A rich literature in sales promotions have shown that the short-term sales are positively affected in offering promotions

A rich literature in sales promotions have shown that the short-term sales are positively affected in offering promotions (Blattberg and Neslin, 1995). “Buy One and Get One free” (BOGO) is a common form of volume discount promotion, used universally in the marketing industry by retailers, enticing consumers to buy their product through the offer of a free gift. The BOGO advertising has been widely publicized in countless supermarkets and outlets as means of promoting the products. BOGO scheme is one type of popular product volume discount nonmonetary sales promotions schemes in which the consumer gets two (or more) products of the same type for the price of one, or receiving a free product by purchasing some other product. Promotions such as “buy one get one free,”, “buy two get one for free” and so on are frequently used to generate unplanned purchase (Inman et al., 2009). Marketers find BOGO scheme has an attractive element to pull customers attraction towards purchasing their products in a short time of period and also to capture the market for future business. When the word “Free” is noticeable in the product label or in the racks of super markets it usually catches the attention and the excitement of the consumers as the rewards for both the consumer and the retailers. The efficacy of free gifts is, however, in doubt, shoppers do not understand why retailers offer this kind of promotion when it is no more profitable for stores than a half-price sale. A study done in India has concluded that sales promotions like offering “free goodies” are not perceived favorable by consumers although this promotion is being widely promoted in India (Manalel et al., 2007). Simonson et al. (1994) endorsed Manalel et al. (2007) and stated that consumers who are not interested in purchasing the additional product may not avail the BOGO promotion scheme. In Malaysia, BOGO scheme promotion is popularly used to attract local and foreign customers for the sales of their products. Malaysian consumes respond more for free samples and offering free samples have encouraged product trials (Ndubisi and Moi, 2006). Despite the growth in BOGO sales promotions and the concerns raised, there is a scarcity of literature devoted to the BOGO scheme in the market. Also, BOGO promotion scheme does not always achieve its objectives, such as increasing sales significantly (Gedenk et al., 2004). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct an exploratory study to explore the drivers that influences the purchasing reflection towards BOGO scheme in the market.
BOGO scheme can be enlightened as sale of products that have been offered ‘free gifts with purchase’ of the same/another product. Literature has revealed that advertising of BOGO scheme is a successful promotional technique as the additional product is provided free of charge with the purchase of original product. This has eventually, persuaded consumers to purchase the product and encouraging consumers to purchase additional as well. Many questions are raised in the business world on the purchasing behavior towards the BOGO scheme. Regardless of this unanswered question, BOGO scheme remains widely advertized and attracting many consumers globally to purchase through the scheme. Many consumers have intention to purchase products with quality but with lowest price. If the perceived values of the product are greater than cost of the product, it is observed that consumers will purchase the product (Yee and Sidek, 2008). A large number of studies show that discount offers can have positive effects on consumer perceptions in terms of the value associated with the offer (Darke and Dahl, 2003; Inman et al., 1997; Urbany et al., 1988). Compeau and Grewal (1998) suggested that negative price-quality inferences are likely to moderate positive discount framing effects on deal value. This can occur in two ways. Discounts can lead to more negative consumer perceptions by undermining the perceived quality of the discounted item (Scott and Yalch, 1980; Tybout and Scott, 1983) and lowering the probability of future purchases (Dodson et al., 1978; Doob et al., 1969). Raghubir and Corfman (1999) stated that the quality inference of a product is most likely to matter when other companies in the industry do not promote. Free gift options such as BOGO scheme maintains quality perceptions and increase deal value. Thus, in order to overcome the problem that promotions undermine quality perceptions, free gift provides a feasible alternative. In addition, consumers may infer that getting a discount does not result in a lower selling price as marketers raise the initial price of the item, holding the selling price remains constant. In this case, getting a discount does not result in a lower selling price, which means there is simply no way that negative price-quality inferences could undermine the perceptions of value (Darke and Chung, 2005). As a promotional tactic, advertising serves as the most important tool in generating product awareness and stipulation of the mind of a potential consumer to take ultimate purchase choices (Ayanwak et al., 2005). BOGO scheme can be used effectively to advertise and gain sales for new product launched in the market. Consumers may repeat the purchase of single brands or change between few brands due to the perceived quality of the products sold (Yee and Sidek, 2008). Researchers have initiated that promotions, particularly price promotions have negative effect on brand equity (Mela et al., 1997). BOGO scheme itself is value added scheme since it provides a free product when the original product is purchased. Consumer purchase satisfaction is identified to contain a positive impact on market share and may be moderated by factors such as price sensitivity and perceived value (Magi, 2003). Consumer satisfaction is the post-purchase evaluation of a service offering (Oh, 2000). Marketers need to ensure that BOGO scheme is creating satisfaction among the consumers to make the scheme successful as a discount sales promotion and to create the repurchase interest from consumers.