Analysis of Sales Promotion Effects on Household Purchase Behavior

investigating how households respond to promotions when they are present, also pre- and
post-promotional household purchase behavior is taken into account.
Several researchers have spent considerable effort trying to identify and
understand the ‘deal prone’ consumer. Unfortunately, different conceptualizations,
definitions, and operationalizations <strong>of</strong> deal proneness led to conflicting insights.
Furthermore, most researchers (e.g., Webster 1965, Montgomery 1971, Lichtenstein et al.
1995, 1997, Burton et al. 1999) used a behavioral or attitudinal outcome measure to
operationalize deal proneness. But, deal proneness actually represents a psychological trait
and can therefore not be directly measured as promotion response, neither within nor across
different product categories. Ainslie and Rossi (1998) were among the first researchers
who investigated similarities in brand choice behavior across product categories to get
possible evidence for the notion that sensitivity to marketing mix variables is a consumer
trait and not unique to specific product categories. The existence <strong>of</strong> deal proneness was not
inferred directly from promotional behavior, but indirectly. Other possible causes were
taken into account and the remaining, unexplained part <strong>of</strong> household purchase behavior
was used to draw conclusions regarding deal proneness. Sensitivity was interpreted as
brand choice marketing mix sensitivity. According to Ainslie and Rossi (1998), sensitivity
to marketing mix variables is a consumer trait and is not unique to specific product
categories. We will expand their work by incorporating not only brand choice, but also
purchase quantity and purchase timing. We will investigate whether there are similarities
across product categories in household promotion response behavior. We will further
investigate whether these similarities result from household characteristics such as income,
available time, children, etc., or if there really is something like an individual deal
proneness trait. In this study, the different types <strong>of</strong> sales promotion incorporated are not all
associated with a short-term price-cut. The term deal proneness therefore does not relate
only to price-cuts, but also to the so-called promotional signals (e.g., Inman and McAlister
1993).
The key feature <strong>of</strong> our approach is the “microscopic” level <strong>of</strong> analysis. We will
perform an analysis <strong>of</strong> individual household response behavior with respect to sales
promotions. Our goal is to develop an approach that provides a decomposition <strong>of</strong> sales
promotion response by sales promotion reaction mechanisms (store switching, brand
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