A Reexamination of Frequency-Depth Effects in Consumer Price Judgments

Previous research has shown that when there are multiple possible prices for two brands, the brand that is discounted frequently but at shallow levels is perceived to have a lower average price than the brand that is discounted infrequently but at deeper levels (the "frequency effect"). However, when there are only two possible prices for each brand, the brand discounted infrequently but at deeper levels is perceived to have a lower average price (the "depth effect"). Over a series of experiments, we demonstrate that these frequency and depth effects do not generalize to other temporal price distributions. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..