Too Popular, Too Fast: Optimal Advertising and Entry Timing in Markets with Peer Influence

We study optimal advertising and entry timing decisions for a new product being sold in two-segment markets in which followers are positively influenced by elites, whereas elites are either unaffected or repulsed by product popularity among followers. Key decisions in such markets are not only how much to advertise in each segment over time but also when to enter the follower segment. We develop a continuous-time optimal control model to examine these issues. Analysis yields two sets of two-point boundary value problems where one set has an unknown boundary value condition that satisfies an algebraic equation. A fast solution methodology is proposed. Two main insights emerge. First, the optimal advertising strategy can be U-shaped, that is, decreasing at first to free-ride peer influence but increasing later on to thwart the repulsion influence of overpopularity causing disadoption. Second, in markets where cross-segment repulsion triggers disadoption, advertising is only moderately effective, and entry costs are high, managing both advertising and entry timing can result in significantly higher profits than managing only one of these levers. In markets without disadoption, with high advertising effectiveness or with low entry costs, in contrast, delaying entry may add little value if one already manages advertising optimally. This implies that purveyors of prestige or cool products need not deny followers access to their products in order to protect their profits, and can use advertising to speed up the democratization of consumption profitably. This paper was accepted by Juanjuan Zhang, marketing.

Optimal Inter-Organization Control of Collaborative Advertising with Myopic and Far-Sighted Behaviors

This paper investigates the optimal inter-organization control of collaborative advertising considering the myopic and far-sighted behaviors. Taking a two-echelon supply chain as an example, four kinds of differential game models including myopic Stackelberg game, far-sighted Stackelberg game, myopic cooperative game and far-sighted cooperative game are studied. The results show that the optimal advertising efforts of both manufacturer and retailer in the myopic situation decrease with time. But they remain constant in the far-sighted situation. The Pareto improvement applies to both game players from the non-cooperative game to the cooperative game. The numerical analyses are conducted to further investigate the theoretical results and to guide the inter-organization control of collaborative advertising in practice.

Sales Strategy considering Advertising in Advance-Selling and Spot-Selling Integration Mode for Fresh Product

In this paper, we look into the optimal sales strategy of e-commerce platform which sells fresh-product advertising in advance-selling period and spot-selling period, respectively, when advance-selling and spot-selling integration mode is applied. The study found that, with the increase of advertising investment, the marginal benefit of e-commerce platform is declining; whether advertising during the advance-selling period or the advertising during the spot-selling period, the e-commerce platform can improve its profit, but under the same advertising effect factor, the optimal advertising investment for the sale period is smaller, and the profit when advertising in the advance-selling period is greater. When advertising in different periods, the optimal advertising and price strategy depends on the maximum valuation of consumers about the product and the advertising effect factor.

Dynamic cooperative advertising strategy in OAO supply chain with customer return

Nowadays many manufacturers are increasingly adopting their own online direct channel and the offline retail channel to sell their products as the quick development of e-commerce and third party logistics. To gain more and more market share, the manufacturer and the retailer implement unconditional return strategy, which does not affect secondary sales. We build a differential game model for the optimal advertising and the optimal advertising cost sharing proportion for centralized and decentralized OAO (Online and Offline) supply chain considering customer returns rates. We further analyze how the returns rates affect the optimal decisions of the manufacturer and the retailer. The results show that the returns rates, the brand reputation and the influence factors of retail channel goodwill on demand of online direct channel strongly influence the optimal advertising decisions. Furthermore, the retailer does not support for the manufacturer advertising efforts in Stackelberg game. Compared with the centralized OAO supply chain, the decentralized system results in channel inefficiency. To coordinate the channels, we design a two-way advertising cost-sharing contract. By this contract, each member of the supply chain reaches a win-win situation and is willing to cooperate. Numerical studies verify the conclusions of this paper.