No abstract

This article reports the findings of 2 studies that examined the effects of low price guarantees (LPG) in retail advertisements within the framework of signaling theory. Overall, an LPG in an ad resulted in higher value perceptions and shopping intentions. Findings also suggest that the effect of an LPG is likely to be moderated by other price cues such as reference prices and by the price image of the store. An LPG resulted in higher value perception and shopping intention when reference prices were low or absent, but lowered search intention in the presence of a high reference price. Additional findings suggest that intention to search for a better price was lower, particularly when an LPG was offered by a low price image store. For high price image stores, an LPG increased value perceptions and shopping intentions, while also increasing search intentions, indicating the possibility that LPGs can act as a double-edged sword in certain instances. Managerial and public policy implications are also noted.

No abstract

This article reports the findings of 2 studies that examined the effects of low price guarantees (LPG) in retail advertisements within the framework of signaling theory. Overall, an LPG in an ad resulted in higher value perceptions and shopping intentions. Findings also suggest that the effect of an LPG is likely to be moderated by other price cues such as reference prices and by the price image of the store. An LPG resulted in higher value perception and shopping intention when reference prices were low or absent, but lowered search intention in the presence of a high reference price. Additional findings suggest that intention to search for a better price was lower, particularly when an LPG was offered by a low price image store. For high price image stores, an LPG increased value perceptions and shopping intentions, while also increasing search intentions, indicating the possibility that LPGs can act as a double‐edged sword in certain instances. Managerial and public policy implications are also noted.

This study examines the role of consumer ethnocentrism vis-à-vis country-of-origin effects in consumers' purchase decisions in the case of a high-image transplant product. It was hypothesized that consumer ethnocentrism would have a significant effect on attitude toward the product, quality perception, and purchase intention beyond the effect of brand image only when the COO is a less-developed/liked country. It was also hypothesized that consumer ethnocentrism would have a significant effect on attitude toward the product, purchase intention, and quality perception beyond the effect of COO only when the COO is a less-developed/liked country. A total number of 233 student subjects responded to questionnaires after viewing a mock ad that included COO and product information. The first regression analysis revealed that brand image had greater significant effect on dependent variables than consumer ethnocentrism. Consumer ethnocentrism was a significant predictor of dependent variables only when the COO was less-developed/liked. Thus, the first hypothesis was supported. The second regression analysis revealed that both COO and consumer ethnocentrism were significant predictors of dependent variables only in the less-developed/liked country condition. However, only COO had a significant effect when the transplant product was manufactured in a developed/liked country. Overall, the second hypothesis was partially supported. These findings show that brand image is relatively a more important variable than consumer ethnocentrism in predicting consumers' perceptions and attitudes. Especially, a high-image brand is a precious asset for companies to build and maintain. Also, COO seems to Mehmet I. Yagci is affiliated with the College