Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18 (2011) 58–63
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser
Price endings and tourism consumers’ price perceptions
Sabine Kleinsasser a,n, Udo Wagner b
a
b
Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Franz-Klein-Gasse 1, 1190 Vienna, Austria
University of Vienna, Brünnerstrasse 72, 1210 Vienna, Austria
a r t i c l e in f o
Keywords:
Price endings
Price perceptions
Hotel business
a b s t r a c t
This investigation considers how consumers of higher-priced goods (i.e., tourism services that are
neither cheap nor luxurious) perceive odd and even prices and reveals whether these perceptions differ
from previous findings that have nearly exclusively related to low-priced goods (e.g., food). This study
therefore addresses a new realm and contributes several findings on price endings in reference to goods
priced at higher levels. First, consumers of higher-priced goods might be influenced by price endings,
just as consumers of low-priced goods are. Second, personal involvement and price interest have a
moderating effect on perceptions of such price endings. Third, odd prices also make sense for sellers of
higher-priced goods.
& 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In the face of the modern global economic slowdown,
customers are becoming more price conscious in general;
companies thus face the extreme challenge of implementing a
pricing strategy that can withstand growing global competition.
Typically, pricing managers start by analyzing their economic
situation, including the supply side (i.e., company’s strengths and
weaknesses, cost structure, and strategic goals) and the intensity
of their competition. Only then do they attend to the demand side
(e.g., market size, customer expectations, customer price sensitivity, psychological aspects of pricing). This article aims to
contribute to the latter consideration by documenting consumers’
perceptions of price endings.
As any trip to the grocery store shows, the practice of
employing prices that end in the number 9 is very common
(e.g., $1.99 instead of $2). Researchers refer to this practice as odd
(as opposed to even-number) pricing and have investigated it for
years (e.g., Bader and Weinland, 1932; Gijsbrechts, 1993). This use
of odd prices is particularly widespread in food retailing
(Baumgartner and Steiner, 2007; Siems, 2003). Holdershaw et al.
(1997) consider 840 advertisements and find that 60% of the
prices ended in 9, and approximately 90% ended in either 9 or 5.
As in these studies, most scholars have focused on low-priced
consumer goods, such as drugstore products, department store
consumer goods, or groceries. Yet a conscientiously executed
literature review reveals a limited number of studies that consider
products or services other than retailing priced at higher levels;
n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Kleinsasser).
0969-6989/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.09.011
one exception is Parsa and Naipaul (2007), who compare
consumer associations of price endings in the fast-food sector
and fine dining restaurants.
Noting this research gap, this study poses a pertinent question:
Do odd prices influence buyers of higher-priced products (not
supplied by retailers)? To establish insights into this question, this
study considers two issues: (1) the impact of odd prices on
customers in the hotel industry1 and (2) the moderating effects of
personal involvement and price interest in this relationship.
The hotel business provides a study context that is more
appropriate than fast moving consumer goods for several reasons.
First, the low price transparency in this sector (Siems, 2003),
caused in part by multidimensional prices (Estelami, 1999),
means purchasing decisions demand considerable cognitive effort
by consumers. Customers therefore should make frequent use of
purchase decision heuristics to relieve their cognitive burden (e.g.,
rounding up or down), which implies they will be vulnerable to
psychological price effects. Varki and Colgate (2001) also argue
that marketers can influence consumers with sophisticated
pricing, especially in the tourism industry. Second, because
immaterial services with high emotional value are at stake, a
high level of subjectivity prevails. Trust in the supplier and service
quality (Kashyap and Bojanic, 2000) drive demand, whereas price
should be of minor importance. Third, hotels generally use even
prices, in sharp contrast with retailers’ common practice.
If tourists’ purchase behavior reflects psychological pricing
effects, managers responsible for pricing higher-priced products
can gain insights into an alternative pricing strategy. To
1
In the hotel business, some services generate particularly high involvement,
such as vacation trips as opposed to business trips. This study focuses on the
former.
