Name-Letters and Birthday-Numbers: Implicit Egotism Effects in Pricing

Abstract

This research examines how the implicit egotism resulting from consumers’ positive self-associations affects their evaluations of product prices. The effects can occur when the product's price and the consumer share either name-letters (name-letter/price effect) or birthday-numbers (birthday-number/price effect). Through a series of studies, the authors demonstrate that the positive affect linked to name-letters and birthday-numbers transfers directly to consumers’ price predilections and ultimately affects their purchase intentions. More specifically, consumers like prices (e.g., “fifty-five dollars”) that contain digits beginning with the same first letter (e.g., “F”) as their own name (e.g., “Fred,” “Mr. Frank”) more than prices that do not. Similarly, prices that contain cents digits (e.g., $49.15) that correspond to a consumer's date of birth (e.g., April 15) also enhance pricing liking and purchase intentions. Across groups of consumers, the authors’ findings demonstrate that implicit egotism effects can result in greater purchase intentions for a higher-priced product compared with a lower-priced product.