Master Thesis in International Marketing: EFO705 School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology

Internationalization of Pricing Strategy (A case study on 9-Ending Prices using by Thai and Swedish retailers)

Group 2566 Ms. Naree Kupadakvinij (840310) Ms. Saruta Cholviroj (831029)

Superviosr: Jean-Charles Languilaire Examiner: Ole Liljefors

Seminar Date: June 4, 2010

Abstract
Date Program Course Name Title (A case study on 9-Ending Prices using by Thai and Swedish retailers) Naree Kupadakvinij Authors nkj09001@student.mdh.se 840310 Supervisor Research Problem Jean-Charles Languilaire Do the 9-ending on promotion prices used by Thai retailers different from the use of Swedish retailers? The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the differences between 9-ending Purpose on promotion prices used by Thai retailers and Swedish retailers. The quantitative research approach is the chosen method in order to evaluate the differences between 9-ending on promotion prices used by Thai retailers and Swedish retailers. The collection of data will be mainly concentrated on primary data through brochures from retailers in both countries. Evaluation of the price endings for advertised products in the brochures from Thai and Swedish retailers founded the distinctions between the use of 9-ending prices in many ways such as the way the retailers used left and right digits for price endings, the way they set the prices compared between the same product category and the same product sub-category. 9-Ending Prices, Price Endings, Left Digit, Right Digit, Two Ending Digits, One Ending Digit. Saruta Cholviroj scj09001@student.mdh.se 831029 June 4, 2010. MIMA- International Marketing Master Thesis (EFO705) Internationalization of Pricing Strategy

Method

Conclusion

Keyword

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................1 1.2 Problem Statement .......................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Purpose ............................................................................................................................ 3 1.4 Limitation ........................................................................................................................ 3 1.5 Audience ..........................................................................................................................3 1.6 Thesis Structure ...............................................................................................................4 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework ...............................................................................................5 2.1 Psychological Pricing ......................................................................................................5 2.2 Odd-Even Pricing ............................................................................................................5 2.3 The 9-Ending Prices ........................................................................................................ 6 2.3.1 Left Digit ..........................................................................................................6 2.3.2 Right Digit ........................................................................................................7 2.4 Cognitive Effect of Price Endings ...................................................................................7 Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework ...............................................................................................9 Chapter 4: Method ..........................................................................................................................10 4.1 Choices of Research Approach ....................................................................................... 10 4.1.1 Qualitative Research ........................................................................................ 10 4.1.2 Quantitative Research ...................................................................................... 10 4.2 Choices of Data Collection ............................................................................................. 11 4.2.1 Secondary Data ................................................................................................ 11 4.2.2 Primary Data .................................................................................................... 11 4.3 Collection of Data in the Research ................................................................................. 12 4.3.1 Sources of Data................................................................................................. 12 4.3.1.1 Brochure ............................................................................................ 12 4.3.1.2 Promotion Price ................................................................................ 12 4.3.1.3 Price Ending ...................................................................................... 13 4.3.2 Period of Collection ......................................................................................... 15 4.3.3 Retailers ........................................................................................................... 15 4.3.3.1 Thai Retailers .................................................................................... 15 4.3.3.2 Swedish Retailers .............................................................................. 16 4.3.4 Selected Product Category................................................................................ 17 4.3.4.1 Food Category ................................................................................... 18 4.3.4.2 Personal Care Products Category ......................................................18 4.3.4.3 Electrical Appliances Category ........................................................ 20 4.4 Analyzing Tool ............................................................................................................... 21 4.5 Validity and Reliability of the Research ......................................................................... 21 Chapter 5: Empirical Material ...................................................................................................... 23 5.1 Overview of Collected Brochures and Prices ................................................................. 23 5.1.1 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 23 5.1.2 Sweden ............................................................................................................. 26

5.2 Prices Ending Digits in Two Countries .......................................................................... 30 5.2.1 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 30 5.2.1.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 30 5.2.1.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................31 5.2.2 Sweden ............................................................................................................. 32 5.2.2.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 32 5.2.2.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................33 5.3 Prices Ending Digits of Product Categories ....................................................................34 5.3.1 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 34 5.3.1.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 34 5.3.1.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................40 5.3.2 Sweden ............................................................................................................. 41 5.3.2.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 41 5.3.2.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................46 5.4 Prices Ending Digits of Product Sub-Categories ............................................................ 48 5.4.1 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 48 5.4.1.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 48 5.4.1.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................54 5.4.2 Sweden ............................................................................................................. 56 5.4.2.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 56 5.4.2.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................59 5.5 Prices Ending Digits from Selected Retailers ................................................................. 62 5.5.1 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 62 5.5.1.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 62 5.5.1.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................64 5.5.2 Sweden ............................................................................................................. 65 5.5.2.1 Left Ending Digits ............................................................................ 65 5.5.2.2 Right Ending Digits ...........................................................................66 Chapter 6: Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 67 6.1 Price Endings in Two Countries ..................................................................................... 67 6.1.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits ..67 6.1.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits ... 70 6.2 Price Endings of Product Categories .............................................................................. 71 6.2.1 Food Category ..71 6.2.1.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits ...71 6.2.1.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits 74 6.2.2 Personal Care Products Category .76 6.2.2.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits ...76 6.2.2.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits 77 6.2.3 Electrical Appliances Category 78 6.2.3.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits .. 78 6.2.3.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits 80

6.3 Price Endings of Product Sub-Categories ....................................................................... 80 6.3.1 Food Category ..80 6.3.1.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits ...80 6.3.1.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits 81 6.3.2 Personal Care Products Category .81 6.3.2.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits ...81 6.3.2.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits 81 6.3.3 Electrical Appliances Category . 81 6.3.3.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits .. 81 6.3.3.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits 82 6.4 Price Endings from Selected Retailers (Tesco-Lotus & Coop) ...................................... 82 6.4.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits ..82 6.4.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits ... 84 Chapter 7: Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 86 7.1 The Answer to the Research Question ............................................................................ 86 7.2 Reflection ........................................................................................................................ 86 7.3 Contribution .................................................................................................................... 87 7.4 Suggestion for Further Research ..................................................................................... 87 Reference List

List of Figures and Tables

Figures Chapter 3 Figure 1: Conceptual Framework (developed by the authors)...9 Chapter 4 Figure 2: Collected Price from the Brochure......13 Figure 3: Products in Food Category from retailers brochure...18 Figure 4: Products in Personal Care Products Category from retailers brochure. 19 Figure 5: Products in Electrical Appliances Category from Retailers Brochure.. 20 Chapter 6 Figure 6: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit in Thailand. 68 Figure 7: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit in Sweden... 68 Figure 8: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits in Thailand 69 Figure 9: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits in Sweden. 69 Figure 10: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits in Thailand. 70 Figure 11: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits in Sweden... 71 Figure 12: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Food Category in Thailand 72 Figure 13: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Food Category in Sweden. 72 Figure 14: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Food Category in Thailand. 73 Figure 15: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Food Category in Sweden... 73

Figure 16: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Food Category in Thailand. 74 Figure 17: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Food Category in Sweden... 74 Figure 18: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand... 75 Figure 19: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden 75 Figure 20: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand..76 Figure 21: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden... 76 Figure 22: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand.. 77 Figure 23: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden 77 Figure 24: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand 78 Figure 25: The most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden 78 Figure 26: The most commonly used numbers for the last price ending digits of left digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand 79 Figure 27: The most commonly used numbers for the last price ending digits of left digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden 79 Figure 28: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit by Tesco-Lotus...82

Figure 29: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit by Coop.. 83 Figure 30: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits by Tesco-Lotus83 Figure 31: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits by Coop... 84 Figure 32: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits by Tesco-Lotus... 85 Figure 33: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits by Coop.. 85

Tables Chapter 4 Table 1: Left Digits and Right Digits.14 Table 2: Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit and the Last Ending Digit of Left Digits... 14 Table 3: Right Digits and the Rightmost Digit...14 Chapter 5 Table 4: Quantity of Prices from Thai Retailers.........23 Table 5: Sub-Category on Food Products.. 24 Table 6: Sub-category on Personal Care Products..... 24 Table 7: Sub-category on Electric Appliances...24 Table 8: Quantity of Odd-Even Price Endings from Thai Retailers.. 25 Table 9: Quantity of Prices from Swedish Retailers.. 26 Table 10: Sub-category on Food Products.....26 Table 11: Sub-category on Personal Care Products.. 27 Table 12: Sub-category on Electrical Appliances.. 27 Table 13: Quantity of Odd-Even Price Endings from Swedish Retailers.. 27 Table 14: Total Price Sets from Coop Chains... 28 Table 15: Total Price Sets from ICA Chains. 28 Table 16: Total Price Sets from LiDL... 29 Table 17: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit in Thailand. 30

Table 18: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits in Thailand 31 Table 19: Right Price Ending Digits in Thailand...31 Table 20: Rightmost Price Ending Digit in Thailand.... 31 Table 21: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit in Sweden.. 32 Table 22: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits in Sweden.. 33 Table 23: Right Price Ending Digits in Sweden.... 33 Table 24: Rightmost Price Ending Digit in Sweden.. 34 Table 25: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Category in Thailand........35 Table 26: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Category in Thailand... 36 Table 27: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand. 37 Table 28: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand. 38 Table 29: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand..... 39 Table 30: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand. 39 Table 31: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Category in Thailand. 40 Table 32: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Food Category in Thailand... 40 Table 33: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand 40 Table 34: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand.. 41 Table 35: Right Price Ending Digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand... 41 Table 36: Rightmost Price Ending of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand. 41 Table 37: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Category in Sweden. 42 Table 38: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Category in Sweden.... 43 Table 39: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden... 44

Table 40: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden... 44 Table 41: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden... 45 Table 42: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden 45 Table 43: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Category in Sweden... 46 Table 44: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Food Category in Sweden. 46 Table 45: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden.. 47 Table 46: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden47 Table 47: Right Price Ending Digits of Electric Appliances Category in Sweden 47 Table 48: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Electric Appliances Category in Sweden......... 47 Table 49: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Sub-Category in Thailand......... 49 Table 50: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Sub-Category in Thailand....50 Table 51: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Thailand 51 Table 52: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Thailand. 52 Table 53: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Sub-Category in Thailand... 53 Table 54: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances in Thailand 53 Table 55: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Sub-Category in Thailand.. 54 Table 56: Rightmost Ending Digit of Food Sub-Category in Thailand. 54 Table 57: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Thailand. 54 Table 58: Rightmost Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Thailand 55 Table 59: Right Price Ending Digits of Electrical Appliances Sub-Category in Thailand 55 Table 60: Rightmost Ending Digit of Electrical Appliances in Thailand.. 55

Table 61: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Sub-Category in Sweden. 56 Table 62: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Sub-Category in Sweden..... 57 Table 63: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Sweden57 Table 64: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Sweden. 58 Table 65: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Sub-Category in Sweden........58 Table 66: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances in Sweden. 59 Table 67: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Sub-Category in Sweden... 59 Table 68: Rightmost Ending Digit of Food Sub-Category in Sweden.. 60 Table 69: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Sweden.. 60 Table 70: Rightmost Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-Category in Sweden. 60 Table 71: Right Price Ending Digits of Electrical Appliances Sub-Category in Sweden......... 61 Table 72: Rightmost Ending Digit of Electrical Appliances in Sweden.. 61 Table 73: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit Set by Tesco-Lotus 63 Table 74: Last Price Ending Digit of the Left Digits Set by Tesco-Lotus. 64 Table 75: Right Price Ending Digits Set by Tesco-Lotus.. 64 Table 76: Rightmost Ending Digit Set by Tesco-Lotus. 64 Table 77: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit Set by Coop... 65 Table 78: Last Price Ending Digit of the Left Digits Set by Coop 66 Table 79: Right Price Ending Digits Set by Coop. 66 Table 80: Rightmost Ending Digit Set by Coop 66

1. Introduction
This chapter presents the background of the topic, the research problem, the purpose of the research, the limitation of the topic and the audience. The structure of the thesis is also included.

