As I understand it the RRP price is a device to skew the consumers sense of value. It has no bearing on value aside from this.
The brain sees the actual price and the higher RRP number and automatically provides you a rational experience of seeing better value - ie. a bargain - than you would if you saw the actual price in isolation. This process is automatic and inescapable (even if you rationally know the process may be occurring). If that sounds irrational your mistake is believing you act rationally to start with. You cannot determine whether this has occurred to you (unless you take part in a study where you are compared to a control).
The only defense is having a better reference point and no one has good reference points for the majority of items they purchase.
Given this (and many people find it hard to believe as it's very unintuitive to how we experience the world …) would it not be better to ban the use of RRP in deals? Surely a better gauge of value would be the next best price the poster found rather than a figure picked in order to elicit the largest profit for the retailer.
It would make a deal look worse than it did with an RRP.
Because that's the point of the RRP - to skew your sense of value and make the actual price more attractive when it wasn't.
The recommended retail price is a price indicated by the manufacturer or distributor and is not enforceable. A reasonable RRP is pretty often the price items are sold for in a lot of cases.
I don't see it as some trick or psychological game, although occasionally some sellers have silly RRPs (e.g. jewellery stores, 'As seen on TV' items).