IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v49y2019icp129-142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Same price, different perception: Measurement-unit effects on price-level perceptions and purchase intentions

Author

Listed:
  • Fecher, André
  • Robbert, Thomas
  • Roth, Stefan

Abstract

In many countries, retailers are obligated to display unit prices for their products. Still, they have considerable flexibility in the unit price measure used. For example, price can be stated per kg or per 100 g. We demonstrate that large unit price measures (prices per kg) lead to higher perceived prices and subsequently to lower purchase intentions than smaller measures (prices per 100 g). We also elaborate on the boundary conditions of this effect. The results of four experimental studies indicate that the measurement-unit effect is significantly lower when retailers display two prices: unit and retail price. In addition, the effect is dependent on the groceries' package size, as it is only evident for medium-sized packages (e.g., 500 g) but not for small (e.g., 100 g) and large (e.g., 1000 g) packages. The results of these studies provide useful guidance for retailers on the use of different measurement units as a strategic option in their price presentation.

Suggested Citation

  • Fecher, André & Robbert, Thomas & Roth, Stefan, 2019. "Same price, different perception: Measurement-unit effects on price-level perceptions and purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 129-142.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:49:y:2019:i:c:p:129-142
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.03.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096969891830780X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.03.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shirai, Miyuri, 2017. "Effects of price reframing tactics on consumer perceptions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 82-87.
    2. Rajesh Bagchi & Xingbo Li, 2011. "Illusionary Progress in Loyalty Programs: Magnitudes, Reward Distances, and Step-Size Ambiguity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(5), pages 888-901.
    3. Ashwani Monga & Rajesh Bagchi, 2012. "Years, Months, and Days versus 1, 12, and 365: The Influence of Units versus Numbers," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(1), pages 185-198.
    4. González, Eva M. & Esteva, Eduardo & Roggeveen, Anne L. & Grewal, Dhruv, 2016. "Amount off versus percentage off—when does it matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 1022-1027.
    5. Cadario, Romain & Parguel, Béatrice & Benoit-Moreau, Florence, 2016. "Is bigger always better? The unit effect in carbon emissions information," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 204-207.
    6. Mathieu Lefebvre & Ferdinand Vieider & Marie Villeval, 2011. "The ratio bias phenomenon: fact or artifact?," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 71(4), pages 615-641, October.
    7. Mario Pandelaere & Barbara Briers & Christophe Lembregts, 2011. "How to Make a 29% Increase Look Bigger: The Unit Effect in Option Comparisons," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(2), pages 308-322.
    8. Klaus Wertenbroch & Dilip Soman & Amitava Chattopadhyay, 2007. "On the Perceived Value of Money: The Reference Dependence of Currency Numerosity Effects," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(1), pages 1-10, March.
    9. Christophe Lembregts & Mario Pandelaere, 2013. "Are All Units Created Equal? The Effect of Default Units on Product Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1275-1289.
    10. repec:cup:judgdm:v:1:y:2006:i::p:118-133 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Weeks, Clinton S. & Mortimer, Gary & Page, Lionel, 2016. "Understanding how consumer education impacts shoppers over time: A longitudinal field study of unit price usage," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 198-209.
    12. Y. Charles Zhang & Norbert Schwarz, 2012. "How and Why 1 Year Differs from 365 Days: A Conversational Logic Analysis of Inferences from the Granularity of Quantitative Expressions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(2), pages 248-259.
    13. Yao, Jun & Oppewal, Harmen, 2016. "Unit Pricing Increases Price Sensitivity Even When Products are of Identical Size," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 109-121.
    14. Jose Luis Pinto-Prades & Jorge E. Martinez Perez & Jose María Abellán Perpiñán, 2006. "The influence of the Ratio Bias phenomenon on the elicitation of Standard Gamble utilities," Working Papers 06.16, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    15. M. Pandelaere & B. Briers, 2011. "How to Make a 29% Increase Look Bigger: Numerosity Effects in Option Comparisons," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 11/712, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    16. Ofir, Chezy & Raghubir, Priya & Brosh, Gili & Monroe, Kent B. & Heiman, Amir, 2008. "Memory-Based Store Price Judgments: The Role of Knowledge and Shopping Experience," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(4), pages 414-423.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ohlwein, Martin, 2022. "Same but different - The effect of the unit of measure on the valuation of a unit price," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. A. Fecher & T. Robbert & S. Roth, 2020. "Unit Price Measures in Retailing: Consistency Effects on Product Choice and Store Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 611-633, September.
