A dynamic model for advertising and pricing competition between national and store brands

We study the relationship between the pricing and advertising decisions in a channel where a national brand is competing with a private label. We consider a differential game that incorporates the carryover effects of brand advertising over time for both the manufacturer and the retailer and we account for the complementary and competitive roles of advertising. Analysis of the obtained equilibrium Markov strategies shows that the relationship between advertising and pricing decisions in the channel depends mainly on the nature of the advertising effects. In particular, the manufacturer reacts to higher competitive retailer’s advertising levels by offering price concessions and limiting his advertising expenditures. The retailer’s optimal reaction to competitive advertising effects in the channel depends on two factors: (1) the price competition level between the store and the national brands and (2) the strength of the competitive advertising effects. For example, in case of intense price competition between the two brands combined with a strong manufacturer’s competitive advertising effect, the retailer should lower both the store and the national brands’ prices as a reaction to higher manufacturer’s advertising levels. For the retailer, the main advantage from boosting his competitive advertising investments seems to be driven by increased revenues from the private label. The retailer should however limit his investments in advertising if the latter generates considerable competitive effects on the national brand’s sales.     

Optimal Advertising and Pricing in a Dynamic Durable Goods Supply Chain

Cooperative advertising is an incentive offered by a manufacturer to influence retailers’ promotional decisions. We study a dynamic durable goods duopoly with a manufacturer and two independent and competing retailers. The manufacturer, as a Stackelberg leader, announces his wholesale prices and his shares of retailers’ advertising costs, and the retailers in response play a Nash differential game in choosing their optimal retail prices and advertising efforts over time. We obtain the feedback equilibrium policies for the manufacturer and the retailers in explicit form for a linear demand formulation. We investigate issues, like channel coordination and antidiscriminatory legislation, and also study a case, when the manufacturer sells through only one retailer and the second retailer sells a competing brand.     

Co-op advertising models in manufacturer–retailer supply chains: A game theory approach

In the literature of cooperative (co-op) advertising, the focus of research is on a relationship in which a manufacturer is the leader and retailers are followers. This relationship implies the dominance of the manufacturer over retailers. Recent market structure reviews have shown a shift of retailing power from manufacturers to retailers. Retailers have equal or even greater power than a manufacturer when it comes to retailing. Based on this new market phenomenon, we intend to explore the role of vertical co-op advertising efficiency with respect to transactions between a manufacturer and a retailer through brand name investments, local advertising expenditures, and sharing rules of advertising expenses. Three co-op advertising models are discussed which are based on two noncooperative games and one cooperative game. In a leader–follower noncooperative game, the manufacturer is assumed to be a leader who first specifies the brand name investment and the co-op subsidization policy. The retailer, as a follower, then decides on the local advertising level. In a noncooperative simultaneous move game, the manufacturer and the retailer are assumed to act simultaneously and independently. In a cooperative game, the system profit is maximized for every Pareto efficient co-op advertising scheme, but not for any other schemes. All Pareto efficient co-op advertising schemes are associated with a single local advertising level and a single brand name investment level, but with variable sharing policies of advertising expenses. The best Pareto efficient advertising scheme is obtained taking members' risk attitudes into account. Utilizing the Nash bargaining model, we discuss two situations that (a) both members are risk averse, and (b) both members are risk neutral. Our results are consistent with the bargaining literature.     

Cooperative Advertising in a Marketing Channel

This paper examines dynamic advertising and promotion strategies in a marketing channel where the retailer promotes the manufacturer product and the manufacturer spends on advertising to build a stock of goodwill. We assume that sales depend on goodwill and promotion activities and that there are decreasing marginal returns to goodwill. Two scenarios are studied. First, the manufacturer and retailer determine noncooperatively their respective strategies. Second, the game is played à la Stackelberg with the manufacturer as the leader who supports partially the cost of the promotion activities of the retailer. In both cases, stationary Markovian strategies are characterized. These scenarios are examined also in the absence of decreasing marginal effect of goodwill on sales. The results show that, whether or not the goodwill stock has a decreasing marginal effect on sales, the cooperative advertising program is a coordinating mechanism in the marketing channel, i.e., both players receive higher payoffs.     

