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Pricing decisions are some of the most important marketing considerations and require knowledge on the value that customers associate with a company’s offerings when optimizing revenues and product positioning in a market. However, measuring the customers’ willingness to pay (WTP) remains a challenging task, because numerous biases, psychological phenomena, and social norms cause distorted answers in methods that are commonly used to assess the WTP, which leads to misguiding data and false assumptions with regard to price-sales relationships. This study recognizes the importance of reliable and accurate data that adequately reflects the real market situation. In this context, controlling as a business function plays a major role, being the intersection between financial consideration and business functions such as marketing and sales, providing important data that is used as a foundation for strategic decision-making. Therefore, this study has the objective to investigate how implicit price research can support the planning of strategic decisions in the context of digitized controlling by implementing an online reaction time tool as an integrated module into a controlling software.
The present paper proposes to contribute to this topic by applying an experimental pricing research method – NeuroPricing® Online – using implicitly assessed reaction time data to investigate the subjects' unconscious willingness to pay in two distinct case studies in the mineral water market.
The results of the first case study indicate the existence of the willingness to pay a price premium for organically labeled water but suggest a strong dependence on the container type and the distinct price segment in which the water is offered. The second case study revealed that the perceived value of identical products of a brand could be considerably different between potential customers in established and new sales regions.
Our research contributes to a better understanding of consumers’ valuation and emphasizes the importance of implicit pricing research as a method to support digitized controlling as an interconnecting business function between financial considerations, consumer behavior, and strategic management.
Forecasting demand is a mission-critical but non-trivial pursuit in strategic planning for any brand. However, long-established explicit pricing research methodologies suffer from well-described biases, thus posing a significant obstacle to accurate forecasting. One way to tackle this challenge is resorting to implicit measures inspired by paradigms from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Hence, as carried out with NeuroPricing Online, implicit price research can help identify a consumer's Willingness to Pay (WTP) for a product or service. Consequently, the entire sample´s distribution of WTPs can be converted into a population model of demand vs price. A subsequent model of revenue has, to date, in marketing research, typically been based on indexed values, providing the user of the data with non-intuitive and rather abstract measures. Here, using the case of a Mineral Water bottler, we have integrated the demand model directly in a well-maintained digital controlling tool of said cooperation. Central figures such as gross sales and contribution margin were modelled based on realistic cost and market estimates. Thus, assuming the same conditions, the data leads to a fact-based and accurate prediction of the results of a price change. The insights allow the company to gain concrete insights into the context of its pricing strategy and, if necessary, reposition itself to achieve a competitive advantage. For instance, the pricing model integrated into the controlling tool allows for comparing various bottle types in terms of revenue and contribution margin. As such, the specific impact on the financial performance of, say, a revenue maximising or contribution margin maximising strategy can be predicted.
An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Packaging Design on Consumers' Willingness to Pay
(2021)
This study sheds light on the extent to which high-quality aesthetic packaging can positively influence consumer choice and raise willingness to pay at the point of sale. In two separate parts, we measure purchasing decisions and willingness to pay by contrasting high- and low-quality packaging of a pullover and a vodka bottle.
Findings show that, compared to cheap and standardized designs, visually appealing packages can significantly raise willingness to pay for a product. Besides, packaging design is crucial when consumers buy the product as a gift rather than for self-consumption. This research provides evidence that beautifully designed packages can positively influence consumer choice at the point of purchase. However, packaging can only influence purchase decisions within a specific price range. If prices are too high and above the individual’s accepted price limit, packaging cannot convince consumers to buy the product. Further, our investigation shows that consumers’ age, gender, educational level, and occupational status can be related to their package choices. The late adulthood, men, and individuals with higher education and professional status are likely to spend more on attractively packaged products than other demographic groups.
The demand for sustainable products has risen noticeably throughout the last years. For this reason, credence labels have gained enhanced importance, as customers use them as indicators for product quality. A rich body of literature investigated the effect of labels on product quality perception, but findings on label effects are still rather controversial. While researching the effects of labels on the one hand, previous studies tend to neglect other important influences on quality perception on the other hand. This paper examines the role of retailer formats and the presence of quality labels on consumer willingness to pay (WTP). For this purpose, a total of 400 participants received a monetary incentive to execute a novel survey based on neuroscientific assumptions, in an attempt to identify the impacts of credence labels in supermarkets and discounters on customer WTP. The results indicate that the magnitude of prices can influence reaction times and hence show that reaction times offer researchers an effective parameter to determine customer WTP. The presence of labels on food products was found to positively influence quality perception in a significant manner. A significant difference between the retailer formats, as well as a potential interaction between the two factors related to WTP, could not be detected. In conclusion, general assumptions about the label performance within distinct retailers should not be made. The results, however, indicate that the subject offers a promising topic to conduct further research in.
Pricing is an essential element when it comes to marketing and selling goods and different price promotions are widely used tools to attract and retain consumers. However, the expected positive impacts of such price promotions on consumer perceptions have been increasingly questioned in recent years. In particular, with regard to quality perceptions and internal reference prices, a number of past research findings suggest that monetary price promotions might be more likely to result in unfavourable consumer perceptions than non-monetary promotions (Diamond & Campbell, 1989; Darke & Chung, 2005). Instead of only focusing on the short-term effects of different promotion methods, the aim of this study is to examine the long-term effects of the use as well as the choice of price promotions on consumers’ value perceptions. Using an internet-based survey, subjects’ long-term willingness to pay for three non-durable consumer goods (a pack of pasta, a toothpaste and a basic t-shirt) was investigated under the following three conditions: the post-promotional phase of a "buy one, get one free" offer, the post-promotional phase of an economically equivalent 50% discount and a situation in which no price promotion was applied at all. For the consumer non-durable pasta, the results suggested that consumers’ value perceptions would be significantly influenced by whether or not a price promotion was previously applied and if so, which one. Furthermore, for the noodles, the findings seemed to corroborate the hypothesis that consumers' willingness to pay is highest in the absence of any previous promotion. Surprisingly, no significant difference was found between the post-promotion phase of the discount offer and the post-promotion phase of the BOGOF offer for any of the three products. All in all, this research provides some meaningful insights on the potential long-term impacts of price promotions on consumers’ value perceptions and willingness to pay. Moreover, our findings could be of particular relevance for managerial decisions regarding the marketing of non-durables in the grocery sector.