A Review of Theoretical Perspectives Applied to Sales Promotion and a New Perspective based on Mental Accounting Theory

The paper reviews theoretical perspective applied to the study of consumer response to promotions. These include adaptation level theory, assimilation contrast theory, attribution theory, prospect theory, transaction utility theory, the elaboration likelihood model and the attitude model. It finds that these theoretical approaches have had a single product focus in evaluating consumer response to promotions. It suggests an alternative theoretical perspective to examine consumer response to promotion from a multi product perspective. This perspective is based on mental accounting theory, a behaviorally based model of choice. It is used to examine the psychological processes involved in creating a positive cross product impact of a promotion (i.e. increase in sale of regular priced products during a promotion).

Financial evaluation of mental accounting

Mental accounting, defined as a set of cognitive processes that allows the organization of financial activities and facilitates money management; First of all, it helps people to compare the returns / incomes in return for their expenses and the costs to be incurred, and enables them to make decisions through a different mental account for the income tax or value added tax etc. they will pay in their investments. In the process of mental accounting, self-employed taxpayers may consider the correct declaration of tax, but they can also make different tax calculations, and even obtain information in consultation with their professionals. It is known that some professionals use mental accounting themselves by helping self-employed people fondly. It is impossible today to check whether mental accounting is related to tax knowledge, business and personality traits, and the degree of association with the intended tax behavior. The conclusions have been reached by a study in this regard; - While some taxpayers mentally separate taxes from turnover, others are not (integrators ) , - Where there are small differences in mental accounting between income tax and VAT, and, - Confirmatory factor analysis, tax information and mental accounting are different structures (Journal of Economic Psychology Nr. 70 , January 2019, P: 125-139). On the other hand, mental accounting is a strategy used in controlling personal spending, consumption, and investments as a cognitive set of operations in monitoring one's financial/financial business (=activity) and transactions. These are classified in mental accounts, meaning that individuals monitor all of their expenses separately and include the process of personal decision making, correction, control or abandonment of decisions. In particular, when multiple options are encountered, they are evaluated jointly-the results of different decisions are combined or evaluated separately. This depends on the emotional and intellectual structures of the person, along with the risk and expenditure criteria that the person undertakes. Because the decision is between sentimentality and thought, and results in rational-real or irrational-non-real results. In fact, they have a positive relationship with education, financial knowledge, money management and tax awareness in mental accounting. A consumer or investor/businessman in the decision process, including most accounting and Finance, Management Accounting, Financial Accounting and tax accounting are associated with, and are affected by them and affect them. These aspects are quite interesting.peer-reviewe

Effects of mental accounting on intertemporal choice

Two experiments with undergraduates as subjects were carried out with the aim of replicating and extending previous results showing that the implication of the behavioral life-cycle hypothesis (H. M. Shefrin & R. H. Thaler, 1988) that people classify assets in different mental accounts (current income, current assets, and future income) may explain how consumption choices are influenced by temporary income changes. In both experiments subjects made fictitious choices between paying for a good in cash or according to a more expensive installment plan after they had received an income which was either less, the same, or larger than usual. In Experiment 1 subjects were supposed to have savings so that the total assets were equal, whereas in Experiment 2 the total assets varied. The results of both experiments supported the role of mental accounts in demonstrating that subjects were unwilling to pay in cash after an income decrease even though they had access to saved money. Thus, in effect they chose to pay more for the good than they had to. Indicating a need for further refinement of the concept of mental account, choices to pay in cash after an income decrease tended to be more frequent when the consumption and savings motives were compatible than when they were incompatible. Furthermore, increasing the total assets made subjects more willing to pay in cash after an income decrease

The effect of relative thinking on firm strategy and market outcomes: A location differentiation model with endogenous transportation costs

