Abstract: With the methods testifying stereotype content model and mixed stereotype proposed by Fiske et.al, this paper not only finds that profitability and authenticity serve as two primary dimensions of sales promotion stereotype content model, but also validates there are perception differences among consumer groups about sales promotion stereotype in two mixed dimensions, and comes to the following conclusions. Firstly, authenticity illustrates that consumers’ valuation about purpose of sales promotion is based on moral evaluation which contains the consideration of enterprises’ morality, other-profitable demand, intention and warmth. Secondly, profitability reflects lots of benefits offered by enterprises which have abilities to enact their intentions. Owing to consumers often discounting on other-profitable behaviors under the self-profitable circumstances, high or low profitability levels will bring about low or high consumers’ evaluations.Thirdly, the customers’ perception of profitability and authenticity can both affect their willingness to participate in sales promotion significantly and positively, but the impact of the perception of profitability is stronger than the perception of authenticity does. All these results reflect in perception differences among groups are that customers with “high profitability-low authenticity” and “high profitability-high authenticity” perceptions have stronger willingness to participate in sales promotion. It illustrates that customers’ participation of sales promotion are mainly driven by the perception of profitability. Fourthly, the paper also finds that demographics and psychographic characteristics can influence consumer groups’ perception differences on sales promotion stereotype. Although on the side of demographics, the result shows dispersed groups; on the side of psychographic characteristics, the result shows concentrated groups which are more consistent with the hypothesis of frequent mixed clusters combined high authenticity with low profitability, or high profitability with low authenticity. Synthetically, this paper is distinct from those previous researches which tend to explore who prefers sales promotion; it reflects the degrees of consumers’ entanglement when they are engaging in the decision-making of sales promotion. Because the perception differences among groups about sales promotion stereotype are existent, enterprises should provide or choose differential tools of sales promotion to satisfy different consumer groups.

Key words: sales promotion, authenticity, profitability, sales promotion stereotype content model, perception differences among groups