How Pantry Stockpiling Influences the Usage Frequency of a Brand

Both researchers and managers have suggested that price promotion-induced stockpiling can increase a household's usage frequency of a product. Empirical evidence of any stockpiling effect, however, is mixed. In reconciling the inconsistent findings of these empirical studies, this paper shows that stockpiling only increases a person's usage of a product when that person has highly salient thoughts of the product. This model and these findings have critical implications for the advertising versus promotion debate. They suggest that consumer promotions and advertising play a joint and complementary role in increasing usage: promotions by encouraging stockpiling, and advertising by building the salience needed to deplete the stockpiled inventory