59
S. Kleinsasser, U. Wagner / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18 (2011) 58–63
determine whether this implication holds, this article proceeds as
follows: Section 2 contains a comprehensive overview of relevant
literature and poses the research questions. After Section 3
describes the research design, measurement, and sample for the
empirical project, Section 4 presents the results. Finally, Section 5
concludes with a summary of the implications, some limitations,
and avenues for further research.
2. Literature review and research questions
Academic research contains extensive work on price perceptions and the impact of price endings. Scholars have particularly
emphasized the influence of price endings on demand; for
example, Schindler and Kibarian (1996) find that the use of 99
endings leads to increased consumer purchases. Guéguen and
Céline (2005) confirm this result; in their experimental setting,
odd pricing does not influence the purchase decision but increases
the amount that people buy. Anderson and Simester (2003)
further reveal that not only do odd prices increase demand but
the increase is stronger for new items than for the previous year’s
items. Furthermore, these authors suggest that odd prices may be
more effective when customers have limited information. Gendall
et al. (1997), Gendall (1998) show that demand is higher than
expected for 9-ending prices, especially for lower-priced food
items.
Another stream of research elaborates on price thresholds.
Both Gedenk and Sattler (1999) and Wagner et al. (2001) find
evidence of price thresholds and recommend retailers should set
prices to end in 9, unless they fear a negative impact of the odd
price on consumer perceptions of product quality. Yet Wagner
and Beinke (2006) conclude that odd prices are unlikely to flatten
the actual demand threshold in consumer responses. Stiving and
Winer (1997) analyze why odd or even pricing might affect brand
image, controlling for price levels. They conclude that consumers
typically process single digits in a price and do not perceive the
price as a whole when they make brand choices. Furthermore,
these authors confirm that Western consumers process digits
from left to right. Coulter (2001) and Schindler and Chandrashekaran (2004) support the role of left-to-right processing of
price information; in addition, Schindler and Kibarian (1993) find
that consumers often subjectively recall 9-ending prices, even for
prices that do not end in the numeral 9.
The price–quality relationship in the presence of odd versus
even pricing also has been the focus of considerable research
efforts. Stiving and Winer (1997) distinguish between level and
image effects of price endings: Level effects cause consumers to
round prices down, essentially ignoring the right-hand digits,
whereas image effects cause them to discern meaning from
prices. In particular, the digit 0 signals higher quality, and the
digit 9 signals a good price. Schindler and Kibarian (2001) ask
consumers about their perceptions of the quality of advertised
products; if the price tag shows a 99 ending, they tend to consider
the price relatively low and representative of a discount. Schindler
and Kibarian (2001) and Schindler (2006) thus conclude that such
price endings might deteriorate perceived product quality.
However, Stiving (2000) finds that price endings in themselves
are not necessarily signals of quality, even though firms often use
a combination of higher prices and even-numbered price endings
to signal quality.
Despite some mixed results, prior research indicates a general
consensus on several findings that are of particular interest for
this research. First, studies demonstrate the substantial use of odd
prices overall. This academic literature stream clearly illustrates
the broad use of odd prices in retailing, especially in the food,
clothing, and grocery industries, as well as in the fast food
industry. Second, most scholars find that price endings have a
considerable influence on demand. Third, existing studies focus
almost exclusively on low-priced consumer goods. Fourth,
scholars continue to bemoan a lack of sufficient results about
price endings, especially for products priced at higher levels.
Therefore, the first research question wonders:
RQ1: Do the price endings of higher-priced goods influence
consumers’ price perceptions?
Moreover, prior research indicates that the influence of odd
pricing might be moderated by several factors. To maintain a
manageable research scope, this study analyzes two such factors
in greater detail, consumers’ personal involvement and price
interest.
Personal involvement is the relevance of a goal, as subjectively
determined by a person, to his or her ‘‘inherent needs, values and
interests’’ (Zaichkowsky, 1985, p. 342). This construct has
particular relevance for the current investigation, in that Havitz
and Howard (1995) note the high personal involvement associated with tourism compared with other products and services.
