Analysis of Sales Promotion Effects on Household Purchase Behavior

involvement purchases for most consumers. Once inside a store, a consumer can still switch
brands.
Consumers may patronize different stores for different reasons (Popkowski and
Timmermans 1997). The basket <strong>of</strong> goods that they need to buy on the shopping trip may
influence their store-choice behavior in that certain stores may not <strong>of</strong>fer all the goods they
need to buy. Price-sensitive and promotion-sensitive consumers are likely to shop at different
stores to pr<strong>of</strong>it from the lowest prices at the various stores. The literature has also made a
distinction between fill-in trips and regular trips. The consumers may make fill-in trips to a
smaller, nearby store, while making regular trips to a different store.
Kumar and Leone (1988) found statistically significant cross-store effects <strong>of</strong> sales promotions
for diapers (that is, when one store decreases its price, a competing store would have lower
sales). Walters and MacKenzie (1988), however, found little association between store traffic
and the particular product category promoted as a loss leader (loss leaders are products
temporarily priced at or below retailer cost). Locational convenience and overall price
perceptions seemed to be more important determinants <strong>of</strong> patronage than were weekly
specials.
To summarize, sales promotions seem to influence store choice behavior only to a
modest degree.
4.2.3 Purchase Acceleration
Purchase acceleration means that a consumer’s purchase timing or purchase quantity is
influenced by promotion activities. One possible consequence <strong>of</strong> purchase acceleration is that
it shifts purchases forward that would have occurred anyway. Other effects can take place,
however. Purchase time and/or quantity acceleration can prevent switching from the
manufacturer’s brand. <strong>Promotion</strong>s can also lead to “decelerated” purchase timing, because
consumers learn in advance or anticipate that a promotion will occur and wait for the event.
The economic theory as developed by Blattberg et al. (1981) provides one
explanation for purchase acceleration and for differences between households. The consumer
wants to minimize the costs <strong>of</strong> satisfying his or her household’s demand for the product. By
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