不同渠道偏好和运营成本下双渠道闭环供应链定价决策研究

本文以消费者对传统零售渠道和网络直销渠道的不同偏好和不同渠道运营成本为基础,研究零售商销售新产品并回收废旧产品、制造商开辟网络直销渠道的双渠道闭环供应链中成员的定价决策问题。建立三种不同市场权力结构下的定价博弈模型,用逆向归纳法得到模型的最优解,并用解析分析和数值分析得到消费者的渠道偏好程度和渠道运营成本对定价决策和利润的影响。研究表明:最优直销价格随网络直销渠道偏好程度的增加而上升,最优零售价格随网络直销渠道偏好程度的增加而下降;网络直销渠道运营成本增加对零售商有利但不利于制造商;传统渠道运营成本的增加对所有成员都不利。     

Coordinating advertising and pricing in a manufacturer–retailer channel

Cooperative advertising is a practice that a manufacturer pays retailers a portion of the local advertising cost in order to induce sales. Cooperative advertising plays a significant role in marketing programs of channel members. Nevertheless, most studies to date on cooperative advertising have assumed that the market demand is only influenced by advertising expenditures but not by retail price. This paper addresses channel coordination by seeking optimal cooperative advertising strategies and equilibrium pricing in a two-member distribution channel. We establish and compare two models: a non-cooperative, leader–follower game and a cooperative game. We develop propositions and insights from the comparison of these models. The cooperative model achieves better coordination by generating higher channel-wide profits than the non-cooperative model with these features: (a) the retailer price is lower to consumers; and (b) the advertising efforts are higher for all channel members. We identify the feasible solutions to a bargaining problem where the channel members can determine how to divide the extra profits.     

Equilibrium Pricing and Advertising Strategies in a Marketing Channel

This paper is concerned with conflict and coordination in a two-member channel of distribution. We propose a differential game model that includes carryover effects of advertising, expressed by a retailer-specific stock of advertising goodwill. Pricing and advertising strategies for both firms are identified under channel conflict as well as coordination. Dynamic advertising policies are designed as stationary Markov perfect strategies. In a symmetric case, these strategies can be determined in closed form, taking into consideration explicitly nonnegativity constraints on advertising rates. We establish a global result for the relationship between the advertising strategies of the two firms under conflict and coordination.     

Pricing and Advertising of Private and National Brands in a Dynamic Marketing Channel

We consider a marketing channel where a retailer sells, along the manufacturer’s brand, its own store brand. We assume that each player invests in advertising in order to build the brand’s goodwill. One distinctive feature of this paper is the introduction of the negative effect of own advertising on other player’s goodwill stock evolution. We characterize feedback-Nash pricing and advertising strategies and assess the impact of the store brand and national brand’s goodwill stocks on these strategies in different settings. The main findings suggest first that investing in building up some equity for each brand reduces the price competition between them and propels the market power for both. Second, the retailer will pass to consumer an increase in its purchasing cost of the national brand in all situations as no coordination is taken into account to counter the double marginalization problem. Finally, the higher the brand equity of the store brand, the more the retailer invests in advertising.     

Supply chain coordination through integration of innovation effort and advertising support

This study integrates firms’ innovation and advertising decisions in a two-echelon supply chain, where a monopoly manufacturer sells products to ultimate consumers through an autonomous retailer. Considering that both innovation and advertising contribute to the product demand, we first investigate the optimal equilibriums of channel members under two different game structures: the non-cooperative and cooperative. In the non-cooperative structure, the manufacturer controls the innovation effort and wholesale price while the retailer controls the advertising rate and retail pricing. In the cooperative structure, the manufacturer agrees to share part of retailer’s advertising expenditure. We find that both the optimal operation and marketing decisions are sensitive to effects of innovation and advertising on demand as well as the manufacturer’s cost reduction coefficient due to innovation. Further, we find that the manufacturer always prefers cooperation. Meanwhile, only when the firms’ investments significantly contribute to the market mechanism, does the retailer have incentive to implement a cooperative program. In addition, we further propose a new two-way subsidy policy to coordinate channel members’ business functions.     

Advertising in a Differential Oligopoly Game

We illustrate a differential oligopoly game where firms compete à la Cournot in homogeneous goods in the market phase and invest in advertising activities aimed at increasing the consumers reservation price. Such investments produce external effects, characterizing the advertising activity as a public good. We derive the open-loop and closed-loop Nash equilibria, and show that the properties of the equilibria depend on the curvature of the market demand function. The comparative assessment of these equilibria shows that the firms advertising efforts are larger in the open-loop equilibrium than in the closed-loop equilibrium. We also show that a cartel involving all the firms, setting both output levels and advertising efforts, may produce a steady state where the social welfare level is higher than the social welfare levels associated with both open-loop and closed-loop noncooperative settings.     

