Skip to main content

Full text of "Multiple product positioning : a note on incorporating effects of synergy"

See other formats


UNIVERSITY  OF 

ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 

AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 

BOOKSTACKS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://www.archive.org/details/multipleproductp1048sudh 


330  STX 

B385 

1048   COPY   2 


FACULTY  WORKING 
PAPER  NO.  1048 


Multiple  Product  Positioning:  A  Note 
on  Incorporating  Effects  of  Synergy 

D.  Sudharshan 
K.  Ravi  Kumar 

THE  LIBRARY  OR  DOffi 

JUL    6  1984 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
URBANA  CHAMPAIGN 


College  of  Commerce  and  Business  Administration 
Bureau  of  Economic  and  Business  Research 
University  of  Illinois,  Urbana-Champaign 


BEBR 


FACULTY  WORKING  PAPER  NO.  1048 
College  of  Commerce  and  Business  Administration 
University  of  Illinois  at  Urbana-Champaign 
June  1984 


Multiple  Product  Positioning:   A  Note 
on  Incorporating  Effects  of  Synergy 


D.  Sudharshan,  Assistant  Professor 
Department  of  Business  Administration 

K.  Ravi  Kumar,  Assistant  Professor 
Department  of  Business  Administration 


Abstract 
This  paper  proposes  formal  models  of  synergy  for  incorporation 
into  analytical  methods  for  product-market  planning.   It  is  also 
demonstrated  that  some  conventional  inferences  about  multiple  product 
performance  might  be  substantially  revised  if  synergies  among  such 
products  are  considered. 


1.0   Introduction 

There  are  several  factors  that  affect  the  determination  of  the 
exact  positions  of  entry  of  multiple-products  into  a  market.   Some  of 
these  are  1)  consumer  preferences,  which  has  received  the  greatest 
attention  in  the  marketing  research  literature,  2)  competitive  reac- 
tions, which  has  been  modeled  in  the  economics  research  literature 
using  gaming  behavior,  and  3)  product  interaction,  in  the  form  of  can- 
nibalization  and  synergy.   While  potential  cannibalization  has  been 
explicitly  incorporated,  the  effects  of  synergy  have  not.   Consider- 
able synergies  between  products  positioned  in  the  same  product  market 
can  be  obtained  through  production,  distribution  and  administration. 
Syngergy  from  promotion  is  also  possible,  depending  largely  on  the 
strategic  decision  as  to  whether  such  an  effect  should  be  developed. 
Thus,  when  a  firm  having  multiple  products  in  a  product  market  is  con- 
sidering introducing  a  new  product  into  this  market  or  when  a  firm  is 
thinking  of  introducing  multiple  new  products  into  a  market,  it  should 
incorporate  not  only  the  deleterious  effects  of  cannibalization,  but 
also  evaluate  and  incorporate  the  positive  effects  (called  synergy) 
between  multiple  products  in  its  analysis.   For  example,  consider  the 
perceptual  map  used  by  Chrysler  (Exhibit  1).   General  Motors 
Corporation  (in  this  map)  has  five  positions  under  the  names  Cadillac, 
Buick,  Oldsmobile,  Pontiac,  and  Chevrolet.   In  areas  of  highest 
expected  profitable  demand,  it  has  multiple  brands,  e.g.,  Buick  and 
Oldsmobile.   We  expect  that  taking  advantage  of  the  synergy  from 
production  technology  from  Toyota  and  GM,  design  from  Toyota,  plant 
facilities  from  GM,  and  marketing/distribution  from  both  GM  and 


_?_ 


PERCEPTUAL  MAP- BRAND  IMAGES 


~._^.       •  Lacoia 
CadHlic* 

Merre>*fs» 


0 


#3uick 


HAS  »  TOt  CT1  OF  CLASS 
U«rD  BE  PWXT)  TOO%X 
DISTlNfr.VE  LOOSING 

•  Parses* 


ro\<ER\  \riAF 

LOOKING 
\PPF  XU-  TO 
OLDER  PFOPtF 


'      Plyrr.wi!:  < 


•  Dr. 


