Pricing and product adoption · Seventy field experiments on targeted email offers
Do Targeted Discount Offers Serve as Advertising? Evidence from 70 Field Experiments
Sahni, N. S., Zou, D., & Chintagunta, P. K. (2017). Management Science, 63(8). https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2450.
Plain-English take
During the offer period, offers increased average expenditure by $3.03 (37.2%). For your marketing: Measure discount-induced acquisition and spillovers separately from subsidized purchases.
How much weight to give this
3.5/5 Useful evidence with meaningful caveats
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.
An experiment is useful for causal evidence, but the accessible profile does not establish random assignment.
A usable sample size is not stated in the profile's accessible source.
Experimental comparison is described; randomization or control details need checking in the paper.
This profile could be checked against an abstract or metadata, not the full paper.
Double-blind? Blinding is not reported in the source reviewed; that does not establish whether blinding was or was not used.
Research question
What the authors investigated
Do targeted emailed discounts only shift price-sensitive purchases, or can they also advertise products and stimulate additional demand?
Design
The authors analyze evidence from 70 field experiments involving emailed discount offers and measure spending during and after the promotion window.
Sample and setting
Customers of an online platform receiving targeted emailed offers; the accessible abstract excerpt does not state the total customer count.
Reported result
What the study found
During the offer period, offers increased average expenditure by $3.03 (37.2%). The effect was larger among customers who had not transacted on the platform in the prior year. Spending also rose by $1.55 in the following week, and the study found cross-category effects on products not covered by an offer.
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
A specific platform and promotion setting; the outcomes cover a defined promotion window and one week afterward. The effects do not establish that discounts are profitable after subsidy costs or will behave similarly in SaaS.
Possible founder application
Measure discount-induced acquisition and spillovers separately from subsidized purchases. Include margin, timing shifts and post-promotion behavior when judging whether offers function as profitable advertising.
Evidence access
Publisher abstract; full text access may vary
Management Science abstract and bibliographic record; the 70 experiments and reported spending changes are stated in the abstract.
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.