Price or quality? The influence of fluency on the dual role of price

Despite extensive pricing research focusing on price information processing, the importance of the role of fluency on price-perceived quality and monetary sacrifice remains unclear. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that consumers with high retrieval and processing fluency are more likely to evaluate price according to its implications for perceived quality and less likely to focus on price-perceived monetary sacrifice. By contrast, consumers with low retrieval and processing fluency are more likely to evaluate price according to its implications for monetary sacrifice and less likely to focus on price-perceived quality. Besides, study 2 further demonstrates the influence of fluency on purchase intention. Finally, the mediating role of the incidental affect induced by fluency in the theoretical link between fluency and price perceptions is also demonstrated.