Marketing Issues in Assigning Odd Prices by the Romanian Retailers

Abstract

Odd prices are distinguished by their last digit just below a round number, the most frequent being ended in 9. This tactic is used especially in retailing, aimed to generate an underestimation of monetary sacrifice paid by the consumers. The exposure to odd prices conducts to specific characteristics of some psychological processes as: perception, representation, and memorization. Their effects are manifested on sales, on customer's buying intentions, on product image or on fairness perceptions. The present paper has analyzed odd prices assigned by six important electronics and appliance retailers that operate in Romanian market. The data collection was made by observation and the product categories studied were: TV-sets, hair dryers and mobile phones. The results shows that Romanian retailers use in a very great extend odd prices, not taking into account assortment size, brand image, product value or market share. They assign odd prices mainly of inertia, based on belief that this kind of prices increases sales in any conditions, such orientation being contradicted by previous academic studies.