Chebat and Picard (1985) further argue that consumers who are
more personally involved interpret price as an indicator of quality,
whereas those with low personal involvement favor lower prices.
Ofir (2004) also emphasizes the price–quality relationship for
highly involved customers. Yet highly involved consumers tend to
employ extensive purchase decision processes and consider
different alternatives, which they evaluate according to different
attributes (D’Astous et al., 1989). Thus, extensive problem solving
might result in a joint consideration of price and quality, which in
turn might mitigate the importance of price endings as signals of
quality. Therefore, the second research question is:
RQ2: Are highly involved consumers less sensitive to the image
effects induced by price endings than less involved consumers?
Diller (2008, p. 101) defines price interest as ‘‘the need of a
consumer to search for price information and use this [in] his/her
buying decision.’’ Higher price interest lowers the consumer’s
willingness to pay more than a going-rate price. Price interest
tends to be higher in markets with high price transparency, which
implies a rather low level of price interest among tourism
customers. Diller (2008) further distinguishes between different
drivers of price interest, such as relieving the burden of and
increasing satisfaction with purchase decisions. The former
represents a quest for convenience and reduces efforts undertaken to search for price information. The latter driver applies to
bargain hunters and price experts, who like to compare different
prices and search for price information (Alba et al., 1999) or strive
for social prestige by passing price information on to peer groups
(Urbany et al., 1996). Because this latter driver increases the
search for price information, the image effects of price endings
might be substantial for bargain hunters, because the 9 digit
should attract these deal-prone consumers. This discussion
prompts a third research question:
RQ3: Do prices ending in 9 attract price-interested consumers
more than less price-interested consumers?
Although personal involvement and price interest may exhibit
some relation, these constructs are sufficiently distinct to be
personal involvement
price ending
RQ1
RQ2
RQ3
price interest
price perception
Goods priced at a higher level
Fig. 1. Research model and research questions.
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S. Kleinsasser, U. Wagner / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18 (2011) 58–63
analyzed separately in a first step. Fig. 1 displays the three
research questions in a graphic format.
3. Design of empirical research project
3.1. Measurement
In the chosen industry, the focal analysis of these research
questions centers on hotel accommodations priced at a higher
level, for which the influence of price should be minor. These
structured research questions in turn support a descriptive design
that relies on a survey questionnaire. In line with common
practice, the survey does not ask respondents directly about how
they perceive different price endings but rather adopts a conjoint
measurement approach. This method estimates customers’
utilities for different attributes (or attribute levels) that constitute
a product or service, according to their evaluations of a set of
alternative products and services that combine certain attribute
levels (cf. Green et al., 2001). Price endings represent
one attribute,2 such that the measure of price perception uses
the partworth utility attributed to different price endings. In
accordance with prior literature and a separate study (involving
personal interviews with hotel managers), the other key attributes are room quality, parking facility, and type of breakfast.
Table 1 shows all the attribute levels.
Prior to providing their evaluation, respondents received
information that the hotel accommodation would be part of a
more comprehensive tourism package: a five-day vacation trip by
car to a four-star hotel located at the sea, with double room and
breakfast. The prices therefore included one double room per
night. This information should help respondents relate the offers
to a specific tourism environment and avoid variance in the
assumptions about the prospective vacation. That is, the design
enables respondents to understand the simulated situation, about
which they must state their preference.
To reduce the response burden, this study uses an orthogonal
design with nine hotel accommodation options (Addelman, 1962).
The nine offers appear depicted in photographs that the
respondents reviewed. Then they rated the offers on a nine-point
Likert scale, from ‘‘this offer does not appeal to me at all’’ to ‘‘this
offer appeals to me a lot.’’
The personal involvement measure uses Zaichkowsky’s (1985)
personal involvement inventory scale, translated into German by
a native speaker and adapted for an Austrian cultural context (this
procedure was part of a prior study). The final scale consisted of
12 items, back-translated into English to ensure content validity.