1.1 Background
According to Linfo (2006), internationalization is the process of designing a product (i.e., a good or a service) so that it can be localized without major engineering changes while, it is different from localization in which to localize the product is to adapt the product to a specific country, region, language, dialect, culture, etc. Due to numerous differences that exist among countries, regions and cultures, internationalization and localization are important when marketers want to launch the product into a market (Linfo, 2006). Several distinctions in each country are respected to languages, weights and measures, currency, date and time formats, names and titles, citizen identification numbering systems, telephone numbers, addresses and postal codes, religious, cultural and political sensitivities, profanity and legal systems. Nielson Thailand (n.d.) states that most retailers will be challenged to attract consumers to their stores, persuade them to spend money once inside and achieve this with the most efficient retail operations in the foreseeable future. According to Coleman (n.d.), retailers of fast-moving consumer goods face more pressure in order to compete and succeed in a competitive market. Moreover, to understand the impact of an optimized price strategy and a powerful option that the strategy can deliver in order to empower retailers to achieve new levels of business success (Coleman, n.d.). Therefore, retailers have to be more cautious with their pricing in order to survive and thrive in the highly competitive retail world. In consumers perspective, consumers demand fair prices in exchange for their business and they are constantly comparison shopping (Coleman, n.d.). Bolton and Shankar (2003) discover that retailers made pricing decisions for each brand-store combination based on a complex set of factors such as market, chain, store (size, category assortment), category (storability, necessity), brand (preference, advertising), customer (price sensitivity) and competitor characteristics. Specifically, retailer pricing decisions at the brand-store level are heavily influenced by the relative price level and deal frequency of brands in the same category at competing stores, for example, retailers are less price consistent, offer

aggressive promotions, more actively coordinate price-promotion and charge lower prices when their competitors offer deals more frequently (Bolton and Shankar, 2003). Nowadays, consumers encounter with odd pricing when they are presented with prices of consumer goods at retail stores, therefore, odd-pricing could be considered as the most common pricing strategy used by retailers all consumers would be familiar with (Helium, 2010). Odd pricing is also known as psychological pricing which is the practice of ending a price in .99 or sometimes .95. The most obvious reason why retailers use the .99 strategy is to play a psychological game with consumers as when consumers see the price as 9.99, they may round it up in their head, but it doesn't look as expensive as 10.00 does (Helium, 2010).

1.2 Problem Statement

There is slow growth of retailing in Thailand as consumers continue to limit their spending due to political and economic uncertainties (Euromonitor International, 2009). As consumers preferred to shop for all their needs in one place to save travelling time and expense, retailers tend to expand company portfolios by partnership with other grocery and non-grocery retailers in order to be competitive in the market as well as to offer the widest possible range of products and services and to attract the maximum number of shoppers to their stores (Euromonitor International, 2009). OfficeWire (2010) states that retailing in Sweden also grew at a significantly slower current value rate due to the rising rate of unemployment and food price increases. Therefore, it results in decreasing of consumers disposable income that encourage consumers to shift to more affordable products and they also postponed the purchase of perceived non-essential products, especially bigger investment items such as large domestic electrical appliances or furniture (OfficialWire, 2010). As a result of economic influences, effective pricing strategy tends to be the most important factor for retailers to attract consumers to make more purchase when shopping in their stores. Many retailers often advertise the price of their products by using numbers below round numbers such as 99 instead of 100. The study from Dr. Schindler showed that consumers usually feel that items with prices using 9 are the items that are on sale (Schindler, 2006). On the other hand, the study from Dr. Thomas mentioned that the use of price ending does not appear in every country. He stated that people in Asian countries would be less likely to see or feel the difference in numbers (Thomas, 2005). Hence, it leads us to our research question that Do the 9ending on promotion prices used by Thai retailers different from the use of Swedish retailers?
2

1.3 Purpose
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the differences between 9-ending on promotion prices used by Thai retailers and Swedish retailers.

1.4 Limitation
Due to lack of time, the authors are unable to collect relevant information (e.g. flyers, and brochures from websites) from all retailers both in Thailand and Sweden as there are various retailing brands in both markets. Therefore, the authors have to focus on major retailers while conducting the research. Especially for the retailers in Sweden, the authors have to choose the retailers and their chains that operate in the town where the authors conduct the research due to logistics and time constraints. Moreover, there are various prices that the retailers use on their products, therefore, the authors have to choose to collect only promotion prices which are mostly advertised through retailers brochures due to limitation of collecting time. Furthermore, the variety of products provided by the retailers is another concern. Therefore, the authors have to choose some of the products and group them in each specific category.

1.5 Audience
Our target audience is retailers in Thailand and Sweden. Also, this research can be used for further studies on retail pricing strategy for marketing students.

1.6 Thesis Structure

Here, the thesis structure is being presented including, a brief introduction of each chapter. The thesis is divided into 7 chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction chapter presents the background, the problem, the purposes, the limitation of the research and the target audience. Chapter 2: Theoretical framework chapter includes the theories related to pricing strategies such as psychological pricing, odd-even pricing and 9-ending prices, including left and right digit of prices and the cognitive effect of price ending. Chapter 3: Conceptual framework chapter presents developed framework by the authors based on theories in chapter 2. Chapter 4: Method chapter explains how and why the research is done in the way it is presented. It consists of choices of research approach, choices of data collection, collection of data in the research and analyzing tool of the research. The validity and reliability of the research are also included. Chapter 5: Empirical material chapter presents the results from the collection of primary data. Chapter 6: Analysis chapter presents the discussion and analysis of differences of price endings between both countries related to product categories, product sub-categories and retailers. Chapter 7: Conclusion chapter presents the discussion on the answer to the research question, the reflection of the research, the contribution of the research is provided and recommendation on further research.

2. Theoretical Framework
In this chapter, theories related to the main research are presented which consist of several pricing strategies such as psychological pricing, odd-even pricing and 9-ending prices. Moreover, the left and right digit of prices and the cognitive effect of price ending are described.

2.1 Psychological Pricing

Kotler, Armstrong, Wong and Saunders (2008) states that psychological pricing is reference prices that consumers would have in their minds and would refer to when considering buying a given product. The reference price can be formed by noting current prices, remembering past prices or assessing the buying situations which the retailers can influence or use these consumers reference prices when setting price (Kotler, Armstrong, Wong & Saunders, 2008). According to Pride, Hughes and Kapoor (2010, p.388), psychological pricing strategies encourages purchases based on emotional responses rather than on economically rational responses. These strategies are used primarily for consumer products rather than business products.

2.2 Odd-Even Pricing

Regarding to Lamb, Hair and McDaniel (2008, p.581), odd-even pricing (or psychological pricing) means pricing at odd-numbered prices to connote a bargain and pricing at even-numbered prices to imply quality. Odd-number pricing is the strategy when prices are set using odd numbers that are slightly below whole-dollar amounts and the most popular ending figures for odd-number prices are nine and five. The retailers who use this pricing strategy believe that consumers would respond more positively to odd-number prices such as $99.95 than to whole-dollar prices such as $100 (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor, 2010). While psychological, and particularly odd, pricing is mostly used in retailing with regard to consumer product, even pricing tends to be used where connotations of quality are important in determining product and brand choice (Lancaster and Withey, 2006). Even-numbered pricing is sometimes used to denote quality, for example, a fine perfume at $100 a bottle, a good watch at $500, or a mink coat at $3,000 (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008). Pride and Ferrell (2010) states that a product with even prices is often perceived as having an exclusive or upscale image, therefore, an even price supposedly will
5

influence a customer to view the product as being a high quality and premium brand. For example, a shirt maker may print on a premium shirt package suggested retail price for $42.00 instead of $41.95; in this case, the even price of the shirt is used to enhance its upscale image (Pride and Ferrell, 2010).

2.3 The 9-Ending Prices

The price digit can be divided into two categories, which are the leftmost digit and the digits to the right of the leftmost digit, or ending digits. In this thesis, the presence of including one or more 9s in the leftmost ending digit of a price will be referred to the 9-ending pricing. According to Whalen (1980, p. 54-55), A variety of mechanisms, including such fanciful ideas as the possibility that 99-ending prices attract attention because they are perceived by consumers as eyes looking at them, therefore, it indicates that the use of 9s in a price ending serves as a signal or communicates an image, such as that the product in low-priced or on sale. According to Schindler and Kirby (1997), retail prices appearing in newspaper advertisements with 9-ending prices were more likely to be used by retail managers when the 0-ending price one cent (or one dollar) higher would have changed the prices leftmost digit than when the one-cent increase would not have changed the prices leftmost digit. Moreover, there is evidence indicated that 9-ending prices are at least 24% (and as much as 73%) less likely to change in comparison to prices ending with other digits (Levy, Lee, Chen, Robert & Bergen, 2007). They also find that the average size of change of 9-ending prices are systematically larger, in comparison to non 9ending prices. 2.3.1 Left Digit Considering left digit of prices (e.g., $5.99 and 20.00), it is the numbers that come before the .99 (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008). Lamb, Hair & McDaniel (2008) also state that the left digit can determine whether consumers perceive a penny reduction as a bargain. Left-digit effect is considered when changing the left digits to a lower number (20 to 19) rather than the right digits (.60 to .59) that would affect the consumers perception of the price (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008). Moreover, the left-digit effect also refers to the observation that using a nine ending versus a zero ending, for example, $59.99 versus $60.00, changes the leftmost digit (i.e., the dollar digit changes from three to two) and that it is this change in the left digit, rather than the one cent drop (Thomas and Morwitz, 2005). According to Rao (2009), the use of a 9-ending price can effect judgments of the magnitude of the differences
6

between two prices when using of such an ending leads to a change in the left-most digit (e.g. $3.00 versus $2.99), but has no effect on the perceived magnitude when the left-most digit remains unchanged (e.g. $3.50 versus $3.49). 2.3.2 Right Digit Right digit of prices can be referred to the numbers that come after the left digit, for example, $3.60 and 19.59; the right digits are .60 and .59 (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008). Coulter (2007) states that "rightdigit effect" influences consumer perception of sale prices. It occurred when the right digits are small then, consumers perceive the discount to be larger than when the right digits are large. For example, an item on sale for $211 from the original price of $222 is thought to be a better deal than an item on sale for $188 from an original price of $199, even though both discounts are $11 (Coulter, 2007). There is also single rightmost digits (e.g., the 5 in $6.95) (Paliwoda and Ryans, 2008). Clark, Brock & Stewart (1994) states that the rightmost digits can be considered as common practice in using as an advertised price so that the price falls just below a round number (e.g. $49.99, $5.98, $1.89). Regarding to a number of studies of the common observation about certain digits that are more likely than others to appear as the rightmost digit, or ending, of an advertised price, in particular, the digits 0, 5, and 9 have been found to occur as the rightmost digit of price much more often that chance would predict (Schindler and Kirby, 1997).

