Showing papers by "David Bell published in 2002"

Seven Barriers to Customer Equity Management

Abstract: The article reviews the evolution from brand-centered marketing to customer-centered marketing and the beginnings of a focus on viewing the customer as an asset. It illustrates the practice by desc...

Choice and the Internet: From Clickstream to Research Stream

Abstract: The authors discuss research progress and future opportunities for modeling consumer choice on the Internet using clickstream data (the electronic records of Internet usage recorded by company web servers and syndicated data services). The authors compare the nature of Internet choice (as captured by clickstream data) with supermarket choice (as captured by UPC scanner panel data), highlighting the differences relevant to choice modelers. Though the application of choice models to clickstream data is relatively new, the authors review existing early work and provide a two-by-two categorization of the applications studied to date (delineating search versus purchase on the one hand and within-site versus across-site choices on the other). The paper offers directions for further research in these areas and discusses additional opportunities afforded by clickstream information, including personalization, data mining, automation, and customer valuation. Notwithstanding the numerous challenges associated with clickstream data research, the authors conclude that the detailed nature of the information tracked about Internet usage and e-commerce transactions presents an enormous opportunity for empirical modelers to enhance the understanding and prediction of choice behavior.

Price Competition under Stockpiling and Flexible Consumption

Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that the main effect of price promotion is on brand switching (i.e., secondary demand); however, some recent studies demonstrate that the primary demand expansion effect can be considerably larger than previously believed. A significant driver of this primary demand effect is consumer stockpiling in response to price promotions. Indeed, experimental studies have shown that additional inventory on hand can lead to an endogenous increase in consumption. The authors develop a model of price competition between firms in response to the stockpiling and subsequent consumption dynamics of consumers. In this setting, the flexible consumption effect causes more intense price competition, deeper promotions, and an increase in the frequency of promotions. The authors use two years of scanner panel data from eight product categories and 4313 stockkeeping units to test three implications of the theoretical model; they find strong support for each.

Fragments for a New Urban Culinary Geography

Abstract: APPETISERThis paper presents a series of fragments exploring particular aspects of the relationship between food and the city. My intention is not to provide a fully articulated thesis on urban culinary geography, but instead to present some random snapshots, some first thoughts. Some are better developed than others, which flash past like fast cars or subliminal blipverts; that's inevitable in such polymorphous sites as postmodern metropolises. Like that familiar publication that guides us round the urban landscape, the A—Z, the entries are arranged alphabetically, and each follows its own logic and trajectory. The disjunctures between them reflect the chaotic heterotopian shape of the contemporary city. Taken together, they represent the beginning of the project of rethinking how food and urban space come together in particular contexts, from the work of the chef to the scavenging of feral animals. Conscious of perpetrating the crime of generalizing ‘the city’, I would state that the cities of which I a...

An Explanation for Partial Forward Integration: Why Manufacturers Become Marketers

Abstract: Manufacturers are seeking new ways to exercise control over how consumers experience their brands and the division of responsibility for manufacturing and marketing activities is getting rede ned in the process. A signi cant number of manufacturers now sell their products through company-owned stores as well as through independent retailers. More interestingly, many do so in direct competition with independent retailers (i.e., the retail stores are physically co-located). We derive conditions under which this strategy is viable and argue that through forward integration and investment in brand-speci c marketing e®ort, the manufacturer can achieve a form of resale price maintenance. That is, the prices charged by independent retailers competing against an integrated retailer (who invests in marketing e®ort) are higher than the prices charged when competition is between independent retailers only. In the partially integrated channel independent retailers bene t somewhat from the provision of a public good by the manufacturer; the manufacturer bene ts from control over retail decision variables. Moreover, we nd that the independent retailers' incentives to improve brand support increases. We also examine the retailing e±ciency of the manufacturer-owned store and show conditions under which demand at the company store complements or substitutes demand at independent stores. The basic results are preserved and additional insights obtained when we extend the model to consider phenomena such as market saturation e®ects (where an increasing number of retailers compete for a xed pie) and asymmetric demand at independent and integrated stores. Our model and results also speak to the Internet environment in which \partial forward integration" is fast becoming a norm, as in this medium all stores are by de nition co-located in the same physical space. Implications for retail management are discussed.

Changing the Channel: A Better Way To Do Trade Promotions

Abstract: In theory, trade promotions should benefit everyone involved. In practice, however, manufacturers and retailers often use trade promotions as weapons in a zero-sum game, and consumers are sometimes left out altogether. It need not be that way. Over the past three years, David Bell, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and Xavier Dreze, a visiting assistant professor of marketing at UCLA's Anderson School, have examined the theoretical and practical problems associated with trade promotions, and they explain how the right kind of deal can be created ? a transparent system that generates mutual trust and provides benefits to both manufacturers and retailers. The key is proper implementation of what is thus far a little understood tool: the pay-for-performance trade promotion, in which retailers get rewarded according to how much they sell, not how much they buy. The authors explain how the most accepted way of doing promotions today ? which rewards retailers for effective buying rather than effective marketing ? creates a variety of inefficiencies that drain resources from their intended purpose. Using a hypothetical case involving much-simplified mathematics, they go on to demonstrate how manufacturers can design pay-for-performance options that retailers can embrace. They also illustrate how one national beverage company made pay-for-performance deals work in practice. Finally, they offer practical advice to help senior managers rethink the elements of organizational culture that stand in the way of a more effective approach to trade promotions ? and, by extension, block better, more profitable relationships all along the channel.