    3. Tan, Fuqiang & Li, Xi & Agarwal, Reeti & Joshi, Yatish & Yaqub, Muhammad Zafar, 2024. "Does multilingual packaging influence purchasing in retail segment? Evidence from multiple experiments," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Hsin-Hsien Liu & Hsuan-Yi Chou, 2022. "Attribute specification effect on hedonic and utilitarian options," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(2), pages 322-341, May.
    5. Fecher, André & Robbert, Thomas & Roth, Stefan, 2020. "Per piece or per kilogram? Default-unit effects in retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Hou, Chenxuan & Sarigöllü, Emine, 2022. "Is bigger better? How the scale effect influences green purchase intention: The case of washing machine," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ohlwein, Martin, 2022. "Same but different - The effect of the unit of measure on the valuation of a unit price," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. Fecher, André & Robbert, Thomas & Roth, Stefan, 2020. "Per piece or per kilogram? Default-unit effects in retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Santana, Shelle & Thomas, Manoj & Morwitz, Vicki G., 2020. "The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 138-154.
    4. repec:cup:judgdm:v:15:y:2020:i:6:p:972-988 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Mario Herberz & Tobias Brosch & Ulf J. J. Hahnel, 2020. "Kilo what? Default units increase value sensitivity in joint evaluations of energy efficiency," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 15(6), pages 972-988, November.
    6. Ho, Edward & Kowatsch, Tobias & Ilic, Alexander, 2014. "The Sales Velocity Effect on Retailing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 237-256.
    7. Lembregts, Christophe & Pandelaere, Mario, 2014. ""A 20% income increase for everyone?": The effect of relative increases in income on perceived income inequality," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 37-47.
    8. Arnaud Monnier & Manoj Thomas, 2022. "Experiential and Analytical Price Evaluations: How Experiential Product Description Affects Prices [The Utility of an Information Processing Approach for Behavioral Price Research]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(4), pages 574-594.
    9. Huang, Wen-Hsien & Cheng, Yi-Ching, 2015. "Threshold free shipping policies for internet shoppers," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 193-203.
    10. Hsin-Hsien Liu & Hsuan-Yi Chou, 2022. "Attribute specification effect on hedonic and utilitarian options," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(2), pages 322-341, May.
    11. C. Lembregts & M. Pandelaere, 2012. "Are All Units Created Equal?: The Effect of Default Units on Product Evaluations," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/812, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    12. Zoe Y. Lu & Christopher K. Hsee & Kaiyang Wu, 2024. "Short-Asking with Long-Encouraging (SALE): A simple method to increase purchase quantity," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1152-1170, July.
    13. Cho, Yoon-Na & Taylor, Charles R., 2020. "The role of ambiguity and skepticism in the effectiveness of sustainability labeling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 379-388.
    14. Matthew Fisher & Milica Mormann, 2022. "The Off by 100% Bias: The Effects of Percentage Changes Greater than 100% on Magnitude Judgments and Consumer Choice [Numerosity and Consumer Behavior]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(4), pages 561-573.
    15. Tatiana Sokolova, 2023. "Days-of-the-Week Effect in Temporal Judgments," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 50(1), pages 167-189.
    16. Antonio J. Morales & Enrique Fatas, 2021. "Price competition and nominal illusion: experimental evidence and a behavioural model," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 607-632, December.
    17. Thomas Hagedorn & Jan Wessel, 2022. "How Information on Emissions per Euro Spent can Influence Leisure Travel Decisions," Working Papers 35, Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster.
    18. Nicole Koschate-Fischer & Katharina Wüllner, 2017. "New developments in behavioral pricing research," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(6), pages 809-875, August.
    19. Pleshcheva, Vlada, 2019. "Metric and Scale Effects in Consumer Preferences for Environmental Benefits," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 147, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    20. Yang, Bi & Li, Shanshi & Chen, Zhenyu & Mattila, Anna S., 2023. "Consumer responses to time-based sales messages," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    21. Rashmi Adaval, 2013. "The utility of an information processing approach for behavioral price research," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(3), pages 130-134, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:49:y:2019:i:c:p:129-142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.