2.4 Cognitive Effect of Price Endings

Suri, Anderson and Kotlov (2003) states that there are certain numbers that people encounter more frequently in their everyday activities and use more often than others. Therefore, it is important to understand which numbers are more accessible than others because if certain cognitive representations come to mind more easily, then such representations are more likely to influence evaluations. By setting prices at numbers that have relatively high cognitive accessibility, the price setter communicates with consumers in terms of how consumers think. As a result, prices are more easily perceived, remembered, and compared (Suri, Anderson & Kotlov, 2003). When looking through prices, consumers would read those prices from left-to-right when examining multi-digit regular and sale prices in an advertisement. In the price comparison process, if the left (hundreds) digits are identical, consumers will pay less attention to those digits and focus primarily upon the disparate right-most (tens and units) digits. Although it is a
7

belief that the .99 part of a price would make the difference in purchasing behavior, there is new research finding that the numbers that come before the .99 or the left digits would determine whether consumers perceive a penny reduction as a bargain (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008).

3. Conceptual Framework
In this chapter, the authors develop the conceptual framework regarding to the theories mentioned earlier. As shown in Figure 1, the main concept of this research is to study the 9-ending on promotion prices, which can be determined as odd pricing or psychological pricing. Although the collection of data will be focusing on 9-ending prices, even prices is also being considered in this research. Moreover, both left and right digit of prices is being collected in order to examine the pattern of prices setting. As a result, the research will compare the 9-ending on promotion prices set by retailers in Thailand and Sweden in order to evaluate the differences of price endings on each product category.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework (developed by the authors)

4. Method
This chapter presents the tools of collecting data that authors use to conduct the research. Firstly, the methodological approach will be described and then, the chosen method will be discussed in details.

4.1 Choices of Research Approach

4.1.1 Qualitative Research According to Newman and Benz (1998, p.16), qualitative research is multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This research approach involves the collection of various empirical materials such as case study, personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactions and visual texts in which it describes routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals lives. Moreover, qualitative research is concerned with qualitative phenomenon that relates to or involves quality or kind. There are two types of research as follows: Motivation Research is being conducted when the researchers are investigating the reasons for human behavior such as why people think or do certain things. It aims to discover the motives and desires by using in depth interviews for the purpose. Other techniques of such research include word association tests, sentence completion tests, and story completion tests (Kothari, 1990). Attitude or opinion research is designed to explore how people feel of what they think about particular subject or institution (Kothari, 1990). 4.1.2 Quantitative Research According to Kothari (1990, p.3), quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of quantity. A quantitative approach uses strategies of inquiry such as experiments and surveys, and collects data on predetermined instruments that yield statistical data (Creswell, 2003). In doing so, quantitative researchers would be looking for explanations and predictions that will generalize to other persons and places. Their role is to

10

observe and measure. Moreover, they have to be aware of contaminating the data through personal involvement with the research subjects (Murray, 2003). Regarding the research question, the authors aim to use quantitative approach to collect the data on retail price. As there is variety of prices among selected products, this method will help the authors in measuring the amount of price endings on those selected products from retailers in Thailand and Sweden.

4.2 Choices of Data Collection

4.2.1 Secondary data When collecting data, the researchers usually start by gathering secondary data because it can be obtained more easily, quickly and at a lower cost than primary data (Kotler, Armstrong, Wong & Saunders, 2008). Secondary data can be used as possibility of reanalyzing data that have already been collected for some other purpose. It includes both raw material and published summaries which could be both quantitative and qualitative data (Thornhill, Lewis & Saunders, 2007). The collection of data from books (i.e. textbooks and academic monographs) and journals (i.e. academic journals) will be our main sources. According to Fisher (2007), textbooks are helping the authors in orientating in a field of literature and they can be used as a source of references while journals are the most up-to-date research and debates will be found in journals which are more applicable to use as main source of a research dissertation. The authors collect data from marketing textbooks on related theories used for developing the conceptual framework for this research. In addition, marketing journals are helpful in generating ideas from previous researches on pricing. 4.2.2 Primary data Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) states that primary data are considered useful when secondary data are not available or cannot be used to answer the research questions. The primary data will be collected depending on the research problem and design. In this case, it is quantitative method. There are several choices of collecting primary data including observations, experiments, surveys (questionnaires) and

11

interviews. The advantage of primary data is that they are more compatible with the research questions and objectives (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2005). The authors choose direct observation as a method of collecting data for this research. In doing so, the authors will collect brochures from selected retailers both in Thailand and Sweden.

4.3 Collection of Data in the Research

With regard to the chosen method on quantitative approach of direct observation, the method is described in details as followed; 4.3.1 Sources of Data 4.3.1.1 Brochure The collected brochures come from two sources. For retailers in Thailand, the authors collect brochures via their websites which are; Tesco-Lotus: http://tescolotus.com/promotion.php?lang=en Big-C: http://www.bigc.co.th/en/promotions/ebrochure/ Carrefour: http://www.carrefour.co.th/eng/promotion/MonthlyBrochure.aspx For retailers in Sweden, the authors visit each selected store and collect the brochures that usually are placed at the store entrance. Moreover, the brochures can be obtained via mail. 4.3.1.2 Promotion Price As mentioned earlier in the limitation part, promotion prices usually appear in the brochures which are the main source that the authors choose to collect the data. An example of collected prices is shown in Figure 2 below;

12

Figure 2: Collected Price from the Brochure (Big C, 2010) According to Figure 2, the authors choose to collect the promotion price in a big red numbers with background because a price is being advertised as lower price than an original price; a small red numbers with green background. 4.3.1.3 Price Endings According to the collected promotion prices from the brochures, price ending digits in Thai Baht and Swedish Kronor can be divided into two parts which are left digits and right digits as shown on Table 1. Left digits include the numbers before decimal point and right digits consist of the numbers after decimal point.

13

Left Digits

Right Digits

579.00
SEK69.99

49.50
SEK14.99

Table 1: Left Digits and Right Digits The first collection of promotion price endings is the left digits. The authors had collected two digits from the leftmost digit and the last digit of left digits. Two digits from the leftmost digit are the last two numbers before the decimal point while, the last digit of left digits is the last number before the decimal point. Examples of collected price endings in Thai Baht and Swedish Kronor are shown on Table 2. Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit Last Digit of Left Digits

579.00
SEK69.99

579.00
SEK69.99

Table 2: Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit and the Last Ending Digit of Left Digits The second collection of promotion price endings is the right digits and the last digit of right digits or the rightmost digit. The right digits are the two numbers after the decimal point while, the rightmost digit is the last number of the ending. Examples of collected price endings in Thai Baht and Swedish Kronor are shown on Table 3. Right Digits Rightmost Digit

49.50
SEK14.99

49.50
SEK14.99

Table 3: Right Digits and the Rightmost Digit

14

4.3.2 Period of Collection The authors collect brochures from all selected retailers during April 1, 2010 to May 15, 2010. During this period of time, the authors were able to gather various pricing ranges on promotion prices of each product category as the retailers would launch different pricing promotion and campaign via their weekly and monthly brochures. 4.3.3 Retailers The authors choose three retail outlets each in Thailand and in Sweden. Thai retailers are Tesco-Lotus, Big-C and Carrefour. They are the top three hypermarket brands in Thailand according to a publication by Price Waterhouse Cooper (2006). And Swedish retailers are Coop (Extra, Konsum, Forum and Bygg), ICA (Maxi and Supermarket) and LIDL. As mentioned earlier in the limitation part, the authors choose these three retailers and their chains because they are operating in Vsters where the authors conduct the research. A brief overview of each retailer will follow. 4.3.3.1 Thai Retailers Tesco-Lotus Tesco-Lotus Hypermarket is the biggest store of Tesco-Lotus. Tesco Lotus currently has 48 hypermarkets, 9 Express stores, 8 Value stores and a supermarket (Price Waterhouse Cooper, 2006). It serves every need of customers with products variety up to 36,000 items covering every department such as consumer products, fresh foods, hardware and electrical appliances. Tesco-Lotus is claimed to be the leader of "sell for less" that always presents promotion discount products at Tesco-Lotus Hypermarket. Customers can check the products, price and promotion from various media such as flyers at the customer service counter, Tesco-Lotus website, press ads in newspaper, posters or the sign boards in the store and promotion labels on the shelves (Tesco-Lotus, 2009). Big-C Big-C operates business in the form of "Hypermarket" or "Supercenter" as a modern retail business which is managed under the umbrella of Big-C Supercenter Public Company Limited and its subsidiaries. At present, Big-C has total 68 branches - 26 branches in Bangkok and the vicinity, 42 branches in the provinces. At all Big-C stores, the majority of the space is devoted to the sale of
15

consumer goods and foodstuffs at reasonable prices and of excellent quality. Products available in a BigC store can be divided into 5 main categories which are fresh food, dry food, clothing and accessories, electrical appliances and home dcor and accessories (Big-C, 2010). Carrefour Carrefour emphasizes on price as one of its key elements of the brand strategy, together with a constant pursuit of improvement in ranges and services. Carrefour has 30 stores nationwide and more than 7,000 employees in Thailand; 23 Carrefour stores are located in Bangkok areas and 7 in upcountry. Carrefour hypermarkets operates under the concept of everything-under-one-roof which offers its customers a range of between 20,000 and 80,000 food and non-food items at extremely attractive prices. Carrefour hypermarkets combine choice, quality, innovation and modernity with the best prices around and a pleasurable buying experience (Carrefour, 2008). 4.3.3.2 Swedish Retailers Coop Coop is the name of the KF Group's grocery retail group. It runs grocery retail trade in chains which accounts for 21.4% of the grocery retail market in Sweden. There are five chains under Coops operation including Coop Forum, Coop Extra, Coop Konsum, Coop Nra and Coop Bygg (Coop, 2010). In this research, the authors choose only four chains that are operated in Vsters which are; Coop Forum: there are 42 hypermarkets that offer a broad range of goods, with emphasis on foods, can often be found next to biggest commercial centers. Customers can find everything under one roof of Coop Forum (Coop, 2010).
Coop Extra: it aims to be the best food store in each location with 36 stores available. Customers can

find it easily and walk straightforward to the shop with full product ranges at great prices (Coop, 2010).
Coop Konsum: there are 169 stores of Coop Konsum. It offers inspiration for food and recipes which bear

the Keyhole label and lists of nutrients. Coop Konsum runs business under the concept of value-formoney goods, top quality fresh goods and also Sweden's broadest range of organic options (Coop, 2010).
16

Coop Bygg: there are 32 stores that offer a broad range of do-it-yourself and gardening goods. Also, the stores are well stocked and offer low prices (Coop, 2010). ICA ICA Group is one of the Northern Europes leading retail companies, with around 2,220 of its own and retailer-owned stores in Sweden, Norway and the Baltic countries. There are 1,359 ICA stores in Sweden with four chains under ICAs operation including ICA Nra, ICA Supermarket, ICA Kvantum and Maxi ICA Stormarknad (ICAs Annual Report, 2009). In this research, the authors choose only two chains that operate in Vsters which are; ICA Supermarket: the store provides wide assortment for everyday meals or special occasions together with high personal service. Moreover, the stores carry a wide range of fresh foods (ICAs Annual Report, 2009). ICA Maxi Stormarknad: the stores operate under the concept of everything at good prices under one roof. It provides customers wide variety of foods and nonfoods such as house wares, sporting goods and garden supplies with extended store hours and convenient for drivers (ICAs Annual Report, 2009). LiDL LiDL currently has over 140 stores and total of over 2,300 people working at LiDL Sweden. LiDL have forced prices while operating in Sweden for nearly seven years. LiDL's business concept and the key to success is simplicity as selling products of highest quality at the lowest possible price. By being cost conscious and cost-effective offering customers lower food prices, LiDL is the shop for the savvy customers who want to buy food with high quality at a low price (LiDL, 2010). 4.3.4 Selected Product Category As mentioned earlier in the limitation part, there is wide variety of product range provided in retail store. Therefore, the authors choose to collect promotion prices on three product categories of consumer goods which are food, personal care products and electrical appliances because these products are mostly advertised in the brochures as shown in Figure 3, 4 and 5, respectively.

