The starting point of our investigation has been the fact that the
authors of existing studies on effects of price partitioning came up
with contradictious findings. Our study was intended to have a
closer look at the mechanisms which underlie price partitioning
effects. The results of our study show that price partitioning leads
to a more favorable evaluation of the total price level, but to a higher
perceived complexity of the price structure and to a higher perceived
manipulative intent of the marketer than does using total
prices. The overall effect of price partitioning on product evaluation
proved to be negative compared to using total prices which is due
to the fact that the negative effects of price partitioning through
perceived complexity of the price structure and manipulative intent
outweigh the positive effect through the evaluation of the total price
level. The contradictious findings of previous studies might be
traced back to the fact that the authors did not analyze all of these
paths.
Thus, summing up our results, we can say that marketers
should not use partitioned prices because the disadvantages of this
pricing technique outweigh the advantages. Provided that a marketer
has to use partitioned prices for some reason (e.g. because
partitioned prices are common or regulated by law in his industry),
we can derive from our findings that monetary surcharges should be
preferred over percentage surcharges because when applying monetary
surcharges, prices are perceived as being less complex and the
marketer is supposed to have a lower manipulative intent than in the
case of percentage surcharges.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v3...r_vol35_30.pdf