Consumers often have to decide whether to go to a remote store for a lower price. Only the absolute price difference between the stores should be relevant in this case, but several experiments showed that people exhibit "relative thinking": they are affected also by the relative savings (relative to the good's price). This article analyzes the effects of this bias on firm strategy and market outcomes using a two-period game-theoretic model of location differentiation. Relative thinking causes consumers to make less effort to save a constant amount when they buy more expensive goods. In the location differentiation context this behavior can be modeled by consumers who behave as if their transportation costs are an increasing function of the good's price. This gives firms an additional incentive to raise prices, in order to increase the perceived transportation costs of consumers, which consequently softens competition and allows higher profits. Therefore, the response of firms to relative thinking raises prices and profits and reduces consumer surplus, in both periods. Total welfare is unchanged in the first period, and in the second period it is either unchanged or reduced, depending on whether the objective or subjective transportation costs are used to compute welfare. The main results of the model (firms' response to relative thinking increases prices and reduces consumer surplus) are likely to hold also in the context of search. The article also explains why "relative thinking" is a more appropriate term than "mental accounting" (which was often used before) to describe this behavior, and discusses why people might exhibit relative thinking.Competitive Strategy; Relative Thinking; Pricing; Mental Accounting; Consumer Psychology; Consumer Attitudes & Behavior; Cognitive Processes; Behavioral Decision Making; Industrial Organization; Product Differentiation

International Developments in Self-Directed Care

Highlights innovative self-directed care programs in Europe and the United States that allow patients to choose home and community-based services, within a budget, in managing mental illness and chronic conditions. Examines outcomes and lessons learned

Over-indebtedness and the interplay of factual and mental money management: An interview study

Previous research has shown that money management contributes to over-indebtedness. This article sheds new light on this relation by looking at factual money management and its mental underpinnings, mental accounting. In a conceptual model we propose that fuzzy factual and mental money management practices aggravated by lack of congruency between factual and mental structures play an important role in over-indebtedness. Twenty-five in-depth interviews deliver preliminary support for this proposition. Successful financial control seems to build on efficient and inter-coordinated factual and mental money management. This reduces the willpower necessary for controlling financial behavior and helps to prevent and fight over-indebtedness.debt, money management, mental accounting, self-control

Return-of-Premium Endorsements for Living-Benefits Insurance Policies: Rational or Irrational?

Insurance companies selling Critical Illness, Disability, and Long-Term Care insurance policies typically offer consumers the option to purchase an endorsement that returns the nominal value of all premiums paid (over the life of the policy) if the policy is not used during the policy term. The endorsement costs the policyholder extra money. Simple calculations show that it is prima facie irrational to purchase the endorsement since the conditional implied rate-of-return on the asset (return-of-premium endorsement) is almost twice as worse as a market index; the unconditional rate of return is even worse. Behavioral explanations for the purchase of these otherwise irrational endorsements are considered.Behavioral Economics, Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, Disability Insurance, Long-Term Care Insurance

Behavioral Economics: Past, Present, Future

Behavioral economics increases the explanatory power of economics by providing it with more realistic psychological foundations. This book consists of representative recent articles in behavioral economics. This chapter is intended to provide an introduction to the approach and methods of behavioral economics, and to some of its major findings, applications, and promising new directions. It also seeks to fill some unavoidable gaps in the chapters’ coverage of topics

How do consumers overcome ambivalence toward hedonic purchases ? a typology of consumer strategies

Purchase decisions for hedonic products and services are often characterized by ambivalence -sensory benefits make them attractive, but consumers may feel guilty about bying them. To overcome this ambivalence, consumers frequently adopt strategies that allow them to enloy hedonic benefits while limiting their negative feelings. Combining an extensive literature review with an interpretive study, the authors identify 23 consumer strategies and propose a typology in four groups on the basis of strategy antecedents: two groups of objective strategies (obtaining consumption benefits without purchasing, objectively contining purchasing costs) and two groups of subjective strategies (manipulating the mental accounting of costs and benefits, relinquishing responsability).consumer behavior; hedonic purchase; consumer strategies