Price Promotion (In)frequency and Consumers’ Brand Quality Evaluations

Previous research suggests that consumers judge the quality of a brand promoted infrequently less favorably than a brand promoted frequently, because the former promotional pattern tends to be less expected and generates negative attributions. We suggest that the opposite can also occur. Specifically, adaption level theory would suggest that frequent (vs. infrequent) promotions encourage consumers to adapt to a lower reference price for the...