The effectiveness of “scratch and save” promotions: the moderating roles of price consciousness and expected savings

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of “scratch and save” (SAS) promotions, which are popular store‐level promotional tools. This paper particularly focuses on investigating the moderating effects of consumers' price consciousness and savings expectations. Design/methodology/approach – Two laboratory experimental studies were employed to examine consumer responses to SAS promotions. Findings – The results of two experiments show that SAS promotions positively affect consumer perceptions of offer value and store prices, and consumers' intentions to shop and spread positive word‐of‐mouth. In particular, the effects of SAS promotions are moderated by consumer price consciousness and expected savings. Furthermore, the first study shows that the level of claimed savings of SAS promotions does not favorably affect consumer reactions. The second study also shows that consumers' discounting of expected savings increases as the level of claimed savings of SAS promotions increases. Research limitations/implications – Although SAS promotions are widely used by various types of retailers, there really is little known as to how consumers respond to SAS promotions. By providing evidence of the effectiveness of SAS promotions, this paper enables pricing researchers to extend issues related to such promotional tools. Practical implications – For retailers, the most distinctive finding of this paper is that the level of claimed savings may not significantly affect consumer perceptions and shopping intentions, although an SAS promotion would be an effective promotional tool. Originality/value – As a preliminary effort to examine the effects of SAS promotions, this paper offers a discussion of the future research opportunities.