Price interest was measured with Lichtenstein et al.’s (1993) threeitem scale, again adapted to the Austrian cultural context in a
prior study. The items used for both scales appear in the
Appendix. Finally, the whole questionnaire was pretested with a
sample of 35 respondents.
3.2. Sample and data collection
Because the study was conducted in Austria, Austrian tourists
constitute the target population.3 Without an available sampling
frame, this study relied on purposive sampling, namely,
2
The prices for the hotel accommodation are consistent with prices charged
by Austrian hotels at the time of the survey. To make psychological pricing more
pronounced, the even price was h100, which is more striking than price levels of,
say, h85, h89, or h90 (see Gendall et al., 1997). This choice might result in a
confounding effect of price endings and the number of (price) digits (i.e., two
versus three digits), which represents a potential limitation. The authors gratefully
acknowledge an anonymous reviewer for raising this point.
approaching travelers on trains who were taking long-distance
rides. This procedure turned out to be quite efficient, because
most of these travelers were willing to cooperate (with the
exception of older persons in some cases) and were not distracted
from filling out the questionnaire by other activities. In addition,
many of them met the criteria to be included in the sample.4
Refusals were negligible, and the response rate was high (i.e., 93%,
or 250 of 270 questionnaires distributed).
Table 2 shows the distribution of the sample with respect to
age and gender. The proportion of women and men reflects the
corresponding proportion in the Austrian population overall, but
the older age group (60 + years) is slightly underrepresented,
probably due to the slightly lower willingness of seniors to
cooperate in the study. Members of the sample generally were
travelling on vacation, and 39% of respondents did so three times
or more a year, 39% two times, and 22% once annually.
4. Results
4.1. Do the price endings of higher-priced goods influence
consumers’ price perceptions?
Neglecting potential heterogeneity, the conjoint analysis
includes the preference data of all respondents for the different
hotel accommodations. They perceived room quality as most
important, with an attribute weight of 39%; the type of breakfast
and parking facility were regarded as of approximately equal
importance (importance weights¼18% and 17%, respectively).
Contrary to expectations, price emerged as the second most
important attribute (importance weight¼25%).
The partworth utilities of the different price endings in Fig. 2
provide a tentative answer to RQ1: Utilities decrease with
increasing prices, but the most striking decline is the pronounced
drop from the h99 to the h100 attribute level. This decline is
thirteen times greater than that inferred for a h1 drop in prices
between h95 and h99 (estimated partworth difference of .13
versus .01). Therefore, price endings influence price perceptions in
this case.5
4.2. Are highly involved consumers less sensitive to the image effects
induced by price endings than less involved consumers?
The validity and reliability checks for the measurement of the
latent variables (personal involvement and price interest) reveal
acceptable Cronbach’s alphas for both the involvement scale (.93)
and the price interest scale (.78) for this sample. According to an
exploratory factor analysis (principal component, communality
values greater than .5) of the predictive validity of the two scales,
58% of the variance can be explained for the involvement scale
and 70% for the price interest scale.
The investigation of RQ2 requires a comparison of more and
less involved respondents. The test segments contain respondents
with personal involvement scores in the first or fourth quartile,
respectively. The conjoint analyses then consider these two
segments separately. In accordance with the second research
3
In Austria, tourism is one of the most important business sectors; more than
5 million Austrians (i.e., 65% of the population) went on a vacation each year
during 2007–2009 (Statistic Austria, 2010).
4
An initial question aimed to distinguish between tourism and non-tourism
consumers by asking respondents how often they took vacation each year. All
participants answering ‘‘I go on vacation at least once a year’’ qualified for
inclusion in the sample.
5
For a comprehensive overview of the partworth utilities of all four attributes,
see Table 1.
S. Kleinsasser, U. Wagner / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18 (2011) 58–63
61
Table 1
Attributes, attribute levels, and partworth utilities for the conjoint analysis.
