消费者困惑对产品更新换代策略的影响

The impact of consumer confusion on the product rollover strategy

激烈的市场竞争和产品的频繁升级换代增加了消费者区分不同产品的难度,从而引发消费者困惑,这给企业制定升级换代策略带来了挑战.有鉴于此,研究消费者困惑对企业升级换代策略的影响.首先提出考虑消费者困惑的效用函数,在此基础上构建了价格与质量的联合优化模型.研究发现,单品换代策略下,升级产品的质量、价格和需求及企业利润都随困惑程度的增大而下降.共生换代策略下,当困惑程度小于某一阈值时,升级产品的质量、需求及企业利润都随困惑程度的增大而增大,价格反而降低;当困惑程度大于该阈值时,升级产品的价格、质量、需求及企业利润都不随困惑程度而改变.当困惑程度较大时,共生换代策略下升级产品的价格和质量会超过单品换代策略下的情形,企业选择共生换代策略;反之,当困惑程度较小时,企业采用单品换代策略更有利.

With frequent product upgrades,consumers have substantive difficulty in differentiating products from various generations,which leads to consumer confusion.This brings great challenges for the firms when choosing product upgrading strategies.To address the impact of consumer confusion on firm＇s rollover strategy,ajoint quality and pricing optimization model was constructed,incorporating the effect of consumer confusion.It was found that,under the single rollover strategy,wherein only one upgraded product is offered,the price and quality of the upgraded product decrease with the increase in consumer confusion,and so will the demand and profits of the firm.Under the dual rollover strategy,wherein both an upgraded product and the base product are offered,if the level of consumer confusion is lower than a threshold,the price and quality of the new product increase with the increase in consumer confusion,and so will the demand and profits of the firm.However,when the level of consumer confusion is higher than the threshold,the price and quality of the new product remain unchanged,and so will the demand andprofit.When consumer confusion is at a high level,the price and quality of the new product under the dual rollover strategy are greater than those under the single rollover strategy.If consumer confusion is at a low level,the firm chooses a single rollover strategy and otherwise dual rollover strategy is profitable.