S<*rc-e    C*<-r- 


H\>i  SPIRITED 

.      PFRFORVWT 

\PPE  VLs  T\> 

vn  no  pf  on* 

FIN  TO  PRJIV 
\T\>RTY  LOOklM. 


•  Vtt 

\FR>  PS.UTICU 

PRt>\  !l>»>  .  ,OOD  liAS  MILEAGE 

Vi-~VU.xO»BL£ 


Exhibit  1 
(Source:   Wall  Street  Journal,   ,  March,  1984.) 


-3- 

Toyota,  the  new  GM-Toyota  product  will  be  in  the  southeast  quadrant, 
competing  more  with  the  Datsuns  and  the  Hondas.   Obviously  one  would 
expect  some  cannibalization  of  their  existing  brand  shares,  but  in  the 
aggregate,  considering  synergy  and  capturing  share  from  competitors 
(and  a  larger  share  of  new  consumers  entering  this  market),  the  new 
portfolio  of  products  in  this  market  is  expected  to  be  more  profit- 
able. 

In  this  paper,  we  discuss  how  these  three  factors,  namely  consumer 
preferences,  competitive  reactions  and  product  interactions,  can  be 
jointly  analytically  modelled.   Explicit  forms  for  synergistic 
interactions  are  developed  and  a  computational  methodology  specified 
for  the  calculation  of  the  optimal  positions  of  the  products. 

2.0  Brief  Review  of  Literature 


In  the  marketing  strategy  literature,  several  models  have  emerged 
for  generating  an  optimal  new  product  concept  for  a  specified  product 
market.   Consumer  preferences  are  modeled  as  being  measurable  using 
conjoint  analysis — a  special  case  of  which  is  the  ideal  point  model. 
See  Shocker  and  Srinivasan  (1979),  Green  and  Srinivasan  (1978),  and 
Sudharshan  (1982)  for  recent  overviews  of  this  literature. 

Typically,  the  research  in  this  area  has  conceived  of  the  problem 
as  one  of  optimizing,  say,  preference  shares  with  resource  allocation 
and  technical  feasibility  modelled  as  constraints — a  non-linear 
programming  problem  with  non-linear  constraints  (Shocker  and 
Srinivasan,  1974).   Alternative  solution  procedures  have  been 
suggested  [Albers  and  Brockoff  (1979),  Zufryden  (1979),  May,  Shocker 
and  Sudarshan  (1983)]  and  their  relative  merits  evaluated  in  simulated 


-4- 

market  environments  by  May,  Shocker  and  Sudharshan  (1983).   These 
methods,  while  being  important  contributions  to  this  area  of  strategic 
market  planning,  need  to  consider  some  additional  effects,  namely  the 
effects  of  possible  competitive  reactions  and  synergy,  in  their  frame- 
work.  (The  deleterious  effects  of  cannibalization  have  been  explicitly 
modelled  and  accounted  for  in  the  objective  function  specified  by 
Shocker  and  Srinivasan  (1974)). 

The  fundamental  work  on  product  positioning  in  the  economics 
literature  came  in  the  form  of  spatial  location  of  firms.   Hotelling 
(1929)  modelled  the  markets  based  on  homogeneous  products,  competitive 
reaction  from  firms  based  on  gaming  behavior  and  used  the  concept  of 
equilibrium  to  generate  optimum  positioning  strategies.   Extensions  of 
this  basic  work  has  been  conducted  by  Leland  (1974),  Lancaster  (1975) 
and  Spence  (1976).   Lane  (1980),  building  on  Lancaster's  work,  models 
the  consumer  preferences  based  on  two  attributes  of  the  product,  per- 
fect information  availability  and  non-cooperative  gaming  behavior  by 
the  firms  in  deciding  individual  product  characteristics  and  prices. 
However,  he  introduces  a  major  assumption  that  all  firms  operate  with 
perfect  foresight  which  makes  it  unnecessary  for  any  changes  in  stra- 
tegy by  any  firm.   Hauser  and  Shugan  (1984)  have  built  on  Lane's  work 
by  introducing  marketing  variables,  such  as  responsiveness  of  consumer 
demand  to  both  advertising  and  distribution  expenditures.   They 
attempt  to  understand  product  market  structures  with  emphasis  and 
thrust  on  establishing  the  optimal  strategy  a  firm  should  follow  given 
that  its  product  is  being  attacked  by  a  specified  new  product.   They 
do  not,  however,  attempt  to  find  the  optimal  new  product  strategy 


