significant.In addition,this paper also excludes alternative explanations that are ease imagery and sufficient for information.From the perspective of hidden price digits,this study reveals the positive effects of hidden price promotion strategies on consumers’ willingness to participate,enriches the literature on uncertain promotion,positive anticipatory utility and discount framing effect,and has significant theoretical contributions.At the same time,the research also provides theoretical basis and corresponding guidance for merchants to better implement and design hidden price promotion in practice.