IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v122y2014i1p19-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loss-leader pricing and upgrades

Author

Listed:
  • In, Younghwan
  • Wright, Julian

Abstract

A new theory of loss-leader pricing is provided in which firms advertise low (below cost) prices for certain goods to signal that their other unadvertised (substitute) goods are not priced too high. The theory is applied to the pricing of upgrades. The results contrast with most existing loss-leader theories in that firms make a loss on some consumers (who buy the basic version of the good) and a profit on others (who buy the upgrade).

Suggested Citation

  • In, Younghwan & Wright, Julian, 2014. "Loss-leader pricing and upgrades," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 19-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:122:y:2014:i:1:p:19-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2013.10.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176513004618
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.10.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glenn Ellison, 2005. "A Model of Add-On Pricing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 585-637.
    2. Kyle Bagwell & Garey Ramey, 1994. "Advertising and Coordination," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(1), pages 153-171.
    3. Lal, Rajiv & Matutes, Carmen, 1994. "Retail Pricing and Advertising Strategies," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67(3), pages 345-370, July.
    4. Zhijun Chen & Patrick Rey, 2012. "Loss Leading as an Exploitative Practice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3462-3482, December.
    5. Antonio Rosato, 2016. "Selling substitute goods to loss-averse consumers: limited availability, bargains, and rip-offs," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(3), pages 709-733, August.
    6. James D. Hess & Eitan Gerstner, 1987. "Loss Leader Pricing and Rain Check Policy," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(4), pages 358-374.
    7. DeGraba, Patrick, 2006. "The loss leader is a turkey: Targeted discounts from multi-product competitors," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 613-628, May.
    8. Duncan Simester, 1997. "Note. Optimal Promotion Strategies: A Demand-Sided Characterization," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 251-256, February.
    9. Duncan Simester, 1995. "Signalling Price Image Using Advertised Prices," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 166-188.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ersoy, Fulya Yuksel & Hasker, Kevin & Inci, Eren, 2016. "Parking as a loss leader at shopping malls," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 98-112.
    2. Arnar Buason & Dadi Kristofersson & Kyrre Rickertsen, 2021. "Habits in frequency of purchase models: the case of fish in France," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(31), pages 3577-3589, July.
    3. repec:but:manage:v:4:y:2014:i:1:p:83-95 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Asian Development Bank Institute, 2017. "Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Asia: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms - Integrative Report," Working Papers id:11807, eSocialSciences.
    5. Nikola Perovic, 2014. "Psychological Pricing in Modern Retailing: The Case of Wine Sector in Hard-Discounter Chains of Russia," The International Journal of Economic Behavior - IJEB, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, vol. 4(1), pages 83-95.
    6. Hittinger, Eric & Lueken, Roger, 2015. "Is inexpensive natural gas hindering the grid energy storage industry?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 140-152.
    7. Matzke, Andreas & Volling, Thomas & Spengler, Thomas S., 2016. "Upgrade auctions in build-to-order manufacturing with loss-averse customers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 470-479.
    8. Crisan Lucian Ciprian, 2014. "U.S. Navy Seals - A Role model for the modern leadership," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 0902784, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rhodes, Andrew, 2011. "Multiproduct pricing and the Diamond Paradox," MPRA Paper 32511, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Noriaki Matsushima & Akira Miyaoka, 2015. "The effects of resale-below-cost laws in the presence of a strategic manufacturer," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 59-91, March.
    3. Noriaki Matsushima & Akira Miyaoka, 2013. "Who benefits from resale-below-cost laws?," ISER Discussion Paper 0875, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    4. Antonio Rosato, 2016. "Selling substitute goods to loss-averse consumers: limited availability, bargains, and rip-offs," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(3), pages 709-733, August.
    5. Simbanegavi, Witness, 2008. "Loss leader or low margin leader? Advertising and the degree of product differentiation," MPRA Paper 9694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ersoy, Fulya Yuksel & Hasker, Kevin & Inci, Eren, 2016. "Parking as a loss leader at shopping malls," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 98-112.
    7. Karine Lamiraud & Pierre Stadelmann, 2020. "Switching costs in competitive health insurance markets: The role of insurers' pricing strategies," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(9), pages 992-1012, September.
    8. Azar, Ofer H., 2010. "Can more consumers lead to lower profits? A model of multi-product competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 184-195, November.
    9. Azar, Ofer H., 2013. "Competitive strategy when consumers are affected by reference prices," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 327-340.
    10. Kocas, Cenk & Pauwels, Koen & Bohlmann, Jonathan D., 2018. "Pricing Best Sellers and Traffic Generators: The Role of Asymmetric Cross-selling," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 28-43.
    11. Glenn Ellison, 2005. "A Model of Add-On Pricing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 585-637.
    12. Robert Innes & Stephen F. Hamilton, 2009. "Vertical restraints and horizontal control," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(1), pages 120-143, March.
    13. Gauri, Dinesh K. & Ratchford, Brian & Pancras, Joseph & Talukdar, Debabrata, 2017. "An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Promotional Discounts on Store Performance," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 283-303.
    14. Zhijun Chen & Patrick Rey, 2019. "Competitive cross‐subsidization," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(3), pages 645-665, September.
    15. Ram C. Rao & Niladri Syam, 2001. "Equilibrium Price Communication and Unadvertised Specials by Competing Supermarkets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 61-81, June.
    16. Leung Tin Cheuk & Tsang Kwok Ping & Tsui Kevin K., 2020. "Why Are Inferior Seats “Underpriced”? Evidence from the English Premier League," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-26, June.
    17. Azar, Ofer H., 2014. "Optimal strategy of multi-product retailers with relative thinking and reference prices," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 130-140.
    18. Arno Apffelstaedt & Lydia Mechtenberg, 2021. "Competition for Context-Sensitive Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 2828-2844, May.
    19. Anna D'Annunzio & Antonio Russo, 2022. "Ad Valorem Taxation in a Multiproduct Monopoly," CESifo Working Paper Series 9881, CESifo.
    20. Heidhues, Paul & Köszegi, Botond, 2018. "Behavioral Industrial Organization," CEPR Discussion Papers 12988, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Signaling; Loss leader; Advertising; Upgrades;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:122:y:2014:i:1:p:19-22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.