Title: Consumers' knowledge of price levels and dynamics

Authors: Beatrice Luceri

Addresses: Department of Economics, University of Parma, Via Kennedy, 6, 43100 Parma (PR), Italy

Abstract: This study investigates the level of consumers| subjective price knowledge and the factors that influence it the most. The first objective is to verify the hypothesis that consumers generally do not know product prices. The second is to check whether their knowledge of store-level prices is equally modest. Finally, it was deemed interesting – in light of the intense adoption of deflationary pricing policies by retailers and upon which communication is increasingly focused – to assess consumer awareness of price dynamics in a given time period. The study results confirmed the hypothesis.

Keywords: consumer awareness; store-price knowledge; product-price knowledge; retailing; grocery products; retailers; groceries; shopping; shops; price levels; subjective knowledge; deflation; deflationary pricing; price perceptions; communication; business competition; price dynamics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBCG.2010.034164

International Journal of Business Competition and Growth, 2010 Vol.1 No.2, pp.117 - 128

Published online: 16 Jul 2010 *

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