Channie Hong L&S Social Sciences
When Structure Breaks: Relational Misalignment in Price Partitioning
Marketers frequently use price partitioning, where a product’s price is presented as separate components: a base price and a surcharge. For example, a movie theater might offer a ticket-and-popcorn bundle for $15, but instead present it as a $10 ticket with an additional $5 for popcorn. Research shows that consumers respond differently to partitioned prices compared to a single combined price, and several cognitive mechanisms have been proposed to explain this effect.
Despite these findings, relatively little attention has been paid to how consumers interpret the structure of partitioned prices, with many studies implicitly assuming a particular representation through their experimental stimuli. Drawing on similarity research, this project proposes that consumers systematically align the base product with the base price and the add-on product with the surcharge, and that any misalignment of this relational structure leads to misinterpretation of a product’s price. I examine whether partitioned pricing effects arise from established mechanisms, or from more fundamental processes governing how consumers perceive the structure of price presentation.
Message To Sponsor
Thank you so much for your support! Engaging in research has been one of the most defining parts of my college experience, and your generosity gives me the resources to fully dedicate my time to this project over the summer. Consumer behavior research will remain vital as long as people continue to make purchasing decisions, and thanks to your support, I have to opportunity to bring some new insight to the field.