Pseudo Research in Marketing: The Case of the Price/Perceived‐Quality Relationship

Comments on the commonly‐observed phenomenon that people frequently judge the quality of a product by its price, assuming that the most expensive item is better, and discusses the reasons for this and its implications. Discusses a typical experiment in which university students were given a set of cards, each card with a description of a product and its price, then asked to choose which product they thought they would buy if they had the choice — analysis showed whether, all things being equal, they were more likely to buy the expensive product. Assesses the results of this and discusses them in depth. Concludes this research programme is exceptional in providing so few results but argues against critics.