-5- 

(position,  advertising  effort,  distribution  effort  and  price).   Also, 
their  modelling  of  competition  involves  the  reactions  of  only  imme- 
diately local  (adjacent)  product  firms  ignoring  the  reactions  of  other 
firms  in  the  market.   This  is  a  restrictive  assumption  and  does  not 
permit  a  complete  understanding  of  the  realignment  of  all  firms'  stra- 
tegies after  new  product  entry. 

In  the  models  considered  so  far  (to  the  best  of  our  knowledge), 
evaluation  of  products  for  new  product  entry  is  considered  only  for 
a  single  new  product  at  a  time.   The  market  place  (for  consumer  non- 
durable products  and  automobiles)  is  replete  with  firms  having 
multiple  products  in  the  same  product  market  (e.g. ,  Procter  and 
Gamble,  Colgate  Palmolive,  General  Foods,  etc.).   These  firms  also 
appear  to  have  a  policy  for  such  positioning  of  multiple  products  in  a 
given  market.   It  appears  obvious,  therefore,  that  a  priori  knowledge 
is  available  that  multiple  products  are  to  be  positioned.   Thus  it  is 
equally  obvious  that  an  attempt  should  be  made  to  consider  such 
multiple  positions  (if  possible)  simultaneously.   Even  in  the  case  of 
single  new  product  entering  into  a  market  where  the  firm  has  one  or 
more  existing  products  already,  analysis  has  so  far  been  restricted  to 
incorporating  the  possible  effects  of  cannibalization.   The  effects  of 
synergy  have  not  been  explicitly  incorporated  in  such  models.   In  the 
strategic  management  area,  Hofer  and  Schendel  (1978)  specify  synergy 
as  one  of  the  four  components  of  strategy,  the  others  being  scope, 
resource  deployments  and  competitive  advantages.   They  specify  that 
synergy  becomes  very  important  at  the  business  level  and  the  func- 
tional level  strategic  planning  with  focus  on  product  line,  market 


-6- 


development  and  distribution,  R&D  and  manufacturing  system  design. 
Abell  and  Hammond  (1979,  pp.  125-127)  refer  to  this  synergistic  effect 
as  "shared  experience,"  as  does  Henderson  (1979,  p.  107),  and  state: 
"Opportunities  for  shared  experience  must  be  carefully  sought, 
analyzed,  and  exploited  to  gain  cost  advantage  over  competition, 
especially  in  diversified  companies.   By  focussing  new  product  efforts 
where  shared  experience  plays  a  major  role,  a  firm  can  build  diversity 
and  strength." 

In  the  next  section,  we  will  put  together  the  factors  that  affect 
multiple-product  entry  strategies  in  an  analytical  model  that  draws  on 
the  existing  marketing  and  economics  research  and  adds  to  it  explicit 
accounting  for  product-interactions  and  the  computational  solution 
method  for  obtaining  equilibrium  product  positioning  strategies. 

3.0  The  Basic  Model 


The  situation  that  we  would  like  to  describe  as  the  outcome  of  our 
model  is  that  of  a  firm  that  introduces  multiple  products  in  the  same 
product  market.   The  basic  model  incorporates  both  the  consumer  choice 
problem  and  also  the  supply  side  strategy  decision  problem.   Non- 
cooperative  competition  interaction  between  the  actor  firms  is 
assumed.   We  also  incorporate  the  effects  of  synergy  between  a  firm's 
own  products  and  permit  firms  to  have  objectives  other  than  that  of 
maximizing  profit  (for  the  latter,  see  Anderson  (1983)). 

We  expect  a  natural  limit  on  the  number  of  products  that  a  firm 
desires  in  a  given  market.   The  intuition  behind  this  expectation  is 
premised  on  the  following  logic: 


-7- 

1)  The  modelling  of  synergy  as  first  decreasing  costs  with 
increasing  number  of  products.   However,  beyond  a  critical  point, 
managing  several  products  becomes  cumbersome  and  costs  actually 
increase.   This  is  consistent  with  the  concept  of  the  "focused  factory' 
in  production  management  (Skinner  (1974),  Schmenner  (1983)).   These 
would  naturally  limit  the  number  of  products  that  a  firm  might  desire 
to  position  in  any  given  market. 