Pricing and advertisement in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain

We use a game theoretical approach to study pricing and advertisement decisions in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain when price discounts are offered by both the manufacturer and retailer. When the manufacturer is the leader of the game, we obtained Stackelberg equilibrium with manufacturer’s local allowance, national brand name investment, manufacturer’s preferred price discount, retailer’s price discount, and local advertising expense. For the special case of two-stage equilibrium when the manufacturer’s price discount is exogenous, we found that the retailer is willing to increase local advertising expense if the manufacturer increases local advertising allowance and provides deeper price discount, or if the manufacturer decreases its brand name investment. When both the manufacturer and retailer have power, Nash equilibrium in a competition game is obtained. The comparison between the Nash equilibrium and Stackelberg equilibrium shows that the manufacturer always prefers Stackelberg equilibrium, but there is no definitive conclusion for the retailer. The bargaining power can be used to determine the profit sharing between the manufacturer and the retailer. Once the profit sharing is determined, we suggest a simple contract to help the manufacturer and retailer obtain their desired profit sharing.     

双渠道模式下制造商线上定制策略研究

本文针对制造商在传统零售渠道和线上网络渠道同时销售标准产品的情况下,是否应该开放线上定制策略的相关问题进行分析。首先通过圆形市场模型完成市场划分;其次,在制造商不开放线上定制策略和开放线上定制策略两种情况下分别构建制造商和零售商利润最大化模型,得到了两种情况下的市场均衡结果。通过分析和比较两种情况下制造商和零售商的最优决策结果发现,当标准产品的边际生产成本较大且开放线上定制策略的成本较小时,制造商应该开放线上定制策略;制造商开放线上定制策略后,会使标准产品的批发价格和零售价格增加,并削弱零售商的利润;定制产品的生产成本越高,制造商开放定制产品的动机越小;消费者对标准产品的适应成本越高,制造商开放定制产品的动机越大。     

基于电子优惠券投放和服务创新的线上线下渠道竞争分析

基于豪泰林模型分析具有渠道偏好的线上网络渠道和线下实体渠道市场竞争格局及其博弈关系,构建线上网络渠道投放电子优惠券、线下实体渠道服务创新的渠道竞争模型,剖析优惠券和服务创新对市场份额、定价及利润的影响,并给出具有市场进入时序的渠道退出边界。研究发现:市场缺额情形凭借高价获得较小市场份额下的较高利润,而市场重叠情形的低价策略在较大市场份额下获得较小利润。当服务创新足以支撑实体渠道要价时,其可获得较高利润,守住混合偏好市场;投放电子优惠券的让价方式可增大网络渠道的调价空间,且存在最优电子优惠券面值使网络渠道获得期望收益,夺得混合偏好市场。     

不同权力结构对制造商双渠道供应链的影响研究

在一个制造商和一个零售商组成的供应链中, 制造商拥有线下传统渠道及线上直销双渠道。首先根据消费者剩余理论, 构建了制造商双渠道需求函数;接着分别构建了两类Stackelberg博弈及Nash博弈三种权力结构下制造商和零售商的利润模型并对模型进行了求解;最后分析了三种不同权力结构对制造商双渠道供应链的影响。研究发现:制造商线上直销渠道价格不受三种博弈权力结构的影响;线下传统渠道零售价格、需求, 线上直销渠道需求及制造商双渠道供应链总利润不受两类Stackelberg博弈权力结构的影响;线下传统渠道零售价格及线上直销渠道需求在Nash博弈权力结构下最小, 而线下传统渠道需求及供应链总利润在Nash博弈权力结构下最大;制造商批发价格、利润及零售商利润对三种博弈权力结构较敏感, 随供应链成员自身博弈权力地位的下降而逐渐降低。     

Benefits of partial myopia in a durable product supply chain considering pricing and advertising

Consider a bilateral monopoly supply chain where a manufacturer distributes a durable product through a retailer to end consumers. This paper develops a differential game in which the manufacturer determines the advertising and the wholesale price while the retailer sets the retail price. Channel members are partially myopic when they only consider goodwill dynamics and disregard sales evolution. We derive and compare partially myopic and forward-looking strategies with the following observations: First, under decentralized scenario, partially myopic channel members get higher profits than the forward-looking ones, while the opposite result occurs in centralized scenario. Second, when channel members are partially myopic, the distribution channel can benefit from the strategic decentralization.     

