Lead products, marketing profits, and retail store choice.

摘要

Although accounting profits have been a dominant metric for product profitability in the retailing industry, it is questionable to what extent they can help store managers make better decisions. Accounting profits treat the joint purchase of multiple products as separate purchases of individual products and thus view product profitability through lens of individual products. Unlike accounting profits, "marketing profits" view product profitability through lens of consumers, recognizing the important role of lead products on shopping lists in store choice and product profitability. Extending the work of Chen et al. (1999), who introduced the concept of marketing profits, this dissertation investigates the characteristics of lead products and factors that can affect the influence of lead products on store choice. It also proposes and demonstrates a new way of calculating marketing profits.; Based on the data collected at two supermarkets, it is found that lead products do exist, and they can influence consumers' store choice decisions. Consumers form associations between product categories and the most preferred stores for those product categories, and these associations are stronger in frequently purchased product categories than in infrequently purchased ones. These associations help consumers choose a store once lead products are identified. Lead products in perishable and frequently purchased product categories do not influence store choice. As a group, however, lead products in all product categories influence consumers' store choice. Specifically, meat/seafood, grocery, and liquor were found to significantly influence store choice decisions. The number of stores patronized, shopping trip type, age type, and distance to the store do not moderate the influence of lead products on store choice. Lastly, marketing profits provide quite different, yet more useful information about stores' profitability than the information that accounting profits provide. Different product categories draw consumers to different supermarkets. Overall, these findings suggest strong evidence for lead products as a viable store choice factor.