2)  Use  of  return  on  investment  (ROI)  as  the  objective  of  the  firm 
rather  than  profit.   Consider  a  firm  with  just  one  product  in  a  prod- 
uct market.   Let  its  revenue  be  AS,  and  let  AF,  be  its  fixed  costs. 
With  the  addition  of  a  second  product  in  the  same  market,  let  its 
incremental  sales  be  AS~  and  the  incremental  fixed  cost  be  AF„  with 
AF2  <  AF,  (due  to  synergy).   It  is  possible  that 

AS  +  AS?    AS, 
■  < 


AF,  +  AF2    AFj^ 

i.e.,  the  ROI  after  introduction  of  the  second  product  is  lower  than 

the  ROI  with  just  the  first  product. 

In  general,  two  possible  stopping  rules  could  exist: 

a)  If  a  firm  has  a  hurdle  rate  (R)  to  be  crossed  for  new  product 

entry,  then  the  firm  will  choose  the  number  of  products  n  such  that 

AS,  +  AS„  +  ..  .  +  AS 

2  n  >  R 


and 


AF,  +  AF„  +  ...  +  AF 
12  n 


AS,  +  AS~  +  ...  +  AS  ,. 

1      2 Dli  <  D 

AF,  +  AF0  +  ...  +  AF  J, 
1     2  n+1 


b)  Under  ROI  maximization,  the  number  of  products  n  will  be  such 
that 


n 

I 
i=l 

AS. 

1 

n 

I 
i=l 

AF. 

1 

is  maximum. 

To  capture  this  intuition  in  a  sample  model,  let  us  assume  a  three 

product  market,  the  size  of  the  number  of  products  being  exogeneously 

set  and  each  product  differentiated  by  two  attributes.   Following  Lane 

(1980),  we  specify  a  consumer  choice  model  for  product  i  as 

a. 
a.    =   J  X    vf(a)do,   i-1,2,3 

Vl 

where  a.  is  the  quantity  demanded  of  product  i,  v  is  the  number  of 

units  consumed  by  each  customer  (assumed  to  equal  one  in  this  model), 

each  consumer  is  associated  with  a  unique  value  of  the  parameter  a, 

which  is  distributed  on  the  interval  [0,1]  with  density  function  f(a). 

Note  that  a  =  0  and  a  =  1.   Let  M  be  the  total  market  demand  for 

this  product  and  let  it  be  exogeneously  specified.   Further,  let  f(a) 

be  uniform  and  under  these  conditions,  f(a)  =  M  and 


a.  =  M(o  -a.  ,  ) 

l      i   i-l 

=  M0  ,    1*1,2,3 

where  Q.    is  the  market  share  of  product  i.   We  can  conceptualize  the 
market  distributed  over  [0,1]  as  being  partitioned  into  three  mutually 

exclusive  connected  sets  M.  where 

l 


-9- 


Mj  -  [0,o1],  M2  =  [alta2]t   M3  =  [a2,l] 


as  shown  below: 


Product 

1 


Product 
2 


Product 
3 


where  a  is  the  customer  indifferent  between  products  1  and  2  and  a 
is  the  customer  indifferent  between  products  2  and  3.   (See  Hauser  and 
Shugan  (1984)  for  a  similar  consumer  preference  distribution.) 

To  specify  the  indifferent  customers,  one  needs  to  specify  the 
consumer  choice  function  and  following  Lane  (1980),  let  it  be  of  the 
Cobb-Douglas  form  given  by: 


TT     a  (1-a).     .    .too 

U   =  w.z.     (Y-P.),   i=l,2,3 

a    li        l  '     '  ' 


where  w.  and  z .  are  the  amounts  of  the  two  characteristics  contained 
l      l 

in  product  i,  P.  is  the  price  of  product  i,  a  identifying  (as  before) 
the  individual  consumer  (whose  behavior  is  being  described),  and  Y  is 
the  consumer's  income.   This  allows  us  to  obtain  a  closed-form  solu- 
tion for  a.,  i=l,2,  given  by: 


in  (-2-  *   -i) 