考虑品牌差异的双渠道供应链减排与低碳宣传策略

针对双渠道供应链低碳减排、低碳宣传与品牌策略问题,构建微分博弈模型,运用汉密尔顿-雅可比-贝尔曼方程分别求得集中决策和Stackelberg博弈下的低碳减排投入、低碳宣传投入和低碳宣传分担率。研究发现:集中决策情形下产品的减排量始终高于Stackelberg博弈情形下的减排量;产品品牌差异化程度与制造商所承担零售商低碳宣传成本的比例呈正相关;供应链成员的最优低碳宣传策略除了与品牌差异程度相关,还取决于供应链成员在不同渠道边际利润的相对大小;存在一个低碳宣传成本分担率能够实现制造商和零售商协调。并用数值算例验证了本文的相关结论。     

Coordination of cooperative advertising in a two-level supply chain when manufacturer offers discount

We studied the coordination of cooperative advertisement in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain when the manufacturer offers price deductions to customers. With a price sensitive market, the expected demand with cooperative advertising and price deduction is demonstrated. When the manufacturer is a leader, we obtained the optimal national brand name investment, local advertisement and associated manufacturer’s allowance with any given price deduction. When the manufacturer offers more price deduction to customers, the retailer will increase local advertisement if the manufacturer provides the same portion of the local advertising allowance. We obtained the necessary and sufficient condition for the price deduction to ensure an increase of manufacturer’s profit, and a search procedure for determining such an optimal price deduction is provided as well. When the manufacturer and retailer are partners, we obtained the optimal national brand name investment and local advertisement. For any given price deduction, the total profit for the supply chain with cooperative scheme is always higher than that with the non-cooperative scheme. When price elasticity of demand is larger than one, the resulting closed form optimal price deduction with partnership is also obtained. To increase profits for both parties in a supply chain, we recommend that coordination in local and national cooperative advertising with a partnership relationship between manufacturer and retailer is the best solution. The bargaining results show how to share the profit gain between the manufacturer and the retailer, and determine the associated pricing and advertising policies for both parties.     

基于渠道溢出效应的在线渠道协调研究

考虑制造商自建渠道受众度有限的现实,将电商平台提升制造商自建渠道受众度的溢出效应引入由一个制造商和一个电商平台所组成的在线渠道模型。分别对制造商不进驻电商平台,及进驻时分别保留和放弃自建渠道情形下的最优决策问题进行分析。结果发现,制造商进驻电商平台且保留自建渠道时最优收益的实现受消费者对其自建渠道产品偏好的影响。比较分散和集中决策的情况发现,制造商进驻电商平台时无论其是否保留自建渠道,集中决策较分散决策能带来更高的整体收益,但当电商平台的溢出效应较大且消费者对制造商自建渠道产品偏好较小时,制造商不进驻电商平台时的在线渠道整体收益高于进驻时的整体收益。最后,通过电商平台的介绍费率为不同在线渠道结构分别设计了相应协调机制,实现了在线渠道的帕累托改进。     

Channel Coordination with Cooperative Advertising Considering Effect of Advertising on Willingness to Pay

In this paper, cooperative advertising in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain is studied. Advertising can enhance willingness to pay (WTP) of customers. This trade-off between the benefits of increasing WTP of customers and the advertising expenditure is a key to understanding the retailers optimal advertising decision. On the other hand, it is interesting to understand in which condition supporting the retailer for his advertising expenditure is beneficial for the manufacturer. In this study, in order to capture pricing and advertising strategies of the channel member, three non-cooperative games including Nash, Stackelberg retailer and Stackelberg manufacturer game-theoretic models are established. In spite of the related studies which restrict price in order to prevent negative demand, the proposed model allows channel members to increase their prices by enhancing WTP of customers. In this study, contrary to similar additive form demand functions applied in the co-op ad literature which limits their studies for cases that profit function is concave with respect to variables, optimal prices and advertising strategies are obtained for all the solution space. Surprisingly for the very high values of the advertising effect coefficient, a finite optimal advertising expenditure is achieved.     

考虑零售商销售努力的制造商入侵策略研究

渠道入侵正逐渐成为企业开拓市场,实现多渠道销售的重要策略。在考虑零售商销售努力的前提下,研究了制造商渠道入侵策略。构建了四种Stackelberg博弈模型:不入侵和无销售努力、入侵和无销售努力、不入侵和有销售努力、入侵和有销售努力。研究结果表明,线上直销渠道与线下零售渠道之间的不对称替代水平越高,越不利于制造商入侵;在制造商入侵的情况下,零售商销售努力促使制造商降低批发价格;渠道入侵成本较大且零售商销售努力投资效率高的前提下,销售努力可以有效缓解制造商入侵带来的负面影响;渠道入侵降低了零售商销售努力的动机。