Using information overload or decreasing marginal responsiveness to determine “how many catalogs are too many?”: It really makes a difference—reply to Ganzach and Or (original) (raw)
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Mailing smarter to catalog customers
Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2000
A major issue that dominates the current thinking of catalogers is how to send mail more efficiently in order to increase response rates and decrease wasteful mailing activity. Currently cataloguers assume that a mailing decision should be made when expected profit (or lifetime value) is positive or at best when expected profit exceeds a certain threshold. We offer a new perspective. We suggest that a customer be sent the current catalog only if the expected profit with the current catalog exceeds the expected profit without the current catalog.
Think Twice Before Hitting 'Send': The Strategic Uses of Information in Marketing Channels
This dissertation examines the growing problem of information overload in the context of marketing channels. Information overload occurs when shared information requires more mental resources to process than the mental resources available to the receiver. This research offers strategies to attenuate information overload and examines the impact of information overload on channel outcomes. Strategic uses of information are proposed and conceptualized as a sender's alteration of information volume, content, and/or timing to assist a receiver in processing information. Hypotheses are developed based on the normative perspective of communication from the organizational communication literature. Data from 244 salespeople are analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. The results suggest that information overload undermines shared understanding, while shared understanding enhances coordination and compliance, and reduces conflict. Post hoc analyses further reveal that the effectiveness of strategic uses of information on information overload is contingent on the task nature and receiver characteristics and that some strategies have a U-shaped relationship with information overload. The major contribution of this dissertation is integrating the paradigms of organizational communication and marketing channels literatures and providing an additional perspective in understanding information sharing in channel relationships. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this paper argues that more information sharing is not necessarily better. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, who always believe in me and support me to pursue my dreams. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I could not complete my dissertation without the support of many people. I would like to express my most sincere thanks to them. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my dissertation chairs, Dr. James Brown and Dr. Jody Crosno, for guiding me through my dissertation, instilling confidence in me, and training me to be a critical thinker. Dr. Brown, my academic grandfather, always has citations off the top of his head that point me to the right research direction. Dr. Crosno has been an amazing mentor, guiding me through the PhD program and research projects and equipping me with the skills needed to be a superlative scholar. I am lucky to have them as my chairs. I would like to thank Dr. Annie Cui and Dr. Mark Gavin for being my committee members and providing their insights and feedback on this dissertation. I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Li Wang for opening my world to organizational communication and providing great support in drafting my literature review. I would also like to thank all the faculty members and doctoral students in the Marketing Department for being extremely friendly, supportive, and resourceful. I am fortunate to be part of this wonderful family. I want to thank Dr. Chiharu Ishida who suggested for me to consider pursuing a PhD degree five years ago, and recommended for me to enroll at WVU. I thank Chris Yencha, who is my copy editor, cheerleader, and best friend. He always gives me encouragement when I need it most and makes sure I take breaks to reinvigorate my interest in my research. I would like to thank my parents and my sister for their unconditional love and support and for being proud of me regardless of whatever path I choose in life. v
Merchandising and the life cycle of books sold by mail
Journal of Direct Marketing, 1995
Space allocation is a major decision for the catalog business. It depends on the demand function and management constraints. Sales elasticities with respect to price and catalog space allocated to books sold by mail order are measured at different stages of the product's life cycle. Econometric analysis of a sample of more than 700 observations for books sold by a French catalog club confirms that price elasticity is higher for repeats than for new books. Surprisingly, space elasticity is stable for the two groups. The study also concludes that some results obtained in advertising research on the effect of so-called mechanical variables of catalog display (frame, left/right page, etc.) are also valid for catalogs.
Does Current Advertising Cause Future Sales? Evidence from the Direct Mail Industry
2005
Abstract We present findings from a large-scale field experiment that allows us to study whether there is a causal relationship between current advertising and future sales. The experimental design overcomes limitations that have affected previous investigations of this issue. We find that current advertising does affect future sales but the sign of the effect varies depending on the customers targeted.
PACKAGING AND THE INCIDENCE OF INFORMATION OVERLOAD IN A LOW-RISK MARKET
his study investigates packaging and the incidence of information overload in a low-risk market, with special reference to grocery products. A descriptive research design based on cross-sectional approach was employed. Simple random sampling technique was used to select three retail stores within Lagos metropolis, while 300 consumers were surveyed, using convenience sampling technique.
Retailer Resources and the Use of Infomediaries
2008
Information about prospective customers (prospects) is an important input into the sales process. Specialized online sites know as infomediaries provide organizations with the opportunity to purchase prospect information directly. In this research, we examine the role of firms' resources in driving both the investment in prospect information and the sales resulting from these investments. Specifically, we identify information management resources (i.e., an information system for managing leads), electronic commerce resources, and dedicated human resources as important in influencing both the level of investment and resulting sales. We test our model using a detailed survey of auto retailers conducted by a leading market research organization.
2011
Product variety is an important component of consumer welfare, yet many markets have historically been dominated by a small number of best-selling products. The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, describes this common pattern of sales concentration. However, by greatly lowering search costs, information technology in general and Internet markets in particular have the potential to substantially increase the collective share of niche products, thereby creating a longer tail in the distribution of sales. This paper first models how a reduction in search costs will affect the concentration in product sales. Then, by analyzing data collected from a multi-channel retailing company, it provides empirical evidence that the Internet channel exhibits a significantly less concentrated sales distribution, when compared with traditional channels. The difference in the sales distribution is highly significant, even after controlling for consumer differences. Furthermore, the effect is particularly strong for individuals with more prior experience using the Internet channel. We find evidence that Internet purchases made by consumers with prior experience are more skewed toward obscure products, compared with consumers who have no such experience. We observe the opposite outcome when comparing purchases by the same consumers through the catalog channel. If the relationships we uncover persist, the underlying trends in technology and search costs portend an ongoing shift in the distribution of product sales. *
Catalog competition: Theory and experimental evidence
Economic Inquiry, 2022
This paper compares the standard location-then-pricing Hotelling duopoly with a catalog competition game in which firms simultaneously decide locations and prices. We consider a three-location space and continuous pricing and fully characterize the unique symmetric equilibrium. In both games, firms employ mixed strategies, producing a mainstream product more often than a specialized one. In the catalog game, prices are always above the marginal cost of production, whereas in the sequential model, prices converge to the marginal cost when firms produce the same variety. We experimentally test our theoretical predictions in the laboratory, finding strong evidence in favor of most of them.