17

4.3.4.1 Food Category Products in food category provided in the retailer can be divided into five groups as following; 1) Fresh food such as egg, meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, dairy products and bakery. 2) Frozen food such as frozen meat, meal box and ice-cream. 3) Dried food such as canned food, seasoning, spread, rice, milk powder and instant coffee. 4) Snacks such as nuts, candy, chocolate and potato chip. 5) Beverages such as pasteurized milk, juice and soft drink.

Figure 3: Products in Food Category from retailers brochure (Tesco Lotus, 2010 and Big C, 2010)

18

4.3.4.2 Personal Care Products Category The authors divide personal care products category into five groups which are; 1) Hair care including shampoo, conditioner and color cream. 2) Skin care such as soap, shower cream, body lotion, facial foam, facial cream and deodorant. 3) Mouth care such as toothbrushes, toothpaste and mouth wash. 4) Fabric care which are washing powder and fabric softener. 5) Others including sanitary napkin, razor, shaving cream, cosmetics and toilet paper.

Figure 4: Products in Personal Care Products Category from retailers brochure (Tesco Lotus, 2010 and Big C, 2010)

19

4.3.4.3 Electrical Appliances Category This category can be divided into two groups including; 1) Major appliances such as air conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine, dish washer and stove. 2) Small appliances including microwave oven, blender, rice cooker, coffee maker, electrical fan, vacuum, iron, hair dryer, television and DVD player.

Figure 5: Products in Electrical Appliances Category from Retailers Brochure (Big C, 2010 and Carrefour, 2010) Therefore, each product category contributes differences in price setting by selected retailers both in Thailand and Sweden.

20

4.4 Analyzing Tool

Regarding to the research question, the authors will compare the way the retailers from Thailand and Sweden set their price on three product categories. In doing so, the authors use Microsoft Office Excel as a statistical tool and then key-in all data in order to calculate results between two countries. In this research, the authors choose to calculate the results using rank and percentile function. According to Microsoft Office Online (2010), the Rank and Percentile analysis tool produces a table that contains the ordinal and percentage rank of each value in a data set. Moreover, the authors also use pivot-table as a tool to sort, count, and total the data stored spreadsheet and display the summarized data in Excel (Microsoft Office Online, 2010).

4.5 Validity and Reliability of the Research

4.5.1 Validity According to Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2000), validity is an important key to effective research and a requirement for both quantitative and qualitative research. In quantitative data, validity can be improved through careful sampling, appropriate instrumentation and appropriates statistical treatments of data while in qualitative data, degree of bias is contributed by the subjectivity of respondents, their opinions, attitudes and perspectives (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000). Therefore, the researchers are striving to minimize invalidity and maximize validity. In this research, the method of collecting data can be considered as a valid one. The authors had collected the data in order to measure the differences between promotion price endings in two countries, therefore, all data were carefully collected and used in the way it is supposed to measure. Moreover, we chose proper statistical tool which is Microsoft Office Excel. As a result, the software proves to generate good statistical analyses as it can accumulate all collected data and calculate precise outcomes. 4.5.2 Reliability Reliability in quantitative research is based on the possibility of replication which means that the results should come out the same when using the same method with the same sample while in qualitative research, reliability can be considered as adequate between what researchers record as data and what actually occurs in the natural setting that is being researched (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000).
21

Regarding to our research method, the replication of the research is highly reliable because we use Microsoft Office Excel as statistical tool in order to accumulate data and calculate the outcomes. Therefore, the results should come out the same if the similar method is being used and the similar sample size is being collected.

22

5. Empirical Material
In this chapter, the results of primary data collection are presented which consists of five parts. Every part includes the results from Thailand and Sweden. Part one presents the overview of collected brochures and promotion prices. Part two presents the results of all promotion price endings in two countries. Part three presents the results of promotion price endings of product categories. Part four presents the results of promotion price endings of product sub-categories. Lastly, part five presents promotion price endings by specific retailing brands from two countries.

5.1 Overview of Collected Brochures and Prices

5.1.1 Thailand As mentioned earlier in this research, we had collected brochures from three retail brands in Thailand which are Tesco-Lotus, Big-C and Carrefour. As shown on Table 4, there are 1,900 prices in total including 1,110 price sets of food category, 450 price sets of personal care products category and 340 price sets of electrical appliances category. Quantity of prices in each product category and retailer are also shown on Table 4. Product Category/ Retailer Food Personal Care Electrical Appliance Total Tesco-Lotus 504 170 149 823 Big-C 313 131 85 529 Carrefour 293 149 106 548 Total 1110 450 340 1900 Percentage 58.4% 23.7% 17.9% 100.0%

Table 4: Quantity of Prices from Thai Retailers

23

Each product category contains sub-categories. Food category divides into five groups as shown on Table 5. Personal care products category also divides into 5 groups, shown on Table 6. And electrical appliances category is divided into 2 groups as shown on Table 7.

Food Category
Subcategory Fresh Food Frozen Food Dried Food Snack Beverage Total Quantity 162 23 443 236 246 1110 Percentage 14.6% 2.1% 39.9% 21.3% 22.2% 100.0%

Table 5: Sub-Category on Food Products

Personal Care
Subcategory Hair Care Skin Care Mouth Care Fabric Care Others Total Quantity 53 177 29 100 91 450 Percentage 11.8% 39.3% 6.4% 22.2% 20.2% 100.0%

Table 6: Sub-category on Personal Care Products

Electrical Appliances
Subcategory Major appliances Small appliances Total Quantity 84 256 340 Percentage 24.7% 75.3% 100.0%

Table 7: Sub-category on Electrical Appliances

24

Also, quantity of odd-even price endings are shown in table 8 below. Product Category/ Odd-Even Price Ending Food Personal Care Products Electrical Appliances Grand Total Odd-Ending 631 357 40 1028 Even-Ending 479 93 300 872 Total 1110 450 340 1900

Table 8: Quantity of Odd-Even Price Endings from Thai Retailers

In Thailand, the retailers use the same brochure for every branch they operate. According to the observation, the brochures consist of 30-45 pages and all retailers would introduce their promotion of the month (e.g. buy 2 in lower price and buy 2 get 3) on the front page. They also promote seasonal products on the first 10 pages of the brochure, for example, Big-C had promoted products for school such as student uniform and stationery products on page 1-9 of their late April issue as it was school opening season in Thailand during late April to beginning of May. After several pages of special products promotion, the brochure is organized into pattern that begins with food category, personal care products category and electrical appliances category, respectively. As food category has the widest range of products, most part of the brochure is dedicated to products in food category, for example, Tesco-Lotus had allocated 15 pages of their 40 pages brochure to advertise prices of food. The next 7-10 pages are dedicated to personal care products and electrical appliances, respectively and other 5-7 pages are dedicated to other products such as clothes, household products and gardening products. The samples of brochure from three retailers are presented below.

25

5.1.2 Sweden As mentioned earlier in this research, we had collected brochures from three retail brands in Sweden which are Coop (Extra, Konsum, Forum and Bygg), ICA (Maxi and Supermarket) and LiDL. As shown on Table 9, there are 1,902 price sets in total including 1,651 price sets of food category, 158 price sets of personal care products category and 93 price sets of electrical appliances category. Quantity of prices in each product category from each retailer is shown on Table 9. Product Category/ Retailer Food Personal Care Electrical Appliance Total Coop 858 39 63 960 ICA 539 90 14 643 LiDL 254 29 16 299 Total 1651 158 93 1902 Percentage 86.8% 8.3% 4.9% 100.0%

Table 9: Quantity of Prices from Swedish Retailers Each product category contains sub-categories. Food category divides into five groups as shown on Table 10. Personal care products category also divides into 5 groups, shown on Table 11. And electric appliances category is divided into 2 groups as shown on Table 12.

Food Category
Subcategory Fresh Food Frozen Food Dried Food Snack Beverage Total Quantity 869 209 308 147 118 1651 Percentage 52.6% 12.7% 18.7% 8.9% 7.1% 100.0%

Table 10: Sub-category on Food Products

26

Personal Care
Subcategory Hair Care Skin Care Mouth Care Fabric Care Others Total Quantity 38 53 18 18 31 158 Percentage 24.1% 33.5% 11.4% 11.4% 19.6% 100.0%

Table 11: Sub-category on Personal Care Products

Electrical Appliances
Subcategory Major appliances Small appliances Total Quantity 17 76 93 Percentage 18.3% 81.7% 100.0%

Table 12: Sub-category on Electrical Appliances

Furthermore, quantity of odd-even price endings is shown in table 13 below. Product Category/ Odd-Even Price Ending Food Personal Care Products Electrical Appliances Grand Total Odd-Ending 1,013 126 89 1228 Even-Ending 638 32 4 674 Total 1651 158 93 1902

Table 13: Quantity of Odd-Even Price Endings from Swedish Retailers

27

Unlike in Thailand, retailers in Sweden use different brochures for each chain they operate as some chains are offering only specific types of product. Firstly, we had chosen four chains of Coop which are Coop Extra, Coop Konsum, Coop Forum and Coop Bygg. Mostly, every page of the brochures from Coop Extra, Coop Konsum and Coop Forum had advertised prices of food products. There are only 1-2 pages dedicated to advertisement of personal care products and other products (e.g. clothes and outdoor products). Coop Bygg which provides electrical appliances, household products and gardening products had shared the same brochure with Coop Forum. As different chains offer different kinds of product, there are different price sets from each chain as shown on Table 14. Retailer/ Product Category Coop Extra Coop Konsum Coop Forum Coop Bygg Grand Total Food 320 197 341 0 858 Personal Care 12 4 23 0 39 Electric Appliances 2 0 17 44 63 Total 334 201 381 44 960

Table 14: Total Price Sets from Coop Chains Secondly, we had chosen two chains of ICA which are ICA Maxi and ICA Supermarket. Almost every page in the brochure had dedicated to advertisement of prices on food products. Only 2-3 pages had advertised prices on personal care products. Electrical appliances are usually advertised in the same page of household products. As ICA Supermarket provides only food and personal care products, the total price sets between two chains are different as presented on Table 15. Retailer/ Product Category ICA Maxi ICA Supermarket Grand Total Food 345 194 539 Personal Care 62 28 90 Electric Appliances 14 0 14 Total 421 222 643

Table 15: Total Price Sets from ICA Chains Lastly, LiDL uses the same brochure for every chain they operate. They allocate pages to advertise each product category equally as each 1-2 pages of the brochures would advertise prices on food, personal
28

care products, electrical appliance, clothes and household products, respectively. Therefore, there are the same price sets of all product categories as shown on Table 16. Retailer/ Product Category Grand LiDL Food 254 Personal Care 29 Electric Appliances 16 Total 299

Table 16: Total Price Sets from LiDL

29

5.2 Prices Ending Digits in Two Countries

5.2.1 Thailand The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits that consist of two and one ending digit. And right ending digits including, two and one ending digit. 5.2.1.1 Left Ending Digits The group of left ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits. A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending
90 29 39 99 19 79 00 49 59 69 45 89 12 85 18 15 75 20 35 16 46 65 25 10 36 55 43 09 47 27 52 17 21 22

Quantity
234 63 63 60 51 51 49 49 49 44 37 37 36 35 31 30 30 28 28 27 27 27 26 25 25 25 22 21 20 19 19 18 18 18

Percentage
12.3% 3.3% 3.3% 3.2% 2.7% 2.7% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.3% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.8% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6% 1.5% 1.5% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.2% 1.1% 1.1% 1.0% 1.0% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9%

