Brand Familiarity and Invoice Price Effects on Consumer Evaluations: The Moderating Role of Skepticism toward Advertising

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the ability of skepticism toward advertising to moderate the effects of brand familiarity on evaluations (i.e., offer fairness, acquisition value, and purchase intentions) of advertisements containing external reference prices (i.e., invoice prices). The results suggest that consumers high in skepticism toward advertising are positively influenced by a high invoice price (versus a low invoice price) when brand familiarity is high but not when brand familiarity is low. However, consumers low in skepticism toward advertising are positively influenced by a high invoice price (versus a low invoice price) regardless of whether brand familiarity is high or low.