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Consumers' Interpretations of the Semantic Phrases Found in Reference Price Advertisements
Author(s) -
COMPEAU LARRY D.,
LINDSEYMULLIKIN JOAN,
GREWAL DHRUV,
PETTY ROSS D.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6606.2004.tb00471.x
Subject(s) - vagueness , phrase , meaning (existential) , commission , reference price , economics , deception , advertising , perception , marketing , business , microeconomics , psychology , linguistics , social psychology , philosophy , finance , neuroscience , psychotherapist , fuzzy logic
Consumers are frequently presented with a higher reference price to compare with a lower advertised selling price. The research on reference prices has traditionally been conducted based on the implicit assumption that consumers’ interpretations of a given semantic phrase, e.g., “Regular Price/Sale Price,”are consistent across all consumers, but this fundamental assumption has never been tested. Guidelines issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Council of Better Business Bureaus, as well as regulations enacted by approximately half of all states, appear to be based on a similar assumption. However, given the variability among consumers’ perceptions found in other areas of consumer research, it is reasonable to expect that consumer interpretations of semantic phrases may vary. Given the potential variability, a pricing claim may be deemed informative or deceptive depending on the meaning the particular consumer attaches to the claim. This article presents a discussion of the vagueness in pricing claims as a step toward evaluating deception.