Ending
23 26 42 48 32 37 24 28 40 95 14 30 31 33 34 38 56 88 72 50 98 05 44 53 67 13 51 61 78 94 11 57 58 68

Quantity
17 17 17 17 16 16 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 12 11 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8

Percentage
0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4%

Ending
93 63 71 77 41 60 62 66 80 03 06 54 64 70 74 02 76 81 86 92 82 84 87 96 07 08 73 83 91 04 97 Total

Quantity
8 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1,900

Percentage
0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 100.0%

Table 17: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit in Thailand
30

B) The Last Digit of Left Digits

Table 18: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits in Thailand 5.2.1.2 Right Ending Digits The group of right ending digits consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. C) Right Digits

Table 19: Right Price Ending Digits in Thailand D) Rightmost Digit

Table 20: Rightmost Price Ending Digit in Thailand

31

5.2.2 Sweden The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits that consists of two and one ending digit. And right ending digits including, two and one ending digit. 5.2.2.1 Left Ending Digits The group of left ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits. A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending 19 29 39 49 14 24 99 35 59 25 16 15 95 17 12 30 10 69 79 18 22 32 Quantity Percentage 161 8.5% 134 7.0% 126 6.6% 105 5.5% 94 4.9% 88 4.6% 85 4.5% 70 3.7% 69 3.6% 63 3.3% 59 3.1% 51 2.7% 49 2.6% 49 2.6% 46 2.4% 43 2.3% 40 2.1% 39 2.1% 39 2.1% 37 1.9% 32 1.7% 32 1.7% Ending 20 34 45 89 21 55 40 13 26 11 28 44 42 27 36 38 33 64 65 98 00 50 Quantity Percentage 30 1.6% 29 1.5% 29 1.5% 26 1.4% 25 1.3% 25 1.3% 21 1.1% 20 1.1% 17 0.9% 16 0.8% 15 0.8% 15 0.8% 13 0.7% 11 0.6% 11 0.6% 9 0.5% 7 0.4% 6 0.3% 6 0.3% 6 0.3% 5 0.3% 5 0.3% Ending 54 23 31 90 37 47 85 09 41 48 52 75 06 07 46 51 60 67 74 84 Total Quantity Percentage 5 0.3% 4 0.2% 4 0.2% 4 0.2% 3 0.2% 3 0.2% 3 0.2% 2 0.1% 2 0.1% 2 0.1% 2 0.1% 2 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1,902 100.0%

Table 21: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit in Sweden

32

B) The Last Digit of Left Digits

Table 22: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits in Sweden 5.2.2.2 Right Ending Digits The group of right ending digits consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. C) Right Digits

Table 23: Right Price Ending Digits in Sweden

33

D) Rightmost Digit

Table 24: Rightmost Price Ending Digit in Sweden

5.3 Prices Ending Digits of Product Categories

5.3.1 Thailand The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits and right ending digits. In each group, it consists of three product categories which are food, personal care products and electric appliances. 5.3.1.1 Left Ending Digits The group of left ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits. The results will be arranged in order by food (A and B), personal care products (A and B) and electrical appliances (A and B).

34

Food Category: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Ending 19 29 39 12 59 20 18 16 46 49 10 15 35 36 79 43 47 99 17 45 23 25
27 52 65 85 89 55 21 22 24 26 48

Quantity 41 35 33 32 28 27 26 25 25 25 24 23 21 21 21 19 19 19 18 18 17 17
17 17 17 17 17 16 15 15 15 15 15

Percentage 3.7% 3.2% 3.0% 2.9% 2.5% 2.4% 2.3% 2.3% 2.3% 2.3% 2.2% 2.1% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.6% 1.6% 1.5% 1.5%
1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4%

Ending 69 09 32 28 31 34 40 75 30 42 14 33 72 37 56 94 13 44 61 95 05 11
38 51 67 71 53 58 62 88 03 06 50

Quantity 15 14 14 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 11 10 10 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 7 7
7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5

Percentage 1.4% 1.3% 1.3% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.1% 1.1% 1.0% 0.9% 0.9% 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6% 0.6%
0.6% 0.6% 0.6% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5%

Ending 60 63 77 78 98 54 57 64 66 74 81 86 93 02 41 68 76 80 82 92 00 07 73 83 84 90 96 08 70 87 91 97 Total

Quantity 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1,110

Percentage 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 100.0%

Table 25: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Category in Thailand

35

Food Category: B) The Last Digit of Left Digits 1-Left-Ending Digit 9 5 2 6 0 8 7 3 4 1 Grand Total Total 248 157 115 113 94 87 83 78 70 65 1110 Percentage 22.3% 14.1% 10.4% 10.2% 8.5% 7.8% 7.5% 7.0% 6.3% 5.9% 100.0%

Table 26: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Category in Thailand

36

Personal Care Products Category: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending 69 39 79 29 99 49 89 45 75 85 19 59 65 25 55 15 35 37 38 95 88 42 56 12 18 33 36 Quantity 29 27 26 25 23 22 20 18 17 17 16 15 10 9 9 9 7 7 7 7 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 Percentage 6.4% 6.0% 5.8% 5.6% 5.1% 4.9% 4.4% 4.0% 3.8% 3.8% 3.6% 3.3% 2.2% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6% 1.3% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 0.9% 0.9% Ending 53 57 68 93 14 21 22 41 43 67 72 16 26 27 28 30 32 44 46 51 52 58 63 66 70 77 87 Quantity 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Percentage 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% Total 450 100.0% Ending 90 98 10 11 13 20 31 34 40 47 48 50 54 60 61 64 74 76 78 80 84 91 92 96 Quantity 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Percentage 0.4% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2%

Table 27: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand

37

Personal Care Products Category: B) The Last Digit of the Left Digits

Table 28: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand

38

Electrical Appliances Category: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Table 29: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand Electrical Appliances Category: B) The Last Digit of the Left Digits 1-Left-Ending Digit 0 9 8 5 Grand Total Total 288 37 12 3 340 Percentage 84.7% 10.9% 3.5% 0.9% 100.0%

Table 30: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand
39

5.3.1.2 Right Ending Digits The group of right ending digits consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. The results will be arranged in order as food (C and D), personal care products (C and D) and electrical appliances (C and D). Food Category: C) Right Digits

Table 31: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Category in Thailand Food Category: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 32: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Food Category in Thailand Personal Care Products Category: C) Right Digits

Table 33: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand

40

Personal Care Products Category: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 34: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand Electrical Appliances Category: C) Right Digits

Table 35: Right Price Ending Digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand Electrical Appliances Category: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 36: Rightmost Price Ending of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand 5.3.2 Sweden The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits and right ending digits. In each group, it consists of three product categories which are food, personal care products and electric appliances. 5.3.2.1 Left Ending Digits The group of left ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits. The results will be arranged in order by food (A and B), personal care products (A and B) and electrical appliances (A and B).

41

Food Category: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Ending 19 29 39 14 49 24 25 16 35 59 15 17 12 99 30 10 18 22 20 69 Quantity Percentage 152 9.2% 116 7.0% 112 6.8% 94 5.7% 91 5.5% 85 5.1% 62 3.8% 58 3.5% 58 3.5% 55 3.3% 49 3.0% 49 3.0% 46 2.8% 44 2.7% 42 2.5% 39 2.4% 36 2.2% 32 1.9% 30 1.8% 30 1.8% Ending 79 34 32 21 89 55 13 45 26 11 40 28 44 27 36 42 38 33 98 50 Quantity Percentage 29 1.8% 27 1.6% 26 1.6% 25 1.5% 25 1.5% 21 1.3% 20 1.2% 19 1.2% 17 1.0% 16 1.0% 16 1.0% 15 0.9% 15 0.9% 11 0.7% 11 0.7% 10 0.6% 9 0.5% 7 0.4% 6 0.4% 5 0.3% Ending 54 64 23 31 37 47 65 85 95 41 46 48 52 67 74 75 84 00 09 Total Quantity Percentage 5 0.3% 5 0.3% 4 0.2% 3 0.2% 3 0.2% 3 0.2% 3 0.2% 3 0.2% 2 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1 0.1% 1,651 100.0%

Table 37: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Category in Sweden

42

Food Category: B) The Last Digit of Left Digits

Table 38: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Category in Sweden

43

Personal Care Products Category: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending 29 39 59 35 49 45 69 99 19 32 40 79 00 55 24 42 65 15 34 Quantity 14 14 14 12 11 10 9 9 9 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 Percentage 36.8% 36.8% 36.8% 31.6% 28.9% 26.3% 23.7% 23.7% 23.7% 15.8% 13.2% 13.2% 10.5% 10.5% 7.9% 7.9% 7.9% 5.3% 5.3% Ending 95 06 07 09 10 16 18 25 30 31 41 48 51 52 60 64 75 89 Total Quantity 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 158 Percentage 5.3% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 100.0%

Table 39: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden Personal Care Products Category: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 40: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden
44

Electrical Appliances Category: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Table 41: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden

Electrical Appliances Category: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 42: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden

45

5.3.2.2 Right Ending Digits The group of right ending digits consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. The results will be arranged in order as food (C and D), personal care products (C and D) and electrical appliances (C and D). Food Category: C) Right Digits

Table 43: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Category in Sweden Food Category: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 44: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Food Category in Sweden

46

Personal Care Products Category: C) Right Digits

Table 45: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden Personal Care Products Category: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 46: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden Electrical Appliances Category: C) Rightmost Digits

Table 47: Right Price Ending Digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden Electrical Appliances Category: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 48: Rightmost Price Ending Digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden

47

5.4 Prices Ending Digits of Product Sub-Categories

5.4.1 Thailand The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits and right ending digits. In each group, it consists of product sub-categories in three product categories which are food (fresh food, frozen food, dried food, snacks and beverages), personal care products (hair care, skin care, mouth care, fabric care and others) and electric appliances (major appliances and small appliances). 5.4.1.1 Left Ending Digits The group of left ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits. The results will be arranged in order by sub-category of food (A and B), sub-category of personal care products (A and B) and sub-category of electrical appliances (A and B).