S      v 


-10- 


22  *  (Y-IV 

S     V 

(See  Lane  (1980),  p.  244  for  this  derivation.)   This  clearly  gives  a 

closed-form  solution  for  the  market  shares  0.  of  the  three  products  as 

l  r 

a  function  of  the  amounts  of  two  characteristics  in  each  product  as 
well  as  their  prices.   It  should  be  noted  that  the  market -share  of 
each  product  depends  only  on  its  own  as  well  as  its  adjacent  com- 
petitor's characteristics  and  prices. 

Turning  to  the  producer  side,  there  are  three  industry  structures 
that  are  possible,  given  the  exogeneous  restriction  of  the  three  prod- 
ucts, namely: 

A)  Three  firms  each  producing  one  product — this  has  been  con- 
sidered by  Lane  (1980)  and  has  no  synergistic  effects  present. 

B)  Two  firms  with  one  holding  two  products  and  the  other  one 
product. 

C)  One  firm  holding  all  three  products  (assuming  no  legal  barriers 
to  monopoly). 

Both  cases  B)  and  C)  contain  product  interactions  within  a  firm, 
i.e.,  possibilities  of  synergy  and  cannibalism.   To  model  these 
effects,  we  will  assume  that  the  management  of  the  individual  products 
in  a  multi-product  firm  do  not  act  in  cooperation  with  each  other. 
This  situation  is  fairly  typical  in  a  (packaged  consumer  durable 
goods)  firm  with  product-management  type  of  organizational  structure. 
Product  managers  of  different  "'brands*'  compete  for  organizational 


-11- 

resources  and  for  consumer  demand.   Then,  the  cannibalistic  effect  of 
product  interaction  is  captured  by  allowing  each  product  to  compete 
for  demand  independently. 

The  effects  of  synergy  in  distribution,  manufacturing,  adver- 
tising, etc.  will  be  modelled  to  affect  the  fixed  costs  of  producing 

n  k 
and  selling  the  products.   Let  us  denote  by   ^       the  profit  from 

product  k  for  a  firm  which  also  has  products  j,  I,    ...  in  the  same 

product  market,  there  being  a  total  of  n  products  in  the  product  market, 

3  2 
For  example,   II-  is  the  profit  from  product  2  to  a  firm  which  has  both 

products  1  and  2  in  a  product  market  consisting  of  3  products.   To 

specify  the  synergy  effect,  we  will  assume  a  sequential  ordering  of 

the  products  that  a  firm  enters  into  the  market,  i.e.,  a  firm  having 

products  j,  k,  i   in  the  market  introduces  them  in  that  order  over 

time.   This  assumption  allows  us  to  allocate  synergy  effects  in  the 

following  way:   product  j  derives  no  synergy  benefits  since  it  is  the 

first  product  for  that  particular  firm  and  its  fixed  costs  are  F. 

Product  k  derives  synergy  benefits  from  product  j  and  we  will  allocate 

this  cost  reduction  in  the  form  of  F[l-d..  (w.,  z.,  w,  ,  z,  )  ] .   To  make 

Jk  j   J   k   k 

the  model  simpler,  we  will  assume,  as  Lane  (1980)  does,  that  the  pro- 
duction technology  is  predetermined  by  the  constraint  w  +  z  =  1 — this 
just  reduces  the  problem  to  a  one-characteristic  one  and  leads  to  the 

fixed  cost  of  product  k  being  F[l-d.,  (z.,  z.  )].   Finallv,  product  I 

jk   j    k  j  *    r 

derives  synergy  benefits  from  both  products  j  and  k  and  its  fixed 
costs  are  given  by  F[l-d   ff(z.,  z  ,  z  )]. 

J  K*   J     K.    * 

How  should  this  function  d  be  defined?   Some  criteria  for  d  that 
are  desirable  (to  some  extent  driven  by  our  previously  discussed 


-12- 

intuitions  on  natural  limits  to  the  number  of  products  entered  by  a 
single  firm),  are: 

1)  d  should  be  bounded  from  above,  i.e.,  given  a  fixed  cost  of 
F[l-d19    v^zi»  •••»  z\r  )1  »  ^  snould  be  bounded  away  from  one,  as 
otherwise  the  fixed  cost  would  be  negative. 

