Oxford: When men see red they see a bargain, says Saïd Business School research

If you want to convince a man he’s getting a bargain, print the price in red – just as long as he doesn’t read the advertisement too carefully. Don’t bother trying the same thing with women, though, as they read advertisements more thoroughly and with greater scepticism. 

New research from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, has revealed that not only do men and women 'read' advertisements differently, but their perceptions of price and value are also affected differently by the use of colour.

“Are Men Seduced by Red? The Effect of Red Versus Black Prices on Price Perceptions” by Nancy M. Puccinelli, Rajesh Chandrashekaran, Dhruv Grewal, Rajneesh Suri, published in The Journal of Retailing, argues that men tend not to process advertisements deeply. Instead, they quickly pick up on 'clues' in the advertisement that they use as shortcuts to decisionmaking.

In a series of experiments conducted using graduate students in a US university, the researchers discovered that, in line with associating the colour red with pleasure, men perceived prices printed in red to be offering greater value than those printed in black.

The fact that men tend to read advertisements only superficially was emphasised by their inaccurate recall of prices when questioned after having seen an ad. For example, on average, they remembered the price of a microwave as being $15 lower than it actually was. According to the researchers, it is because of this poor memory that men rely on clues such as colour to indicate value.

In contrast, women were not affected at all by the colour in which the price was printed, and afterwards recalled the prices with much greater accuracy than the men.

When the men in the study were made to process ads in more depth, as they would do if they were particularly interested in the product, the effect of the price colour was reduced.

“Many men claim to dislike shopping, and here we can see this reflected in their shallow processing of advertisements,” said Puccinelli, fellow in consumer marketing at Saïd Business School.

“Unless they know or care enough about the product to engage properly with the ad, they can be easily convinced that they are getting a bargain, just by printing the price in red. This is useful for retailers to know, of course, and rather confirms the myth that men, in general, just aren’t very good at shopping.”