Neue empirische Befunde zur Preissetzung und zum Verbraucherverhalten im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel

There are two objectives of this article: (i) It is discussed theoreticallyhow the dynamics of pricing decisions of multiproduct retailers can be explained. (ii) It is analyzed empirically by use ofscanner data how prices are actually set and how consumers reactat the point of sale to price changes and promotional activities byretailers. The empirical evidence focuses on breakfast products ingeneral and jam and breakfast cereals in particular. Main results arethe following:1. Theory of optimal pricing by multiproduct firms suggests thatdirect and cross price elasticities of demand and marginal costsdetermine the profit-maximizing price at one point of time. Goodreasons do exist additionally for multiproduct retailers to varyprices intertemporally. Sales, e.g., can be consistent with optimalintertemporal pricing.2. Scanner data for German food retailers in the period September1996 – June 1999 are utilized in the empirical analysis. The law ofone price does not hold for individual branded foods acrossstore types. Price dispersion varies by product. The impact ofsales is high in grocery retailing; on average for 20 food categories,one product of a category was on sale every other week.3. Promotional activities affect demand for branded productsstrongly, but impacts on quantities varied widely. They wereabove average for coffee, a storeable product, below average forfresh milk, a less storeable good. In some cases, these effectsare so strong that consumers seem to buy the brand only when itis on sale.4. In the special case of jam, prices are lowest in discounters andhighest in supermarkets. The spread of prices is also lowest indiscounters and highest in supermarkets. Price-elastic reactionsat the point of sale was, however, a uniform pattern across allstore types of grocery retailing. The strongest reaction wasfound in supermarkets with a price elasticity of demand of –5.09.5. For breakfast cereals, strong reactions by consumers occur tovarious promotional activities. Impacts on demand were, e.g., ashigh as 175 % when the instruments sales, display and leafletwere combined. Sales were an important feature of promotionalactivities with a strong demand-increasing effect.Summing up, it can be concluded that an active price policy ofgrocery retailers is a crucial component of their marketing mix. Thisis compatible with the finding of a strong price responsiveness ofconsumers. The stylized fact that the price elasticity of food demandis absolutely low, may be correct for aggregate demand but is notconfirmed at the store level. On the contrary: High absolute levels ofthe store-level price elasticity of demand are typical for brandedfoods.