48

Sub-Category of Food: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Ending
19 29 39 12 59 20 18 16 46 49 10 15 35 36 79 43 47 99 17 45 23 25 27 52 65 85 89 55 21 22 24 26 48 69 09 32 28 31 34 40 75 30 42 14 33 72 37 56 94 13

Fresh
11 10 6 3 4 4 2 2 1 3 0 3 2 5 8 0 1 3 2 3 5 3 4 1 2 1 3 0 2 1 1 6 5 6 4 1 2 1 2 1 5 1 1 4 1 1 1 0 0 1

Frozen
1 1 4 0 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Dried
15 13 10 15 8 6 5 6 3 4 7 6 8 7 9 9 4 14 7 4 1 8 2 4 6 11 10 9 5 8 10 5 2 3 6 6 9 6 6 9 4 6 7 2 3 5 0 4 8 5

Snack
9 4 5 8 3 10 13 13 19 8 8 9 10 2 1 1 6 0 5 7 6 4 3 1 4 0 0 1 8 4 2 2 6 1 0 6 1 6 3 0 1 3 1 4 6 0 7 2 0 1

Beverage
5 7 8 6 9 7 6 4 2 9 8 5 0 7 1 9 8 2 4 2 5 2 8 11 5 5 4 6 0 2 2 2 2 2 4 1 1 0 2 3 3 2 3 1 0 4 1 2 1 1

Total
41 35 33 32 28 27 26 25 25 25 24 23 21 21 21 19 19 19 18 18 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 14 14 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 11 10 10 9 9 9 8

Ending
44 61 95 05 11 38 51 67 71 53 58 62 88 03 06 50 60 63 77 78 98 54 57 64 66 74 81 86 93 02 41 68 76 80 82 92 00 07 73 83 84 90 96 08 70 87 91 97 Total

Fresh
3 0 1 0 3 1 1 2 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 162

Frozen
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23

Dried
0 4 5 7 4 3 4 3 7 2 4 1 3 3 5 2 2 2 5 3 4 3 1 3 1 2 2 4 4 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 443

Snack
1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 236

Beverage
4 4 1 0 0 2 2 2 0 1 0 3 1 2 0 3 3 3 0 0 1 0 3 1 2 0 2 0 0 1 1 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 246

Total
8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1,110

Table 49: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Sub-category in Thailand

49

Sub-Category of Food: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 50: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Sub-category in Thailand

50

Sub-Category of Personal Care Products: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending/ Hair Care Skin Care Sub-catergory
69 39 79 29 99 49 89 45 75 85 59 65 19 25 55 09 15 35 37 38 95 88 42 56 12 18 33 36 53 57 68 93 14 21 22 41 43 67 72 05 16 26 7 2 7 4 7 1 3 1 1 1 0 0 6 1 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 16 7 5 9 10 11 10 7 4 10 1 3 5 7 1 1 4 3 3 3 3 4 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 2 2 1 0 2 2 1 0 0 2

Mouth Care
2 3 7 2 2 2 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Fabric Care
4 3 3 7 3 4 2 0 9 5 3 7 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 2 1 2 0 5 3 0 1 1 0 3 0 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 2 0

Others
2 3 2 7 2 5 2 7 0 4 2 2 0 3 1 0 1 2 4 2 3 1 0 0 1 1 2 1 3 0 3 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0

Total
29 27 26 25 23 22 20 18 17 17 15 10 9 9 9 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2

Ending/ Hair Care Skin Care Sub-catergory

27 28 30 32 44 46 51 52 58 63 66 70 77 87 90 98 02 04 08 10 11 13 20 31 34 40 47 48 50 54 60 61 64 74 76 78 80 84 91 92 96 Total 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 53 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 177

Mouth Care
1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 29

Fabric Care
0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 100

Others
1 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 91

Total
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 450

Table 51: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Thailand

51

Sub-category of Personal Care Products: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 52: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Thailand

52

Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Table 53: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Thailand Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 54: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Thailand

53

5.4.1.2 Right Ending Digits The group of right ending digits consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. The results will be arranged in order as sub-category of food (C and D), sub-category of personal care products (C and D) and sub-category of electrical appliances (C and D) Sub-category of Food: C) Right Digits

Table 55: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Sub-category in Thailand Sub-category of Food: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 56: Rightmost Ending Digit of Food Sub-category in Thailand Sub-category of Personal Care Products: C) B) Right Digits

Table 57: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Thailand

54

Sub-category of Personal Care Products: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 58: Rightmost Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Thailand Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: C) Right Digits

Table 59: Right Price Ending Digits of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Thailand Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 60: Rightmost Ending Digit of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Thailand

55

5.4.2 Sweden The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits and right ending digits. In each group, it consists of product sub-categories in three product categories which are food (fresh food, frozen food, dried food, snacks and beverages), personal care products (hair care, skin care, mouth care, fabric care and others) and electrical appliances (major appliances and small appliances). 5.4.2.1 Left Ending Digits The group of two ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits. The results will be arranged in order by sub-category of food (A and B), sub-category of personal care products (A and B) and sub-category of electrical appliances (A and B). Sub-Category of Food: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending/Sub-category 19 29 39 14 49 24 25 16 35 59 15 17 12 99 30 10 18 22 20 69 79 34 32 21 89 55 13 45 26 11 Fresh Food 79 58 66 73 52 38 24 36 24 33 17 27 31 33 20 30 19 9 10 20 24 16 9 13 21 4 4 7 8 5 Frozen Food 11 30 23 2 21 17 1 3 7 14 3 2 2 5 2 1 0 5 1 8 3 1 4 2 3 10 1 8 1 0 Dried Food 35 13 13 7 14 17 21 13 16 4 16 7 7 0 5 5 13 11 10 1 0 5 6 3 0 7 6 4 3 9 Snacks 15 4 4 9 3 6 10 3 9 3 6 7 4 3 11 2 2 2 6 0 0 2 5 6 1 0 6 0 4 1 Beverages 12 11 6 3 1 7 6 3 2 1 7 6 2 3 4 1 2 5 3 1 2 3 2 1 0 0 3 0 1 1 Total 152 116 112 94 91 85 62 58 58 55 49 49 46 44 42 39 36 32 30 30 29 27 26 25 25 21 20 19 17 16 Ending/Sub-category Fresh Food Frozen Food Dried Food Snacks Beverages 7 1 6 1 1 40 5 1 3 2 4 28 8 3 2 0 2 44 1 1 5 4 0 27 2 0 5 0 4 36 5 0 4 0 1 42 4 1 1 1 2 38 1 0 1 2 3 33 6 0 0 0 0 98 2 1 2 0 0 50 4 1 0 0 0 54 3 2 0 0 0 64 2 1 0 1 0 23 0 0 2 1 0 31 0 1 1 1 0 37 1 0 2 0 0 47 2 0 1 0 0 65 2 1 0 0 0 85 0 2 0 0 0 95 0 1 0 0 0 00 1 0 0 0 0 09 0 0 1 0 0 41 0 0 0 0 1 46 0 0 0 0 1 48 0 0 1 0 0 52 0 1 0 0 0 67 1 0 0 0 0 74 1 0 0 0 0 75 1 0 0 0 0 84 Total 869 209 308 147 118 Total 16 15 15 11 11 10 9 7 6 5 5 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1651

Table 61: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Food Sub-category in Sweden

56

Sub-Category of Food: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 62: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Food Sub-category in Sweden Sub-Category of Personal Care Products: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending/Sub-catergory Hair Care Skin Care Mouth Care Fabric Care Others 29 3 6 3 0 2 39 4 3 2 2 3 59 4 5 0 2 3 35 4 0 3 0 5 49 2 6 0 1 2 45 1 3 4 1 1 69 2 4 0 2 1 99 1 2 3 2 1 19 1 3 0 0 3 32 2 2 1 0 1 40 0 5 0 0 0 79 2 0 0 3 0 00 0 2 0 2 0 55 3 1 0 0 0 24 0 3 0 0 0 42 1 0 0 0 2 65 3 0 0 0 0 15 0 0 0 1 1 34 0 0 1 0 1 9 0 2 0 0 0 Total 14 14 14 12 11 10 9 9 7 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 Ending/Sub-catergory Hair Care Skin Care Mouth Care Fabric Care Others 95 0 1 0 0 1 06 1 0 0 0 0 07 0 1 0 0 0 09 0 1 0 0 0 10 0 1 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 1 18 0 1 0 0 0 25 0 0 0 0 1 30 0 0 1 0 0 31 1 0 0 0 0 41 1 0 0 0 0 48 1 0 0 0 0 51 1 0 0 0 0 52 0 0 0 1 0 60 0 0 0 0 1 64 0 0 0 0 1 75 0 1 0 0 0 89 0 0 0 1 0 Total 38 53 18 18 31 Total 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 158

Table 63: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Sweden

57

Sub-category of Personal Care Products: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 64: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Sweden Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Table 65: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Sweden

58

Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 66: The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Sweden 5.4.2.2 Right Ending Digits The group of right ending digits consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. The results will be arranged in order as sub-category of food (C and D), sub-category of personal care products (C and D) and sub-category of electrical appliances (C and D) Sub-category of Food: C) Right Digits

Table 67: Right Price Ending Digits of Food Sub-category in Sweden

59

Sub-category of Food: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 68: Rightmost Ending Digit of Food Sub-category in Sweden Sub-category of Personal Care Products: C) Right Digits

Table 69: Right Price Ending Digits of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Sweden Sub-category of Personal Care Products: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 70: Rightmost Ending Digit of Personal Care Products Sub-category in Sweden

60

Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: C) Right Digits

Table 71: Right Price Ending Digits of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Sweden Sub-category of Electrical Appliances: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 72: Rightmost Ending Digit of Electrical Appliances Sub-category in Sweden

61

5.5 Prices Ending Digits from Selected Retailers

According to this part, the authors had chosen specific retail brands from two countries which are TescoLotus (Thailand) and Coop (Sweden). The reason of choosing these two retailers is that the collected price quantity from both retailers is slightly the same, therefore, it is more effective to examine the comparison between two retail brands from different country. 5.5.1 Tesco-Lotus (Thailand) The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits and right ending digits. In this part, we choose to evaluate the prices set by Tesco-Lotus as the retailer from Thailand. 5.5.1.1 Left Ending Digits The group of two ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits.

62

Tesco-Lotus: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit

Ending 90 00 19 39 49 99 29 79 59 85 12 69 16 45 46 65 10 20 26 18 25 27 35 89 09 43 55 15 17 24 28 31 36 Quantity 107 25 25 22 22 22 21 19 18 18 17 17 16 15 15 14 13 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 Percentage 13.0% 3.0% 3.0% 2.7% 2.7% 2.7% 2.6% 2.3% 2.2% 2.2% 2.1% 2.1% 1.9% 1.8% 1.8% 1.7% 1.6% 1.5% 1.5% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% Ending 47 48 21 22 23 37 38 50 52 56 75 34 77 95 11 14 32 33 40 44 51 67 98 60 63 66 68 71 72 80 88 93 94 Quantity Percentage 9 1.1% 9 1.1% 8 1.0% 8 1.0% 8 1.0% 7 0.9% 7 0.9% 7 0.9% 7 0.9% 7 0.9% 7 0.9% 6 0.7% 6 0.7% 6 0.7% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 5 0.6% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% 4 0.5% Ending 13 30 42 54 57 58 61 62 81 82 02 03 05 06 41 53 64 74 76 78 84 86 87 91 96 04 07 08 70 73 83 92 Total Quantity 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 823 Percentage 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 100.0%

Table 73: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit Set by Tesco-Lotus

63

Tesco-Lotus: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 74: Last Price Ending Digit of the Left Digits Set by Tesco-Lotus 5.5.1.2 Right Ending Digits The group of one ending digit consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. Tesco-Lotus: C) Right Digits

Table 75: Right Price Ending Digits Set by Tesco-Lotus Tesco-Lotus: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 76: Rightmost Ending Digit Set by Tesco-Lotus

64

5.5.2 Coop (Sweden) The collection of price endings is divided into two groups which are left ending digits and right ending digits. In this part, we choose to evaluate the prices set by all chains of Coop as the retailer from Sweden. 5.5.2.1 Left Ending Digits The group of two ending digits consists of A) two digits from the leftmost digit and B) the last digit of left digits. Coop: A) Two Digits from the Leftmost Digit
Ending 39 29 19 14 49 24 95 59 99 35 25 16 12 10 79 30 34 89 17 18 55 Quantity 64 61 60 58 54 50 46 41 37 32 29 28 27 22 21 20 19 18 18 18 16 Percentage 6.7% 6.4% 6.3% 6.0% 5.6% 5.2% 4.8% 4.3% 3.9% 3.3% 3.0% 2.9% 2.8% 2.3% 2.2% 2.1% 2.0% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.7% Ending 69 15 45 21 32 22 20 26 27 36 44 40 13 42 33 64 28 38 98 90 23 Quantity 16 16 15 14 14 13 12 10 10 10 10 9 7 7 6 6 5 5 5 4 3 Percentage 1.7% 1.7% 1.6% 1.5% 1.5% 1.4% 1.3% 1.0% 1.0% 1.0% 1.0% 0.9% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.3% Ending 37 65 00 11 06 07 09 31 41 48 50 51 52 54 60 74 84 85 Total Quantity 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 960 Percentage 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 100.0%

Table 77: Two Price Ending Digits from the Leftmost Digit Set by Coop

65

Coop: B) The Last Price Ending Digit of Left Digits

Table 78: Last Price Ending Digit of the Left Digits Set by Coop 5.5.2.2 One Ending Digit The group of one ending digit consists of C) right digits and D) rightmost digit. Coop: C) Right Digits

Table 79: Right Price Ending Digits Set by Coop Coop: D) Rightmost Digit

Table 80: Rightmost Ending Digit Set by Coop

66

6. Analysis
This chapter presents discussion and analysis of promotion price endings in both Thailand and Sweden according to the conceptual framework which the authors have developed as a tool to answer the research question. Furthermore, empirical data are used to analyze the research. The first part analyses the use of promotion price endings between two countries. The second and third part consists of the analysis of promotion price endings used in product categories and product sub-categories, respectively. The last part analyses the promotion price endings used by specific retail brands in both countries.

