Frames of Reference and Buyers' Perception of Price and Value

Day George S. Jocz Katherine E. Root H. Paul , “Domains of Ignorance: What Marketers Need to Know,” Marketing Management (Winter 1992), pp. 8–15.

Anderson James C. Jain Dipak C. Chintagunta Pradeep K. , “Customer Value Assessment in Business Markets: A State of Practice Study,” Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 1 (1993): 3–30. A comprehensive conceptual discussion of value and its relationship with price and quality is found in Zeithaml Valarie A. , “Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence,” Journal of Marketing, 52 (July 1988): 2–22.

Monroe Kent B. Petroshius Susan M. , “Buyers' Perceptions of Price: An Update of the Evidence,” in Kassarjian H. Robertson T. S. , eds., Perspectives in Consumer Behavior, 3rd Ed. (Glenview, IL: Scott-Foresman 1981), pp. 43–55.

Kahneman Daniel Tversky Amos , “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk,” Econometrica, 47 (March 1979): 263–91; Tversky Amos Kahneman Daniel , “Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (1992).

Many marketing implications of prospect theory, including its extension to decision making in nonprobabilistic situations, have been developed by Thaler Richard Thaler Richard , “Toward a Positive Theory of Consumer Choice,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 1 (1980): 39–60; Thaler Richard , “Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice,” Marketing Science, 4/3 (Summer 1985): 199–214.

This discussion expands on the seminal work by Thaler (1985), op. cit.

Meyerowitz Beth E. Chaiken Shelly , “The Effect of Message Framing on Breast Self-Examination Attitudes, Intentions, and Behavior,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52/3 (1987): 500–10; Maheswaran Durairaj Meyers-Levy Joan , “The Influence of Message Framing and Issue Involvement,” Journal of Marketing Research, 27 (August 1990): 361–67.

Smith Gerald E. Wortzel Lawrence H. , “Prior Knowledge and the Effectiveness of Message Frames in Advertising” (Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute, 1993).

Thaler (1985), op. cit.

Garbarino Ellen Slonim Robert , “Effects of Price History and Price Change Awareness on Sales and Perceptions,” presented at Behavioral Perspectives on Pricing conference, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA, 1995.

Simonson Itamar Tversky Amos , “Choice in Context: Tradeoff Contrast and Extremeness Aversion,” Journal of Marketing Research, 29 (August 1992): 281–95.

Urbany Joel E. Bearden William O. Weilbaker Dan C. , “The Effect of Plausible and Exaggerated Reference Prices on Consumer Perceptions and Price Search,” Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (June 1988): 95–110.

See Berkowitz Eric N. Walton John R. , “Contextual Influences on Consumer Price Responses: An Experimental Analysis,” Journal of Marketing Research, 17 (August 1980): 349–58; Della Bitta Albert J. Monroe Kent B. McGinnis John M. , “Consumer Perceptions of Comparative Price Advertisements,” Journal of Marketing Research, 18 (November 1981): 416–27; Fraser Cynthia Hite Robert E. Sauer Paul L. , “Increasing Contributions in Solicitation Campaigns: The Use of Large and Small Anchorpoints,” Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (September 1988): 284–87; Mobley Mary F. Bearden William O. Teel Jesse E. , “An Investigation of Individual Responses to Tensile Price Claims,” Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (September 1988): 273–79; Barnes James G. , “Factors Influencing Consumer Reaction to Retail Newspaper Sale Advertising,” in Proceedings, Fall Educators' Conference (Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 1975), pp. 471–77; Blair Edward A. Landon E. Laird Jr. , “The Effects of Reference Prices in Retail Advertisements,” Journal of Marketing, 45/2 (Spring 1981): 61–69; Liefeld John Heslop Louise A. , “Reference Prices and Deception in Newspaper Advertising,” Journal of Consumer Research, 11 (March 1985): 868–76.

Winer Russell S. , “A Reference Price Model of Brand Choice for Frequently Purchased Products,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (September 1986): 250–56.

Liefeld Heslop , op. cit.

Thaler (1985), op. cit.

Lambert Zarrel V. , “Perceived Prices as Related to Odd and Even Price Endings,” Journal of Retailing, 51 (Fall 1975): 13–22; Schindler Robert M. Wiman Alan R. , “Consumer Recall of Odd and Even Prices,” working paper, Northeastern University, 1983; Schindler Robert M. , “Consumer Recognition of Increase in Odd and Even Prices,” in Advances in Consumer Research, 11, ed. Kinnear T.C. (Association for Consumer Research, 1983), pp. 459–62; Schindler Robert M. Kibarian Thomas M. , “Increased Sales of Discounted Items Through Use of 99-Ending Prices,” presented at Behavioral Perspectives on Pricing Conference, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA, April 1995.

Ginzberg Eli , “Customary Prices,” American Economic Review, 26 (1986): 296.

This example comes from a study by Russo J. Edward Schoemaker Paul and is discussed in more detail in their book Russo J. Edward Schoemaker Paul J.H. , Decision Traps: The Ten Barriers to Brilliant Decision Making & How to Overcome Them (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1989).

Kahneman Daniel Tversky Amos , “Choices, Values, and Frames,” American Psychologist, 39/4 (April 1984): 341–50.

Monroe Kent B. Petroshius Susan M. , “Buyers' Perceptions of Price: An Update of the Evidence,” in Kassarjian H. Robertson T.S. , eds., Perspectives in Consumer Behavior, 3rd ed., (Glenview, IL: Scott-Foresman, 1981), pp. 43–55.

See, for examples and references, Kahneman Tversky (April 1984), op. cit.; Tversky Amos Kahneman Daniel , “Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (1992).

Hershey J.C. Schoemaker Paul , “Risk Taking and Problem Context in the Domain of Losses: An Expected-Utility Analysis,” Journal of Risk and Insurance, 47 (1980): 111–32.

See Slovic Paul Fischhoff Baruch Lichtenstein Sarah , “Accident Probabilities and Seat Belt Usage: A Psychological Perspective,” Accident Analysis and Prevention, 10 (1978): 281–85.

Slovic Paul Fischhoff Baruch Lichtenstein Sarah , “Response Mode, Framing, and Information-Processing Effects in Risk Assessment,” in Hogarth Robin , ed., New Directions for Methodology of Social and Behavioral Science: Question Framing and Response Consistency (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1982), pp. 21–36.