Are private label users attractive targets for retailer coupons?

Brand-nonspecific retailer coupons that entitle customers to assortment-wide discounts appeal in similar ways to national brand (NB) and private label (PL) users. The latter may be considered an attractive target group because they express high levels of deal proneness. However, it is unclear how assortment-wide retailer coupons affect customers' purchase behavior. In particular, nothing is known about how PL users behave during coupon promotions. The authors deal with these issues by conducting a large-scale field experiment (N=28,000). They find that assortment-wide coupons increase both segments' (PL vs. NB users) profitability but that the route to increased profitability is different for the two groups. In the group of PL users, segment-level profitability is mainly driven by additional customers who would not have made a purchase in the absence of the promotion. On the contrary, in the segment of NB users, individual profitability increases because customers trade up to more expensive brands and/or products. Based on the differences in response behavior, the authors derive segment-specific managerial recommendations and emphasize that different promotional aims should be associated with PL and NB users.