2)  For  a  given  value  of  k,  the  number  of  products  belonging  to  the 
same  firm,  d  „    ,  should  increase  as  the  products  are  positioned 

J.*-  •  •  •  K. 

closer  together  and  should  decrease  as  the  products  are  positioned 
farther  apart.   The  strategy  of  closer  positioning  will  decrease  fixed 
costs  while  that  of  farther  positioning  will  increase  it.   Of  course, 
there  is  the  opposite  effect  of  cannibalism  acting  in  reverse,  i.e., 
the  closer  the  positioning,  the  more  severe  the  intra-firra  product  com- 
petition and  vice  versa. 

3)  With  the  number  of  products  k,  that  a  firm  enters  into  the  product 
market,  &   n  will  first  increase  (due  to  synergy)  and  after  a  crit- 

-  —  •  •  •  K 

ical  point  decrease  (implying  dysfunctional  effects). 

Some  possible  forms  for  d10  ,  ,  which  meet  the  above  criteria  and 
are  also  parsimonious  (see  Naert  and  Leflang  (1978)  for  parsimony  as  a 
modelling  criterion)  are  as  follows: 


d12.,.k^Zl'  ***'  zv)    =  6 [l-^(z1,  ...,  zk)] 


with  5  <  1  and 

1  k  2 

a)       ft  -  -r-     Z     min  (z.-z.) 
k  .     z.    l   j 
1=1   j 

or 


-13- 


k   k 

b)  ^liFU^yvV2 


j*i 


or 


1  k     —  2 
k  1-1   X 

For  example,  c)  is  just  a  variance  measure  of  the  product  charac- 
teristics, with  lower  variance  implying  larger  d,~  .  and  larger 
variance  implying  lower  synergy  benefits. 

Other  approaches  to  measuring  synergy  has  been  from  a  purely  sta- 
tistical viewpoint.   For  example,  in  the  finance  literature  [Firth 
(1978),  Franks  et  al.  (1977),  Haugen  and  Langetieg  (1975),  Mueller 
(1977)],  the  effect  of  synergism  is  measured  in  mergers/acquisitions 
by  estimating  the  values  of  the  firms  before  and  after  the  merger/ 
acquisition.   The  standard  technique  is  to  use  regression  including  a 
"synergy"  variable.   Mahajan  and  Wind  (1983)  use  information  from  the 
PIMS  data  base  to  statistically  test  relationships  between  various 
synergy  proxies  and  profitability  of  a  business  unit.   It  should  be 
noted  the  efforts  are  to  measure  the  effects  of  synergy  a  posteriori 
rather  than  to  model  synergy  and  use  it  as  a  priori  information  for 
strategic  decisions. 

Given  this  structure  for  fixed  costs,  the  sales  from  a  particular 
product  k  is  given  by: 


-14- 


where  p,  is  the  price  for  product  k  and  8   is  its  market  share 

K.  K. 

(derived  previously).   Then,  the  profit  function  for  a  product  k  is 
given  by: 

and  the  return  on  investment  for  product  k  given  by: 
ROI 


jkZ...    F[l-d.,  (z.,z.  )] 
jk  j   k 

We  now  need  to  develop  the  competitive  reaction  between  firms  and 
the  behavioural  implications  leading  to  a  computational  algorithm  to 
calculate  optimal  multiple  product  positioning  strategies  for  a  three 
product  market.   Similar  to  Lane  (1980),  we  will  assume  a  sequential 
entry  of  products  and  firms  with  perfect  foresight.   This  implies  a 
Stackelberg  leader-type  behavior  with  respect  to  characteristic  posi- 
tioning for  the  early  entrants  relative  to  the  later  entrants.   Any 
product  in  the  sequence  takes  the  positions  of  the  preceding  products 
as  given  while  perfectly  forecasting  the  optimal  positions  of  the  suc- 
ceeding products  as  a  function  of  its  own  and  the  preceding  products' 
positions.   For  example,  in  a  three  product  market,  product  2,  in 
making  its  positioning  decision,  takes  the  first  firm's  position  as  a 
given  while  perfectly  forecasting  the  optimal  behavior  of  product  3  as 
a  function  of  product  2  and  l's  positions. 

