Assignment

Discussion Summary

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In this article, researchers aimed at proving that consumer willingness to pay for a product through online platforms, is affected by priming, either numeric or semantic priming. In numeric priming, a consumer is presented with two unrelated products, with one product having a price indicated on it. The price stuck on the product will stimulate an amount, also known as an anchor price, which the consumer is willing to pay for a product. This form of priming is mostly applicable to online auctions. On the other hand, semantic priming involves product stimuli, in which a high quality or low-quality product is introduced on a list. This will stimulate the consumer to make a judgment on how much to pay for the focal product.

This research was conducted in seven experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 the test was conducted on during an auction, with no suggested retail price, and the numeric priming effect on consumer behavior was small. The semantic priming effect on experiment 1 recorded a small to medium effect on consumer behavior. Studies 3 and 6 were set under the same context with a set price with each study measuring numeric and semantic priming effectively. In both cases, there was no effect noted from the primers. Studies 4 and 5 had been set with given retail prices. The effect of numeric priming in experiment 4 was small, while the effect of semantic priming in experiment 5 was small to medium. The last study was during an auction, using an unrelated product. The results recorded no semantic priming effect on consumer behavior.

After an analysis of results from the 7 experiments, it was noted that numeric priming has an effect on consumers especially where the price is unclear. On the other hand, semantic priming has greater effects on auctions, especially where the prices are not fixed.