Does MSRP impact women differently? Exploring gender-based differences in the effectiveness of retailer-provided reference prices

Despite the widespread use of gender-based segmentation strategies by marketers, researchers have paid little attention to examining gender-based differences in the processing of pricing information. Utilizing the selectivity hypothesis, we posit that men and women process external reference price (ERP) information differently. We report evidence from four different studies that confirm the proposed gender-based differences for ERP processing. Compared to men, women pay more attention to ERPs, expend greater effort processing ERPs, display a better recall of ERPs, and evaluate deals more favorably when deals include ERP information. Implications for managerial practice as well as future research on pricing are discussed.