IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v17y2010i5p374-385.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A cross-category investigation into the effects of nine-ending pricing on brand choice

Author

Listed:
  • Ngobo, Paul-Valentin
  • Legohérel, Patrick
  • Guéguen, Nicolas

Abstract

Retailers largely adopt nine-ending prices and these prices have attracted greater attention from researchers in marketing. Despite this increased interest, very few empirical studies have tried to quantify the effects of nine-ending prices on consumer actual behaviors. Those who have studied the behavioral effects of nine-ending prices have produced mixed findings. In this article, we investigated the cross-category effects of nine-ending pricing on consumer brand choice at the SKU level. We distinguished between different types of nine-ending while controlling for the rounded prices and other marketing-mix variables. We conducted our analysis on over 11,000 SKUs in 102 product categories of two (2) grocery retailers. We find that the effects of 99 ending prices on the SKU's category choice are larger in concentrated and promotional categories but smaller in expensive categories. However, their influence on purchase quantity is larger in expensive categories but smaller in concentrated categories.

Suggested Citation

  • Ngobo, Paul-Valentin & Legohérel, Patrick & Guéguen, Nicolas, 2010. "A cross-category investigation into the effects of nine-ending pricing on brand choice," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 374-385.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:17:y:2010:i:5:p:374-385
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.03.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698910000330
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.03.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Koen Pauwels & Shuba Srinivasan & Philip Hans Franses, 2007. "When Do Price Thresholds Matter in Retail Categories?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 83-100, 01-02.
    2. Peter S. Fader & James M. Lattin & John D. C. Little, 1992. "Estimating Nonlinear Parameters in the Multinomial Logit Model," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 372-385.
    3. Manoj Thomas & Vicki Morwitz, 2005. "Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: The Left-Digit Effect in Price Cognition," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 54-64, June.
    4. Vincent R. Nijs & Shuba Srinivasan & Koen Pauwels, 2007. "Retail-Price Drivers and Retailer Profits," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 473-487, 07-08.
    5. Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 1993. "Investigating Purchase Incidence, Brand Choice and Purchase Quantity Decisions of Households," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 184-208.
    6. Mark Stiving, 2000. "Price-Endings When Prices Signal Quality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(12), pages 1617-1629, December.
    7. Stiving, Mark & Winer, Russell S, 1997. "An Empirical Analysis of Price Endings with Scanner Data," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(1), pages 57-67, June.
    8. Ruth N. Bolton, 1989. "The Relationship Between Market Characteristics and Promotional Price Elasticities," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(2), pages 153-169.
    9. Eric Anderson & Duncan Simester, 2003. "Effects of $9 Price Endings on Retail Sales: Evidence from Field Experiments," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 93-110, March.
    10. Brenner, Gabrielle A & Brenner, Reuven, 1982. "Memory and Markets, or Why Are You Paying $2.99 for a Widget?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 147-158, January.
    11. Jeongwen Chiang, 1991. "A Simultaneous Approach to the Whether, What and How Much to Buy Questions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 297-315.
    12. Schindler, Robert M. & Wiman, Alan R., 1989. "Effects of odd pricing on price recall," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 165-177, November.
    13. Tülin Erdem & Michael P. Keane, 1996. "Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Capturing Dynamic Brand Choice Processes in Turbulent Consumer Goods Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20.
    14. Praveen K. Kopalle & Carl F. Mela & Lawrence Marsh, 1999. "The Dynamic Effect of Discounting on Sales: Empirical Analysis and Normative Pricing Implications," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 317-332.
    15. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ortega, Ana M. & Tabares, Felipe A., 2023. "Psychological pricing: Myth or reality? The impact of nine-ending prices on purchasing attitudes and brand revenue," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel, 2021. "If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(1 (Forthc).
    3. Macé, Sandrine, 2012. "The Impact and Determinants of Nine-Ending Pricing in Grocery Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 115-130.
    4. Verma, Pranay & Sharma, Anil Kumar, 2018. "Assortment satisfaction: The tale of online footwear sales," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 57-65.
