Pricing and product adoption · Store-level scanner-data analysis of category demand
Cross-Category Demand Effects of Price Promotions
Leeflang, P. S. H., & Parreño-Selva, J. (2012). Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(4), 572–586.
Plain-English take
About half of the promotions expanded own-category revenue, particularly deeper supported discounts. For your marketing: When promoting one tier or feature, examine whether demand shifts across the rest of the portfolio.
How much weight to give this
3.0/5 Limited or context-dependent evidence
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
The accessible description does not establish a strong causal design.
A usable sample size is not stated in the profile's accessible source.
Comparison or control details are limited in the reviewed source.
An accessible full paper or manuscript is linked, making methods easier to check.
Double-blind? Not applicable in the same way as a participant-treatment experiment.
Research question
What the authors investigated
Do price promotions in one category affect revenues in other product categories, and what conditions moderate those spillovers?
Design
The authors develop a category-demand framework with interdependencies and analyze daily store-level scanner data, testing promotion intensity, category characteristics and spatial distance between categories.
Sample and setting
Daily store-level retail scanner data across multiple categories; the accessible abstract reports category-level patterns rather than a single consumer sample.
Reported result
What the study found
About half of the promotions expanded own-category revenue, particularly deeper supported discounts. A promotion had a 61% probability of affecting at least one other category, usually no more than two; evidence also linked cross-effects to shelf proximity.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Retail-store categories and physical shelf locations are specific to the study. Cross-category effects cannot be presumed for software pricing or digital product bundles.
Possible founder application
When promoting one tier or feature, examine whether demand shifts across the rest of the portfolio. For software, test the analogous upgrade, downgrade and add-on outcomes rather than importing retail estimates.
Evidence access
Open full text and publisher record
Open article in PubMed Central and Springer publisher record; abstract reports the scanner-data method and headline effects.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.