How do price range shoppers differ from reference price point shoppers?

Existing research demonstrates that reference price models can explain a significant amount of the variation in customers' price perceptions and purchase behaviors. This study extends the reference price literature by introducing the price range model, which proposes that price judgments are based on a comparison of the market price to the entire range of currently available prices. Our results demonstrate that the fit of a structural heterogeneity finite mixture model improves when the price range model is included along with internal and external reference price models and that the price range model explains a substantial proportion of customers' purchase histories in the toilet tissue category. Profile analysis indicates that internal reference price shoppers switch brands much less frequently than the other two segments and respond to feature promotions for their preferred brand(s). External reference price shoppers have an intermediate level of brand preference and respond significantly less than the other two segments to feature and display promotions. Price range shoppers have the lowest brand loyalty and respond most strongly to both feature and display promotions.