Competitive Coupon Targeting

Greg Shaffer and Z. John Zhang

With the advent of panel data on household purchase behavior, and the development of statistical procedures to utilize this data, firms can now target coupons to selected households with considerable accuracy and cost effectiveness. In this article, we develop an analytical framework to examine the effect of such targeting on firm profits, prices, and coupon face values. We also derive comparative statics on firms' optimal mix of offensive and defensive couponing, the number of coupons distributed, redemption rates, face values, and incremental sales per redemption. Among our findings: when rival firms can target their coupon promotions at brand switchers, the outcome will be a prisoner's dilemma in which the net effect of targeting is simply the cost of distribution plus the discount given to redeemers.

(Competitive Strategy; Promotion)