Attributes
Attribute levels (partworth utilities)
Price ending
Room quality
Parking facility
Type of breakfast
h95 (.17)
Direct sea view (.77)
h99 (.13)
Angled sea view (" .02)
Garage (.01)
Buffet ( " .16)
Table 2
Sample demographic attributes.
Age
15–29
32
Gender
30–44
28
45–59
26
60+
14
Female
54
Male
46
Values are in percentages, n ¼250.
question, the presentation of the results focuses on the effects of
these variables on perceptions of price endings, that is, the utility
change from the attribute levels of h95 to h99 and from h99 to
h100. Taking a managerial point of view, the decision is whether
to reduce prices from h100 to h99 or h95 rather than whether to
increase prices from h95 or h99 to h100. Therefore, this study
presents the results by using h100 as the base and measuring the
differences in utility from this level. In Table 3, the second row
summarizes the results for the entire sample (see also Fig. 2).
The fourth and fifth rows in Table 3 pertain to personal
involvement, which clearly moderates perceptions of price endings,
according to the significant difference between the two segments for
lower prices. Specifically, the increase from h99 to h95 was .19 for
highly involved respondents, whereas partworth utility increased
only by .06 for less involved consumers. The difference in the utility
changes between the other attribute levels (h100–99) was not
similar in magnitude. However, the conclusion with respect to RQ1
receives confirmation for both segments: Increases on a per h basis
are much greater between the higher two attribute levels than
between the lower two attribute levels (.15 versus .05 and .18 versus
.02). These results confirm Gendall et al.’s (1997) finding in a retail
setting that a price of NZ$95 produced no pricing effect, whereas the
effect at NZ$99 was remarkable (these price levels, in local currency,
were the same as those in this study).
To gain more insights with regard to RQ2, this study also
compared the importance weights of the price attribute. Consistent
with theoretical reasoning, highly involved respondents placed less
weight on the price than less involved respondents (23% versus
28%). Yet this difference is not statistically significant. To analyze
price image effects, the analysis next compared the average increase
of partworth utilities of a h1 price reduction with the threshold
effect induced by odd versus even pricing. For highly involved
respondents, this average increase was .07 ([.15+.19]/5), and for less
involved respondents, the increase was .05. The threshold effects,
reflected by utility changes from h100 to h99, equaled .15 for highly
and .18 for less involved respondents. Both segments thus exhibit a
threshold effect, but the effect is more pronounced for less involved
respondents. Highly involved respondents seem less sensitive to the
image effects induced by price endings. Admittedly, these results are
exploratory, but they support RQ2.
4.3. Do prices ending in 9 attract price-interested consumers more
than less price-interested consumers?
The investigation of RQ3 requires a comparison of tourists with
higher versus lower price interest. The test segments group
h100 (.00)
Park view (.00)
Secure parking place (.00)
á la carte (.00)
respondents with price interest scores in the first or fourth
quartiles, respectively. As previously, the conjoint analyses
consider the two segments separately and produce the results
in Table 3 (rows six and seven). Respondents highly interested in
price seemed to prefer prices ending in 9; their partworth utilities
strongly increased by .20 in the shift from h100 to h99 and
decreased by –.06 for the change from h99 to h95. Consistent with
theoretical reasoning, prices ending in 9 appear to signal a
discount to these consumers. In contrast, respondents with less
price interest did not favor prices ending in 9; as Table 3 shows,
their partworth utility decreased by –.08 when the price moved
from h100 to h99 and strongly increased by .19 in the shift from
h99 to h95. Thus, prices ending in 0 appear to signal good value
for the money for these consumers, and RQ3 receives tentative
support. The importance weights of the price attributes are
almost identical for both segments (i.e., 24% versus 26%).
Regardless of the signal, price interest clearly has a moderating
effect on perceptions of price endings.
