Consumers' responses to price presentation formats in rebate advertisements

Although rebates offer an important and popular promotion tool in retailing, little research has investigated whether their presentation format can influence consumers' evaluations of and purchase intentions toward products featured in rebate ads. Retailers generally use two different rebate ad formats: one that transparently shows both before- and after-rebate prices and the other that displays the after-rebate price in relatively large print and the before-rebate price in small print. Three experimental studies attempt to determine which format is more effective for eliciting favorable consumers' responses, and the results show that the format emphasizing only after-rebate prices generally leads to lower purchase intentions because of the negative affect it elicits. Furthermore, the effect of a rebate presentation format is moderated by the rebate amount, consumers' price knowledge, and rebate processing time. The results show that consumers' responses to different rebate presentation formats entail both emotional responses and rational evaluations.