Consumer choice models on the effect of promotions in retailing

This doctoral thesis contains three empirical essays regarding the effect of promotions on consumer choices in a retailing context. The first essay studies the scheduling of featured price cuts for national brands, across retail chains. It shows that coordinating promotions across chains influences the performance outcomes for both manufacturers and retailers in several consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories. The second essay investigates the impact of consumers’ decision making processes on store-flyer and discount promotions. It shows that the effect of such promotions depends on whether a consumer follows a brand-focused structure (in which case s/he disproportionately substitutes between retailers) or a retailer-focused structure (in which case s/he primarily switches among brands within a given retail chain), and that a mixture of these structures is at work in CPG categories. The third essay examines large-scale promotional events (“Savings Weeks”). It provides insights into the mechanisms that set these events apart from ‘business-as-usual’ promotions, and sheds light on how they influence households’ retailer visit and spending decisions.