    5. Gaston-Breton, Charlotte, 2011. "Consumer Preferences for 99-ending prices: the mediating role of price consciousness," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb110503, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    6. Gaston-Breton, Charlotte & Duque, Lola C., 2011. "Promotional benefits of 99-ending prices: the moderating role of intuitive and analytical decision style," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb113809, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    7. Mirela Martinčić & Dijana Vuković & Anica Hunjet, 2022. "Consumer Responses to Selected Activities: Price Increases, Lack of Product Information and Numerical Way of Expressing Product Prices," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Marcial López-Pastor & Jesús García-Madariaga & Joaquín Sánchez & Jose Figueiredo, 2020. "Demand Impact for Prices Ending with “9” and “0” in Online and Offline Consumer Goods Retail Trade Channels," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 58-78.
    9. Banerjee, Prantosh J. & Tripathi, Sanjeev & Sahay, Arvind, 2016. "When less is better than more: Just-below discount in tensile price promotions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 93-102.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcial López-Pastor & Jesús García-Madariaga & Joaquín Sánchez & Jose Figueiredo, 2020. "Demand Impact for Prices Ending with “9” and “0” in Online and Offline Consumer Goods Retail Trade Channels," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 58-78.
    2. Macé, Sandrine, 2012. "The Impact and Determinants of Nine-Ending Pricing in Grocery Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 115-130.
    3. Asmus Olsen, 2013. "The politics of digits: evidence of odd taxation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 59-73, January.
    4. Mitra, Debanjan & Fay, Scott, 2010. "Managing Service Expectations in Online Markets: A Signaling Theory of E-tailer Pricing and Empirical Tests," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 184-199.
    5. Pradeep K. Chintagunta & Harikesh S. Nair, 2011. "Structural Workshop Paper --Discrete-Choice Models of Consumer Demand in Marketing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 977-996, November.
    6. Banerjee, Prantosh J. & Tripathi, Sanjeev & Sahay, Arvind, 2016. "When less is better than more: Just-below discount in tensile price promotions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 93-102.
    7. Jeong, Ji Youn & Crompton, John L., 2017. "The use of odd-ending numbers in the pricing of five tourism services in three different cultures," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 135-146.
    8. Jan Wieseke & Anika Kolberg & Laura Marie Schons, 2016. "Life could be so easy: the convenience effect of round price endings," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 474-494, July.
    9. Béatrice Parguel & Annalisa Fraccaro & Sandrine Macé, 2021. "Compromise pricing in luxury," Post-Print halshs-03503443, HAL.
    10. Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2017. "End of 9-endings, price recall, and price perceptions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 157-163.
    11. Levy, Daniel & Snir, Avichai & Gotler, Alex & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2020. "Not all price endings are created equal: Price points and asymmetric price rigidity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue forthcomi.
    12. Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Levy, Daniel & Snir, Avichai, 2017. "End of 9-Endings and Price Perceptions," MPRA Paper 76342, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Tülin Erdem & Susumu Imai & Michael Keane, 2003. "Brand and Quantity Choice Dynamics Under Price Uncertainty," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 5-64, March.
    14. Eric Cardella & Michael J. Seiler, 2016. "The Effect of Listing Price Strategy on Real Estate Negotiations: An Experimental Study," Framed Field Experiments 00623, The Field Experiments Website.
    15. Ngobo, Paul Valentin, 2011. "What Drives Household Choice of Organic Products in Grocery Stores?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 90-100.
    16. Utpal Bhattacharya & Craig W. Holden & Stacey Jacobsen, 2012. "Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish: Buy-Sell Imbalances On and Around Round Numbers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 413-431, February.
    17. Jeong, Ji Youn & Crompton, John L., 2018. "Do subjects from high and low context cultures attribute different meanings to tourism services with 9-ending prices?," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 110-118.
    18. Cardella, Eric & Seiler, Michael J., 2016. "The effect of listing price strategy on real estate negotiations: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-90.
    19. Jason Beck & Lindsay Levine & Michael Toma, 2024. "Just‐below pricing in real estate: Impact by price segment and market conditions," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(1), pages 17-34, January.
    20. Lynn, Michael & Flynn, Sean Masaki & Helion, Chelsea, 2013. "Do consumers prefer round prices? Evidence from pay-what-you-want decisions and self-pumped gasoline purchases," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 96-102.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:17:y:2010:i:5:p:374-385. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.