Sales Promotion: The Role of Equity Sensitivity

Purpose – This paper explores how consumer psychographics impact responses to sales promotions, and specifically whether equity sensitivity (ES) moderates attitudes towards sales promotion in retail purchase experiences. Design/methodology/approach – The study examines data from a survey of 284 Hong Kong consumers, using a shopping mall-intercept method. Every third person walking past the researchers was asked to participate in the survey. After obtaining their permission, those agreeing to take part in the study were surveyed either inside or outside of the shopping complex. The face-to-face intercept surveying method also increases confidence in sample and response reliability. Findings – The study finds that equity sensitivity has a significant positive relationship with evaluations of the retail purchase experience. Consumers identified as ‘Benevolents’ were significantly more positive towards sales promotions and reported significantly higher satisfaction with the purchase experience. In contrast, consumers identified as ‘Entitled’ were less positive towards sales promotion, and less satisfied with the purchase experience. In addition, non-cash sales promotions significantly positively influenced Benevolents’ purchase experience. Research limitations/implications – The current study extends and expands equity theory, and equity sensitivity research, by applying these concepts to consumer sales promotions. The study is limited to an examination of common consumer purchases, across different product categories and sales promotion types. While this allows us to examine the relationship between sales promotion attitudes, equity sensitivity, and purchase satisfaction, future comparisonsbetween individual sales promotion techniques and specific consumer profiles are recommended. Practical implications – From a retail perspective, it is important to understand individual differences and what influences and motivates the consumers’ retail purchase experience. Retail managers are advised to track customer purchases and satisfaction levels linked to sales promotions as this would allow for the identification of which customers are more likely to fit the Entitled or Benevolent psychological profiles, and predict their likely responses to sales promotion offers. Originality/value – To date there has been little research on individual psychological differences between consumers when offered sales promotions at retail stores. The current study contributes to the marketing literature by extending the price fairness equity model to the retail purchase experience, thereby addressing a prominent gap in the literature.