The Impact of Price Discount on Perceived Value, Willingness to Buy, and Search Intentions according to the Level of Consumers' Involvement

구매자의 관여도 수준에 따라 가격할인이 지각가치, 구매의향, 탐색의도에 미치는 영향

One of the major reasons for fierce competition among firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Due to such changes in the marketing environment, differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important in the race to gain a competitive advantage. Price discount is one of the popular promotion strategies that most retailers use, especially to increase sales, but offering a price discount does not always lead to the expected result. If marketers apply an identical price-promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in products and consumer preferences, the discounted price itself may make people skeptical about the quality of the product. Moreover, the changes in perceived value may appear differently depending on factors such as consumer involvement. This implies that variables such as the level of consumer involvement, brand loyalty, and external reference prices, in reality, would have different effects on how consumers perceive the value of price discounts. The variables that affect consumers' perceived values and buying decisions are diverse and complicated. Several studies have examined the effects of such variables as external reference price, selling price, and brand on consumers' perceived value of products. Results have not shown consistent patterns. Therefore, we must note that the factors affecting consumers' value perceptions and buying behaviors are diverse and that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what that variable is. This study focused on the level of consumer involvement as a salient variable that supposedly affects the perceived value of a product, willingness to buy, and search intentions. We tried to examine whether a price discount affects the perceived value-such as perceived acquisition value and perceived transaction value-in different ways depending on the level of consumer involvement. In addition, we proposed managerial implications that marketers need to consider as a whole, for instance, product attributes, brand loyalty, and involvement and then established a differentiated pricing strategy, case by case, in order to effectively enhance consumers' perceived values. As a result, we found that perceived transaction value positively affects perceived acquisition value and when discounting the price of a high-involvement product enhances the consumer's willingness to buy, but perceived acquisition value does not affect the search intentions significantly. In the case of discounting prices of low-involvement products, on the other hand, the perceived transaction value has a positive effect on the willingness to buy, but the negative effect of perceived acquisition value on the search intentions was not significant. We suppose that people doubt a product's quality because of a declined perceived quality derived from a price discount. Even though the price discount enhanced the transaction value, people eventually increased their level of searching for additional product information. From the results of this study, we suggest that marketers ought to establish an appropriate value-enhancing strategy based on the understanding of which perceived value consumers rely on more when they conduct purchasing behavior because consumers perceive the degree of importance of acquisition value or transaction value differently, depending on their level of involvement.

본 연구는 가격할인이 관여도의 수준에 따라 가치지각 간에 미치는 영향의 경로가 서로 상이하다는 가정 하에 관여도에 따른 지각가치와 구매의향 및 탐색의도 간의 관계를 실험적으로 검증하였으며, 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 고관여의 경우는 지각거래가치가 지각획득가치에 긍정적인 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 고관여 구매자의 지각획득가치는 구매의향에 긍정적인 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타난 반면, 지각획득가치가 탐색의도에 미치는 영향은 통계적으로 유의하지 않은 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 저관여의 경우에도 고관여와 같이 구매자의 지각거래가치는 구매의향에 긍정적인 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 반면, 지각획득가치가 탐색의도에 대하여 부(-)의 영향을 미치지 못한 것으로 판단된다. 이는 가격할인에 따른 거래가치 향상에도 불구하고 지각품질 수준이 하향되면서 품질에 대한 의심이 생겨 추가정보 탐색의 필요성이 생김에 따른 것으로 풀이된다. 이러한 연구결과는 소비자는 관여도에 따라 획득가치 또는 거래가치에 대하여 중요하게 인지하지만 소비자가 어떤 지각가치에 더욱 의존하여 구매행동을 결정짓는가에 따라 이에 부합하는 가치 향상전략을 수립해야 한다는 시사점을 제시하고 있다.