The Effect of Unit-Pricing on Choices of Brand and Size in Economic Shopping

Abstract

M OST consumer research has been concerned with how knowledge of consumer behavior patterns can direct the firm in the development of marketing strategy and policies. However, relatively little research has investigated how policies of the firm can be beneficial to the consumer in his buying behavior.1 This article examines unitpricing as a potential aid to consumers. It reports a study designed to determine the effect of unit-pricing on the ability of consumers to choose the most economical brand and size in a product class. Unit-pricing, a retail pricing policy, is designed to aid primarily the economy-minded consumerthat consumer who is interested in minimizing the cost of a single purchase or set of purchases without regard to quality. Its benefits seem to exist primarily in the purchase of grocery items. When a good is unit-priced, its price is expressed in terms of the cost per unit of measure of the product in addition to its total price. For example, with unit-pricing a consumer would know that a ten-ounce container of instant coffee priced at $1.65 costs 16.5 per ounce. The numerous brands and sizes of grocery items now available to the consumer often make it difficult for her to determine the lowest unit-cost item in a product class. Therefore, unit-pricing should enable the value-conscious shopper to better determine the item with the lowest unit-price.

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