It is very usual that one overestimate the importance of prices in consumer shopping process. Let me tell you a story. One of our consulting customers, a women´s shoe store chain, believed price was the most important attribute in the shopping process . Then they decided to import chinese shoes in order to decrease the average price. But sales didn´t increase. So we proposed them to undertake a marketing research. We made two focus groups: one group were frequent buyers who buy more than 5 pairs of shoes every year. The other group bought less than 5 pairs of shoes yearly.
It resulted that both groups had different purchasing power. Frequent buyers were middle class, while ocasional buyers were low income consumers. The surprise was was that neither of two groups considered price the most important attribute. Of course price was important but they were looking also for fashion (middle class) and quality (low income). Low income consumers prefered to save money until they can buy a better quality shoe, than buying a low quality one. The reason was they had no money to buy another pair later if the bought one didn't work.
After this research the store chain decide to reformulate its merchandising strategy.