6.1 Price Endings in Two Countries

Considering the odd and even price endings used by Thai and Swedish retailers, the overall results from the collection of data are slightly the same as they both used odd numbers more than even numbers for price endings. However, there are still some differences of price ending used between retailers from two countries. Firstly, there are various sets of ending used by Thai retailers as much as 99 different sets of ending, while, there are only 64 sets of ending used by Swedish retailers. Secondly, the differences of price endings both in left digits and right digits can be pointed out as following; 6.1.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits According to figure 6, 90-ending was the most commonly used by Thai retailers that could be counted as 12.3% of all endings, following by 29-ending, 39-ending and 99-ending with only 3%. For Swedish retailers, the percentage of each ending used was not that different as the result of 19-ending could be counted as 8.5%, 29-ending with 7%, 39-ending with 6.6% and so on as shown in Figure 7. Therefore, it can be recognized that 90-ending were commonly used by Thai retailers for the two price ending digits from the leftmost digit (e.g. 390 THB, 1,590 THB and 17,990 THB). Although other numbers such as 19-ending, 29-ending, 39-ending, 79-ending and 99-ending were also found in this group, they were rarely presented in promotion price endings comparing to 90-ending. Unlike Thailand, Swedish retailers had commonly used 19 as the price ending (e.g. SEK19 and SEK119). Moreover, 29-ending, 39-ending and 49-ending were also used frequently the same of 19-ending.

67

Figure 6: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit in Thailand (referring to Table 17)

Figure 7: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit in Sweden (referring to Table 21)

68

According to Figure 8 and 9, the result is that 9-ending was mostly used by both countries with 25.7% for Thai retailers and 41.3% for Swedish retailers. The difference is that 0-ending was commonly used at the second rank by Thai retailers with 20.7% while, 5-ending was used by Swedish retailers with 15.7%. Moreover, it can be seen that Swedish retailers tended to use 9-ending rather than other endings comparing with the use of 9-ending by Thai retailers.

Figure 8: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits in Thailand (referring to Table 18)

Figure 9: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits in Sweden (referring to Table 22)
69

6.1.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits Considering the right digits, Thai retailers did not emphasize on using right digits or it can be recognized as no digit which accounted for 94.3% as shown in Figure 10. However, Swedish retailers did not use the right digit that accounted for almost half of all price endings which is 47.9%, following closely with 90-ending that accounted for 46.3% as shown in Figure 11. As a result, Thai retailers rarely used right digits on their promotion prices, therefore, it consequently resulted in the most use of 9 as the price ending of the last digit of left digits. Swedish retailers also used 9 as the price ending for that case whereas they had already set promotion prices using 90-ending and 99-ending for the right digits.

Figure 10: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits in Thailand (referring to Table 19)

70

Figure 11: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits in Sweden (referring to Table 23)

6.2 Price Endings of Product Categories

There are distinctions between price endings used by Thai and Swedish retailers when setting the promotion prices for three product categories which are food, personal care products and electrical appliances as following; 6.2.1 Food Category 6.2.1.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits There are some differences in left digits of price ending in food category. Although 19-ending, 29ending and 39-ending were mostly used by both Thai and Swedish retailers, the percentage of each set of number from Thai retailers was not that different and grouped together from 3.7% as shown in Figure 12. However, Swedish retailers seemed to frequently use 19-ending with 9.2% in a wide range rather than using other endings such as 29-ending with 7.0% and 39-ending with 6.8% as shown in Figure 13.

71

Figure 12: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Food Category in Thailand (referring to Table 25)

Figure 13: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Food Category in Sweden (referring to Table 37) According to Figure 14 and 15, 9-ending was still mostly used by both Thai and Swedish retailers in this category. The difference is that Thai retailers tended to use 9-ending and 5-ending in closed frequency that counted as 22.3% and 14.1%, respectively when comparing with the use of 9-ending and other endings by Swedish retailers that 9-ending could be counted as 39.7%.
72

Figure 14: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Food Category in Thailand (referring to Table 26)

Figure 15: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Food Category in Sweden (referring to Table 38)

73

6.2.1.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits When comparing Figure 16 and Figure 17, the obvious difference between two countries is that Thai retailers did not emphasized on using right digit while, Swedish retailers mostly used 90-enidng for their food category accounted for 51.1%. Moreover, there are various endings used by Swedish retailer such as 45-ending, 49-ending, 50-ending and so on while, Thai retailers used only 25-ending, 50-ending and 75-ending.

Figure 16: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Food Category in Thailand (referring to Table 31)

Figure 17: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Food Category in Sweden (referring to Table 43)
74

6.2.2 Personal Care Products Category 6.2.2.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits According to Figure 18 and Figure 19, Thai retailers tended to use 9-ending digits (e.g. 29, 39, 69, 79 and 99) to set the promotion prices in this product category. Although Swedish retailers also frequently used 9-ending digits as 29-ending, 39-ending and 59-ending, 5-ending digits (e.g. 35 and 45) were also found in approximated percentage to 9-endings.

Figure 18: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand (referring to Table 27)

Figure 19: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden (referring to Table 39)
75

According to Figure 20 and Figure 21, it can be seen that 9-ending and 5-ending was mostly used by both retailers.

Figure 20: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand (referring to Table 28)

Figure 21: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden (referring to Table 40)

76

6.2.2.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits When comparing between Figure 22 and Figure 23, Thai retailers seemed to ignore the use of right digit as accounted for 98% with no right digit. Swedish retailers also set the price for this category without the right digit, however, 23.4% of the promotion prices were using 90-ending and other endings were also found such as 49-ending, 50-ending and 99-ending.

Figure 22: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Personal Care Products Category in Thailand (referring to Table 33)

Figure 23: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits of Personal Care Products Category in Sweden (referring to Table 45)
77

6.2.3 Electrical Appliances Category 6.2.3.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits It was founded that price endings in electrical appliances category were the most distinctive among Thai and Swedish retailers when focusing on two price ending digits from the leftmost digit as Thai retailers had frequently used 90-ending for their promotion prices as shown in Figure 24 while, Swedish retailers tended to price their promoted products mostly with 95-ending and 99-ending as shown in Figure 25.

Figure 24: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand (referring to Table 29)

Figure 25: The most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden (referring to Table 41)
78

According to Figure 26 and Figure 27, the major difference is that Thai retailers seemed to use 0-ending for this product category as accounted for 84.7% while, Swedish retailers were mostly used 5-enidng and 9-ending in approximated percentage as 48.4% and 47.3%, respectively.

Figure 26: The most commonly used numbers for the last price ending digits of left digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Thailand (referring to Table 30)

Figure 27: The most commonly used numbers for the last price ending digits of left digits of Electrical Appliances Category in Sweden (referring to Table 42)

79

6.2.3.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits Referring to Table 35 and Table 47 in Chapter 5, there is similarity in the right digit of price ending in both countries as they tended to ignore right digit when setting the promotion prices for this product category, therefore, it can be indicated that both Thai and Swedish retailers considered that right digit has no effect on the customers perspective. The reason might be because these products are high involvement products and most of them are expensive so, small amount of money such as right digit may not affect the purchasing decision which it can be the study for the further research.

6.3 Price Endings of Product Sub-Categories

When dividing each three product category into sub-categories including 1) food; fresh food, frozen food, dried food, snacks and beverages, 2) personal care products (hair care, skin care, mouth care, fabric care and others) and 3) electrical appliances (major appliances and small appliances), the differences between price endings from Thai and Swedish retailers can be recognized. 6.3.1 Food Category 6.3.1.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits According to Table 49 and 61 from Chapter 5, there were 98 promotion price numbers set by Thai retailers, however, Swedish retailers set only 59 price numbers in this category. 19-ending was used the most by both countries but Thai retailers usually used 19-ending for dried food while Swedish retailers used it for fresh food. Because Thai retailers had various price numbers so, an average from the use of each price numbers came out not that obvious as the result from Swedish retailers. For example, 29ending was used only 10 times for fresh food by Thai retailers but it was counted as the second mostly used numbers. At the same time, 29-ending was used 58 times that was counted as the fourth mostly used numbers in the same sub-category by Swedish retailers. Referring to Table 50 and Table 62, the difference is that Thai retailers did not use 9-ending the most in every sub-category as snack was priced the most by 6-ending while, Swedish retailers used 9-ending the most in every sub-category.

80

6.3.1.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits Mostly, Thai retailers did not emphasize on using the right digits in every sub-category while, Swedish retailers mostly uses 90-ending especially, in fresh food and frozen food sub-category as shown on Table 55 and Table 67 from Chapter 5. 6.3.2 Personal Care Products Category 6.3.2.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits According to Table 51 and Table 63 from Chapter 5, Thai retailers used various promotion price numbers counted as 83 price numbers when comparing to Swedish retailers that had only 38 price numbers in this category. For both countries, there are several numbers that were used in the same frequency in the same sub-category. For example, Thai retailers tended to use 69-ending, 79-ending and 99-ending the most for hair care sub-category while, Swedish retailers mostly used 35-ending, 39ending and 59-ending for this category. As shown on Table 52 and Table 64 from Chapter 5, both Thai and Swedish retailers mostly used 9-ending for hair care and skin care sub-category. 6.3.2.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits Regarding to Table 57 and Table 69 from Chapter 5, it seems that right digit and also rightmost digit (Table 58 and Table 70) were being ignored by both retailers as every product sub-category was priced with no digit. 6.3.3 Electrical Appliances Category 6.3.3.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits Referring to Table 53 and Table 65 from Chapter 5, there are various sets of ending used by Thai retailers, however, they mostly used 90-ending for both sub-categories. In contrast, Swedish retailers mostly used 95-ending for major appliances sub-category and 99-ending for small appliances subcategory. As a result, 0-ending was popular among Thai retailers while 5-ending and 9-ending were Swedish retailers favorite ending numbers as shown on Table 54 and Table 66.

81

6.3.3.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits According to Table 59 and Table 71 from Chapter 5, it seems that right digit and also rightmost digit (Table 60 and Table 72) were being ignored by both retailers as every product sub-category was priced with no digit.

6.4 Price Endings from Selected Retailers (Tesco-Lotus & Coop)

When evaluating price endings between chosen Thai and Swedish retail brand, the differences were also founded in overall prices setting for three product categories. 6.4.1 Differences between Left Ending Digits According to Figure 28, Tesco-Lotus had mainly used 90-ending for their promotion price of two digits of the leftmost digit mostly founded in electric appliances category. At the same time, 00-ending and 9endings (e.g. 19, 29, 39, 49 and 99) were also founded but the frequency of use was not as much as 90ending. Unlike Tesco-Lotus, Coop had generally used 9-ending digits for the two digits of the leftmost digit for the products they promoted. The digits that had been used the most were 39-ending with 6.7%, 29-ending with 6.4% and 19-ending with 6.3%, respectively as shown in Figure 29.

