Mental accounting and framing of sale promotions.

全文[[abstract]]The authors explore why the relative attractiveness of mixed promotions, with the same total cost, may vary depending on their frames (e.g., “buytwo, get 25% off” versus “get the second one 50% off”). Different frames influence consumers’ mental accounting processes, as well as the determination of the referent and subject of their price comparison. Therefore, a focused discount promotion (e.g., last item for x% off) should be more attractive than an all discount promotion (i.e., buy N, get y% off). Participants perceive more savings when they consider a focused discount framing because they assign the discounts differently to each item in the mixed promotion; however, priming participants to focus on the first (rather than the final) item reduces this effect. This more comprehensive view of the framing effects of mixed promotions suggests some ways companies might frame their promotions to increase their relative attractiveness