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Determining the effects of observed and unobserved heterogeneity on consumer brand choice

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  • Peter T. L. Popkowski Leszczyc
  • Frank M. Bass

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of heterogeneity in consumer choice behaviour. Omitted consumer heterogeneity may lead to badly biased results, and wrong inferences concerning marketing strategies to follow. In this research we study the extent and the cause of this bias. We distinguish between observed and unobserved heterogeneity, by partialing out the effects of unmeasured heterogeneity and modelling it explicitly. The following questions will be addressed: What is unobserved heterogeneity and how much of it can be explained? How should heterogeneity be incorporated in consumer choice models? A hazard model is used for the analysis. The hazard model will yield patterns of switching among brands, as well as, the effect of marketing mix variables on brand choice and purchase timing. Differences between switchers and repeat purchasers are studied and the extent to which brand choice can be explained. Our model is estimated using scanner panel data. We find that it is important to include both observed and unobserved heterogeneity in order to obtain a better fit of the model. Our results show that it may be sufficient to only include observed heterogeneity to obtain unbiased parameter estimates. Including observed heterogeneity also reduces the aggregation or heterogeneity bias in the hazard function. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Peter T. L. Popkowski Leszczyc & Frank M. Bass, 1998. "Determining the effects of observed and unobserved heterogeneity on consumer brand choice," Applied Stochastic Models and Data Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(2), pages 95-115, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:apsmda:v:14:y:1998:i:2:p:95-115
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-0747(199806)14:23.0.CO;2-#
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    Cited by:

    1. Schröder, Nadine & Hruschka, Harald, 2016. "Investigating the effects of mailing variables and endogeneity on mailing decisions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 579-589.
    2. Ho, Edward & Kowatsch, Tobias & Ilic, Alexander, 2014. "The Sales Velocity Effect on Retailing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 237-256.
    3. Rezgar Zaki & Abbas Barabadi & Javad Barabady & Ali Nouri Qarahasanlou, 2022. "Observed and unobserved heterogeneity in failure data analysis," Journal of Risk and Reliability, , vol. 236(1), pages 194-207, February.
    4. Steven M. Shugan, 2006. "Editorial: Errors in the Variables, Unobserved Heterogeneity, and Other Ways of Hiding Statistical Error," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 203-216, 05-06.
    5. Chidmi, Benaissa & Lopez, Rigoberto A. & Cotterill, Ronald W., 2005. "A Supermarket-Level Analysis of Demand for Breakfast Cereals: A Random Coefficients Approach," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19236, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Abril, Carmen & Sanchez, Joaquin, 2016. "Will they return? Getting private label consumers to come back: Price, promotion, and new product effects," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 109-116.

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