Figure 28: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit by Tesco-Lotus (referring to Table 73)
82

Figure 29: Ten most commonly used numbers for two price ending digits from the leftmost digit by Coop (referring to Table 77)

By comparing Figure 30 and Figure 31, it can be recognized that 9-ending was used mostly by both Tesco-Lotus and Coop. However, the differences are that Tesco-Lotus tended to use 9-ending and 0ending in slightly the same frequency as accounted in 22.7% and 22.0%, respectively. At the same time, Coop used 9-ending the most referring to a wide gap between 9-ending with 38.9% and 5-ending with only 16.5%, following by 4-ending with 15.2%.

Figure 30: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits by Tesco-Lotus (referring to Table 74)
83

Figure 31: Numbers used for the last price ending digits of left digits by Coop (referring to Table 78)

6.4.2 Differences between Right Ending Digits Considering the use of right digits for the price endings, Tesco-Lotus tended to neglect the right digits when setting their promotion prices but other endings were also found with less frequency such as 25ending, 50-ending and 75-ending as shown in Figure 32. According to Figure 33, Coop intended to use 90-ending with 50.1% in order to promote their prices mostly for food and personal care products categories. At the same time, there were prices with no right digits with 49.8% founded mostly in electrical appliances category.

84

Figure 32: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits by Tesco-Lotus (referring to Table 75)

Figure 33: The most commonly used numbers for right price ending digits by Coop (referring to Table 79)

85

7. Conclusion
This chapter presents the conclusion of the research which consists of four parts. Firstly, the answer to the research question is discussed. Secondly, the reflection of the research is described. Thirdly, the contribution of the research is provided. Lastly, further research is recommended.

7.1 The Answer to the Research Question

With regard to the analysis, it can be concluded that it had answered our research question; Do the 9ending on promotion prices used by Thai retailers different from the use of Swedish retailers? When we evaluated the promotion price endings in the brochures from Thai and Swedish retailers, the distinctions between the use of 9-ending can be indicated in several ways such as the way the retailers used left and right digits for their promotion price endings, the way they set the promotion prices compared between the same product category and the same product sub-category. For example, the first difference that can be noticed is Thai retailers usually use 90-endings in the left ending digits to set their promotion prices while, Swedish retailer mostly use 19-endings for their left digits price endings. Secondly, 90-ending and 00-ending are popular for electrical appliances in Thailand. However, Swedish products in this category are mostly priced with 95-ending and 99-ending. Thirdly, Thai retailers tend to use various price ending numbers more than Swedish retailers in each sub-category. In addition, we had also noticed that not only the use of 9-endings on promotion prices is different between Thai and Swedish retailers but also the way they advertise products in their brochures and the structure of the brochure itself. Furthermore, the way they operate their chains in the country is also different as we could recognize from their brochures, for example, Thai retailers use the same brochure for every chain they operate while Swedish retailers separate their brochures for different chains (e.g. Coop Konsum, Coop Forum, Coop Extra and Coop Bygg) because each chain may offer different kinds of product.

7.2 Reflection
With regard to our research, the validity can be considered as having a precise method of collecting and accumulating the data. The data were collected carefully during specific period of time and from certain sources of data. All data we collected had been measured in the way it is supposed to measure which is to find the differences between price endings in two countries. Furthermore, Microsoft Office Excel has
86

been considered as appropriate statistical tool in accumulating all data and calculating the result precisely. The research can be replicated and it is reliable when the same method is used with the same sample. To conduct other research with comparable purpose as this research, the same method can be applied to the research approach and the sources of data can be similar. For example, quantitative research approach could be applied to the collection of primary data when the researcher aim to evaluate the differences in odd-even ending prices among different retailers.

7.3 Contribution
The research can be contributed into two implications. Firstly, the practical implication as the research could be useful to the companies operating in retail business. The differences in the use of price endings between two countries would help the retail companies in evaluating and determining the level of purchasing power of the customers when they want to import the product from foreign countries. Moreover, they can also apply the study of price endings to attract customers when they first enter the new market. For example, Swedish retailing company could apply this research for implementing their pricing strategy when they plan to enter retail market in Thailand while Thai retailing company may gain more knowledge and information from this research when they want to attract more foreign customers during their visit in Thailand. Secondly, the research can be contributed to the research implication. It can be a guideline when researchers intend to conduct more research on price endings and other pricing strategies. Furthermore, the research can be conducted not only on pricing but also on other elements relating to pricing strategies used by the retailers such as promotion on the product itself, promotion cues and currency in different countries.

7.4 Recommendations for Further Research

According to the evaluation from conducting this research, the first subject for further research on pricing could be conducted on the use of other odd numbers as price endings such as 5 and 7. Next problem would be raised on the use of even numbers or 00-ending as price endings for specific types of product For example, we had recognized that 90 and 00-ending were commonly used for electrical appliances in Thailand. Moreover, the effect of changing in left and right digits can be evaluated relating to the consumers perspective toward different price set for the same product (e.g. a bottle of shampoo with the price of SEK29 versus SEK30 or a chocolate bar priced SEK16.89 versus SEK 16.90). In
87

addition, further research can be conducted on promotion such as buy 2 gets special price or buy 2 for 3 (buy 3 for the price of 2). These promotions can be examined and analyzed to find out which product category tends to be promoted with these types of promotion and which type of promotions is being used most among retailers in the subject countries. The research can determine consumers purchasing behavior in different countries as well. When conducting the research, we also recognized that advertised products would appear with price and low price cues. Low price cues consist of reference price (original price comparing with promoted price), saving amount (the amount of money that customers can save if buying the product with promoted price) and highlighted color on promoted price such as red and yellow. Therefore, further research can be conducted on the use of low price cues in different product categories by different retailers. Furthermore, the study on currency that influences the price endings or the price setting should be considered. With regard to our observation on this research, we recognized that Thai retailers usually ignored the right digits in the price endings while Swedish retailers had used the right digits. The reason could be that they have different currency and the value of money is perceived differently by consumers in different countries.

88

Reference List
Big-C, 2010. Company Profile. [Online] Available at http://www.bigc.co.th/en/about/bigc/ [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Big-C, 2010. E-Brochures. [Online] Available at http://www.bigc.co.th/th/promotions/ebrochure/ [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Bolton, R. N. & Shankar, V. (2003). An Empirically Driven Taxonomy of Retailer Pricing and Promotion Strategies. Journal of Retailing, Volume 79. Carrefour, 2008. Company Profile. [Online] Available at http://www.carrefour.co.th/eng/about/CarrefourProfileThai.aspx [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Carrefour, 2010. E-Brochure. [Online] Available at http://www.carrefour.co.th/th/promotion/MonthlyBrochure.aspx [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Clark, E. M., Brock, T. C., Stewart, D. W., 1994. Attention, Attitude, and Affect in Response to Advertising. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K., 2000. Research methods in education. 5th ed. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Coleman, F.C., n.d. Retail Pricing Strategy: Insights and Opportunities. Revionics. Coop, 2010. About Coop. [Online] Available at http://www.coop.se/Globala-sidor/In-english/AboutCoop/ [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Coulter, K.S., 2007. Distortion of Price Discount Perceptions: The Right Digit Effect. Journal of Consumer Research. Volume 34, Issue 2. Creswell, J. W., 2003. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches. California: Sage Publications, Inc. Euromonitor International, 2009. Retailing in Thailand. [Online] Available at http://www.euromonitor.com/Retailing_in_Thailand [Accessed 15 May 2010].
89

Fisher, C., 2007. Researching and Writing a Dissertation: A Guidebook for Business Students. 2nd ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Friedman, L., 1967. Psychological pricing in the food industry. In A. Philips & O.E. Williamson (Eds.), Price: Issues in the theory, practice, and public policy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Ghauri, P. & Gronhaug, K., 2005. Research Methods in Business Studies: A Practical Guide. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Helium, 2010. The history of odd retail prices (e.g. $9.99). [Online] Available at http://www.helium.com/items/64913-the-history-of-odd-retail-prices-eg-999 [Accessed 1 April 2010]. ICAs Annual Report, 2009. The ICA Groups Annual Report including the Corporate Responsibility Report for 2009. [Online] Available at http://www.ica.se/Global/Om%20ICA/Pdf/ICA_AR_eng_2009.pdf [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Wong, V. & Saunders, J., 2008. Principles of Marketing. 5th European ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Kothari, C. R., 1990. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. 2nd ed. India: New Age Publications (Academic). Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F. and McDaniel, C., 2008. Marketing 9e. Ohio: Thomson Higher Education. Lancaster, G. & Withey, F., 2006. Marketing Fundamentals. 1st ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Publications. Levy, D., Lee, D., Chen, A., Kauffman, R. & Bergen, M., 2007. Price points and price rigidity. Munich Personal RePEc Archive. LiDL, 2010. Om Lidl. [Online] Available at http://www.lidl.se/cps/rde/xchg/SID-903C9D10EFCC0EC4/lidl_se/hs.xsl/5691.htm [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Linfo, 2006. Internationalization: A Brief Introduction. [Online] Available at http://www.linfo.org/internationalization.html [Accessed 1 April 2010].

90

Microsoft Office Online, 2010. About statistical analysis tools. Online] Available at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP052038731033.aspx [Accessed 15 May 2010]. Murray, T. R., 2003. Blending Qualitative & Quantitative Research Methods in Theses and Dissertations. California: Corwin Press, Inc. Newman, I. & Benz, C. R., 1998, p.16. Qualitative-Quantitative Research Methodology: Exploring the Interactive Continuum. Illinois: Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University. Nielson Thailand, n.d. Retailing. [Online] Available at http://th.nielsen.com/industry/retailing.shtml [Accessed 15 May 2010]. OfficialWire, 2010. Sweden Retailing Market Analysis. [Online] Available at http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=137227&catid=716 [Accessed 15 May 2010]. Paliwoda, S. J. & Ryans, J. K., 2008. International Marketing: Modern and Classic Papers. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Pride, W. M. & Ferrell, O. C., 2010. Marketing. 2010 ed. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J. & Kapoor J. R., 2010. Business. 10th ed. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Pricewaterhouse Cooper, 2006. From Beijing to Budapest Winning Brands Winning Formats. [Online] Available at: http://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/retail-consumer/pdf/thailand.pdf [Accessed 19 April 2010] Rao, V. R., 2009. Handbook of pricing research in marketing. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Schindler, R. M., 2006. The 99 price ending as a signal of a low-price appeal. Journal of Retailing, Volume 82. Schindler, R. M., & Kirby, P. N., 1997. Patterns of rightmost digits used in advertised price: Implications for nine-ending effects. Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 24.
91

Suri, R., Anderson, R. E. & Kotlov, V., 2003. The use of 9-ending prices: contrasting the USA with Poland. The Emerald Research, Volume 38. Tesco-Lotus, 2009. Hypermarket. [Online] Available at http://tescolotus.com/left.php?lang=en&menu=corporate_en&data=hypermarket [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Tesco-Lotus, 2010. E-Catalog. [Online] Available at http://tescolotus.com/promotion.php?lang=en [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Thomas, M. K., 2005. 99-cent pricing hooks shoppers. [Online] Available at http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06351/746545-28.stm [Accessed 1 April 2010]. Thomas, M. & Morwitz, V., 2005. Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: The Left-Digit Effect in Price Cognition. Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 32. Thornhill, A., Lewis, P., & Saunders, M., 2007. Research Methods for Business Students. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Whalen, B. F., 1980, p.54-55. Strategic mix of odd, even prices can lead to increased retail profits. Marketing, 29.

92