Abstract

We study changes in marketing mix sensitivities in the United States following the Great Recession using weekly scanner data from 2010 representing 16,294 stores (9,900 food stores, 3,185 mass merchandisers, and 3,209 drug stores). We estimate baseline category sales and the dependence of category demand on marketing activities (price, display and feature). We then relate the store-level demand to geodemographic characteristics of stores’ zip codes, accounting for local competitive intensity faced by stores. We find that as the percentage of college educated consumers in a store’s zip code increases, category sales increase and price sensitivity of the store decreases (regardless of store format). Median income of the store’s zip code explains most of the observed variation in estimated price sensitivities across stores. We find that a majority of stores are underpricing cereal, coffee and cola, i.e., pricing lower than what the optimal mark-ups implied by their price elasticities would suggest.

中文翻译：

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商店层面需求和营销组合敏感性的地理人口驱动因素

摘要

我们使用 2010 年代表 16,294 家商店（9,900 家食品店、3,185 家量贩店和 3,209 家药店）的每周扫描数据来研究大衰退后美国营销组合敏感性的变化。我们估计基准品类销售额以及品类需求对营销活动（价格、展示和功能）的依赖性。然后，我们将商店层面的需求与商店邮政编码的地理人口特征联系起来，考虑到商店面临的当地竞争强度。我们发现，随着商店邮政编码中受过大学教育的消费者比例的增加，类别销售额增加，商店的价格敏感性下降（无论商店格式如何）。商店邮政编码的收入中位数解释了各商店估计价格敏感性中观察到的大部分差异。我们发现，大多数商店都低估了麦片、咖啡和可乐的定价，即定价低于其价格弹性所暗示的最佳加价。