5. Summary and discussion
5.1. Conclusions
This study has investigated price endings for goods with higher
prices (not supplied by retailers). The research questions, which
derive from an extensive literature review, underwent an
empirical analysis through a marketing research project involving
tourists. The results show that price endings influence price
perceptions of higher-priced goods (other than groceries). The
partworth utilities of different prices decrease with increasing
prices and decrease at an even higher rate when the increase
involves a move from an odd to an even price. Personal
involvement moderates price perceptions, such that highly
involved persons likely react more strongly to odd versus even
pricing than do less involved ones. Another moderating effect
comes from consumers’ price interest, which strengthens the
price image effects induced by price endings. Whereas respondents in this study preferred prices ending in 9 if they were highly
interested in price, less interested respondents did not favor odd
prices.
5.2. Managerial implications
In the simplest terms, the results of this study show that odd
prices make sense, not only in businesses such as food or grocery
retailing but also for goods priced at higher levels. Especially
among consumers with a high interest in prices, odd prices can
drive buying decisions. Managers should integrate this finding
into their marketing decision making, particularly considering the
predominance of even-numbered pricing for more expensive
goods. Although Hu et al. (2006) predict that odd pricing might
not be effective in the tourism industry this study shows that
customers of hotel services pay attention to odd prices too.
62
Utility
S. Kleinsasser, U. Wagner / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18 (2011) 58–63
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
-0.15
-0.2
-0.25
0.17
0.13
0.00
95
96
97
98
99
100
Price
Fig. 2. Partworth utilities of the price attribute (n ¼250).
Table 3
Partworth utilities and importance weights for attribute price endings for different
segments.
Utility
change
From h100
to h99
Entire sample
From h99
to h95
Importance
weight (%)
.13
.04
25
Involvement
High
Low
.15
.18
.19
.06
23
28
Price interest
High
Low
.20
" .08
" .06
.19
24
26
5.3. Limitations and further research
This study is subject to several limitations that suggest
directions for further research. First, the study does not actually
prove that odd pricing affects consumers’ perceptions. The
conjoint analysis shows that the utilities of h95 and h99 are
greater than that of h100, but this result might simply imply a
pattern consistent with a downward sloping demand curve. The
study suggests that demand might be higher at h99, but conjoint
analysis does not provide an estimate of this magnitude because
the demand curve is unknown. Additional research can help
overcome this limitation. Second, in addition to personal
involvement and price interest, other moderating variables might
influence perceptions of price endings, such as consumers’
lifestyle and buying experience or the social, situational, or
demographic factors that are evident in the purchase context.
Moreover, the price decision in this study was rather simple and
one-dimensional, whereas real buying decisions usually are more
complex. Third, the population surveyed included only Austrians
travelling by train. A similar survey conducted at an international
airport or different countries would provide an interesting
extension. Fourth, special hotel accommodations provided the
stimuli for this study, so additional studies should turn to other
higher-priced goods, such as fine dining restaurants or luxury
goods. Fifth, more sophisticated versions of conjoint analysis
could be applied (e.g., hybrid approaches, using computerized
questionnaires), because these methods offer the possibility of
using more attributes and more attribute levels. Sixth, an
experimental design conducted with real buying decisions might
enhance the external validity of these findings.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their
valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.
Appendix
The personal involvement scale, adapted from Zaichkowsky
(1985), consisted of the following bipolar pairs of items:
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
irrelevant–relevant
useless–useful
valuable–worthless
beneficial–not beneficial
uninterested–interested
vital–superfluous
boring–interesting
appealing–unappealing
unexciting–exciting
undesirable–desirable
wanted–unwanted
not needed–needed
Respondents rated tourism services according to these items
on a seven-point scale.
For the price interest measure, Lichtenstein et al.’s (1993)
Likert scale consisted of the following items:
# The money saved by finding low prices is usually not worth the
time and effort.
# I would never shop at more than one store to find low prices.
# The time it takes to find low prices is usually not worth the
effort.
Again, participants responded to these items on seven-point
scales.
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