'Buy one get one free', Found content V

The  ‘buy one, get one free’ offers you see in supermarkets, shops, fast food chains… has now become a common strategy for promoting certain products.

As a student, you are often tempted by these offers as they permit you to save some money. Looking back at my first year at university, I remember always having Domino’s voucher on our kitchen table and myself and my friends would always order the ‘buy one get one free’ deal as it would be a lot cheaper and more appealing.

Das (1992) investigated how consumers are affected by economical deals. Her results show that they do affect consumer evaluations as they stimulate the demand by reducing the price that a buyer has to pay by offering price promotions or offering more of the product at the same price.

Smith and Sinha (1973) conducted a study on consumers store preference when presented with promotional deals. They tested three different deal frames: '50% off', ‘buy one get one free’ and ‘buy two, get 50% off’.

Results of the study show that the nature of framing does affect consumer deal preference even though the deal may be equivalent on a unit cost basis.

Das, P. R. (1992). Semantic cues and buyer evaluation of promotion communication, in Leone, R. P. and Kumar, V. (Eds), Enhancing knowledge development in marketing. American Marketing Association: Chicago, IL.

Smith, M. F., & Sinha, I. (1973). The impact of price and extra product promotions on store preference. International journal of retail and distribution management, 28, 83-92.