IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/elcore/v18y2018i1d10.1007_s10660-017-9264-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of free sampling on product diffusion based on Bass model

Author

Listed:
  • Yanqing Han

    (Northwest University)

  • Zongming Zhang

    (Xidian University)

Abstract

Free sampling is an important marketing tool to promote product information diffusion and enhance sales. Based on customer preference and enterprise pricing strategy, the work used Bass model to analyze the effect of free sampling on product diffusion. There were three questions to be explored, including the quantity, opportunity and effect of sampling. Research shows that enterprises should select different sampling levels according to different pricing strategies and product types. Skimming pricing has the highest optimal sampling level; fixed pricing takes second place; penetration pricing is the lowest. Digital product has higher optimal sampling level than physical product. It is never too early for the enterprise to select free sampling. Moderate sampling can increase the expected return on the business. Product diffusion is promoted to achieve peak sales more quickly. Digital product has better sampling effect than physical product.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanqing Han & Zongming Zhang, 2018. "Impact of free sampling on product diffusion based on Bass model," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 125-141, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:elcore:v:18:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10660-017-9264-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10660-017-9264-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10660-017-9264-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10660-017-9264-9?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. John A. Norton & Frank M. Bass, 1987. "A Diffusion Theory Model of Adoption and Substitution for Successive Generations of High-Technology Products," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(9), pages 1069-1086, September.
    2. Kapil Bawa & Robert Shoemaker, 2004. "The Effects of Free Sample Promotions on Incremental Brand Sales," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 345-363, November.
    3. Marius F. Niculescu & D. J. Wu, 2014. "Economics of Free Under Perpetual Licensing: Implications for the Software Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 173-199, March.
    4. Frank M. Bass, 1969. "A New Product Growth for Model Consumer Durables," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(5), pages 215-227, January.
    5. Goldenberg, Jacob & Libai, Barak & Muller, Eitan, 2010. "The chilling effects of network externalities," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 4-15.
    6. Ramnath K. Chellappa & Shivendu Shivendu, 2005. "Managing Piracy: Pricing and Sampling Strategies for Digital Experience Goods in Vertically Segmented Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 400-417, December.
    7. Dan Horsky, 1990. "A Diffusion Model Incorporating Product Benefits, Price, Income and Information," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 342-365.
    8. Hsing Kenneth Cheng & Yipeng Liu, 2012. "Optimal Software Free Trial Strategy: The Impact of Network Externalities and Consumer Uncertainty," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 488-504, June.
    9. Amir Heiman & Bruce McWilliams & Zhihua Shen & David Zilberman, 2001. "Learning and Forgetting: Modeling Optimal Product Sampling Over Time," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 532-546, April.
    10. Bram Foubert & Els Gijsbrechts, 2016. "Try It, You’ll Like It—Or Will You? The Perils of Early Free-Trial Promotions for High-Tech Service Adoption," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(5), pages 810-826, September.
    11. Peitz, Martin & Waelbroeck, Patrick, 2006. "Why the music industry may gain from free downloading -- The role of sampling," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 907-913, September.
    12. Scott, Carol A & Yalch, Richard F, 1980. "Consumer Response to Initial Product Trial: A Bayesian Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 7(1), pages 32-41, June.
    13. J. Miguel Villas-Boas, 2004. "Consumer Learning, Brand Loyalty, and Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 134-145, December.
    14. P. B. Seetharaman, 2004. "Modeling Multiple Sources of State Dependence in Random Utility Models: A Distributed Lag Approach," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 263-271, April.
    15. Cheng, Hsing Kenneth & Tang, Qian Candy, 2010. "Free trial or no free trial: Optimal software product design with network effects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(2), pages 437-447, September.
    16. P. K. Kannan & Barbara Kline Pope & Sanjay Jain, 2009. "—Pricing Digital Content Product Lines: A Model and Application for the National Academies Press," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 620-636, 07-08.
    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. Edgar Rogelio Ramírez-Solis & Mauro Rodriguez-Marin, 2022. "Diffusion Model for Mexican SMEs to Support the Success of Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-14, August.

    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. Sadat Reza & Hillbun Ho & Rich Ling & Hongyan Shi, 2021. "Experience Effect in the Impact of Free Trial Promotions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1648-1669, March.
    2. Jyotishka Ray & Syam Menon & Vijay Mookerjee, 2020. "Bargaining over Data: When Does Making the Buyer More Informed Help?," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 1-15, March.
    3. Jalili, Monire & Çil, Eren B. & Pangburn, Michael S., 2024. "Pricing and structuring product trials: Separate versus mixed wine tastings," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(2), pages 668-683.
    4. Wu, Lingli & Deng, Shiming & Jiang, Xuan, 2018. "Sampling and pricing strategy under competition," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 192-208.
    5. Zibo Liu & Zhijie Lin & Ying Zhang & Yong Tan, 2022. "The Signaling Effect of Sampling Size in Physical Goods Sampling Via Online Channels," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(2), pages 529-546, February.
    6. Kang Li & Jingwei Zhang & Lunchuan Zhang, 2021. "Optimal Software Feature-Limited Freemium Model Design: A New Consumer Learning Theoretical Framework," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-24, April.
    7. Hsing Kenneth Cheng & Yipeng Liu, 2012. "Optimal Software Free Trial Strategy: The Impact of Network Externalities and Consumer Uncertainty," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 488-504, June.
    8. Marius F. Niculescu & D. J. Wu, 2014. "Economics of Free Under Perpetual Licensing: Implications for the Software Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 173-199, March.
    9. Zhijie Lin & Ying Zhang & Yong Tan, 2019. "An Empirical Study of Free Product Sampling and Rating Bias," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 260-275, March.
    10. Daniel Halbheer & Florian Stahl & Oded Koenigsberg & Donald R. Lehmann, 2013. "Digital Content Strategies," Working Papers 329, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    11. Kevin J. Boudreau & Lars Bo Jeppesen & Milan Miric, 2022. "Competing on freemium: Digital competition with network effects," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(7), pages 1374-1401, July.
    12. Guofang Nan & Xingtao Li & Zan Zhang & Minqiang Li, 0. "Optimal pricing for new product entry under free strategy," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-19.
    13. Guofang Nan & Xingtao Li & Zan Zhang & Minqiang Li, 2018. "Optimal pricing for new product entry under free strategy," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Halbheer, Daniel & Stahl, Florian & Koenigsberg, Oded & Lehmann, Donald R., 2014. "Choosing a digital content strategy: How much should be free?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 192-206.
    15. Fischer, Greg & Karlan, Dean & McConnell, Margaret & Raffler, Pia, 2019. "Short-term subsidies and seller type: A health products experiment in Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 110-124.
    16. Peres, Renana & Muller, Eitan & Mahajan, Vijay, 2010. "Innovation diffusion and new product growth models: A critical review and research directions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 91-106.
    17. Yifan Dou & Marius Florin Niculescu & Dongjun Wu, 2011. "Optimal Consumer Network Structure Formation under Network Effects: Seeds Controllability and Visibility," Working Papers 11-07, NET Institute, revised Oct 2011.
    18. Steven M. Shugan, 2005. "Brand Loyalty Programs: Are They Shams?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 185-193.
    19. Kretschmer, Tobias & Peukert, Christian, 2014. "Video killed the radio star? Online music videos and digital music sales," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60276, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Angela Aerry Choi & Daegon Cho & Dobin Yim & Jae Yun Moon & Wonseok Oh, 2019. "When Seeing Helps Believing: The Interactive Effects of Previews and Reviews on E-Book Purchases," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1164-1183, December.

    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:spr:elcore:v:18:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10660-017-9264-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.