For  price  setting,  however,  we  assume  that  a  Nash  equilibrium  may 
emerge.   This  implies  that  the  behaviour  of  any  firm  regarding  pricing 


-15- 

will  take  Che  prices  of  all  its  competitors  as  given,  and  will  opti- 
mize its  own  decision.   The  equilibrium  (Nash)  prices  are  such  that, 
even  knowing  its  competitors  are  using  their  equilibrium  prices,  there 
is  no  incentive  for  any  firm  to  change  from  its  equilibrium  price.   In 
a  sense,  it  is  a  stable  price  system,  which  once  reached,  nobody  wants 
to  break  out  of. 

Equilibrium  analysis  provides  insights  into  behavior  and  structure 
of  markets,  enabling  management  to  understand  where  their  product 
market  may  be  headed  and  developing  strategies  that  would  either 
foster  or  hinder  such  movement.   Equilibrium  analysis  could  also  indi- 
cate if  a  firm  is  capitalizing  on  all  its  strengths,  whether  it  is 
actually  receiving  its  equilibrium  profits/market  share,  and  if  not, 
how  to  strategically  achieve  it  [Karnani  (1982),  Kumar  and  Thomas 
(1983)]. 

We  are  now  ready  to  specify  the  computational  algorithm  for  eval- 
uating optimal  equilibrium  positioning  with  respect  to  characteristics 
and  prices.   We  will  do  this,  using  the  three  product  market  assump- 
tion, for  cases  B)  and  C),  which  assumed  two  firms  and  only  one  firm 
respectively  in  the  market. 

B)   Let  us  assume  that  Firm  1  has  products  1  and  2  and  Firm  2  has 
product  3,  and  let  Firm  1  be  the  leader. 

Firm  2  takes  the  positions  for  products  1  and  2,  z,  and  z9,  as 

fixed  variables.   For  every  position  z~,  it  computes  the  Nash 

*    *   * 
equilibrium  prices  (p,,  p~  >  Po )  that  will  obtain,  given  (z-  ,  z?,  z~). 

Lane  (1980)  shows  that  such  an  equilibrium  exists  and  also  that  there 

is  a  closed  form  solution,  assuming  that  firms  maximize  profits.   The 


-16- 


same  is  true  if  one  used  the  behavioral  assumption  that  firms  maximize 

return  on  investiment  ROI.   Then  Firm  2  picks  that  combination  of 

*      *  3   3 

p   and  z_  as  a  function  of  z   and  z  ,  which  maximizes   ROI~. 

Firm  1  has  its  two  products  managed  by  different  product  managers. 

The  position  of  product  2  is  chosen  the  following  way:   for  fixed  z1 , 

* 

and  for  every  position  z„,  it  computes  z~,  the  optimal  position  for 

product  3,  and  then  computes  the  price  equilibrium.   Then  the  manager 

*      * 

for  product  2  picks  that  combination  of  z„  and  p? ,  as  a  function  of 

3    2 
z. ,  which  maximizes   ROI.~.   It  must  be  noted  that  the  benefits  of 

2 
synergy  are  allocated  solely  to  product  2. 

The  position  of  product  1  is  then  easily  computed  since  for  each 

*  *      * 

z.,  one  can  compute  z~(z..)  and  also  z_(z.  ,  z„  (z..)).   Given  all  three 

positions,  the  Nash  price  equilibrium  can  be  computed.   The  manager 

*      *  3    1 

for  Firm  1  picks  that  combination  of  p1  and  z   that  maximizes   ROI..,,, 

which  in  turn  defines  the  equilibrium  positions  z«(z.),  z-Cz..  ,  z~(z..)) 

and  the  Nash  equilibrium  prices. 

In  a  similar  way,  one  would  compute  the  equilibrium  positions  and 
prices  for  all  other  combinations  of  the  firms,  products  and  product 
entry  position,  such  as  for  example,  Firm  1  with  products  1  and  3  and 
Firm  2  with  product  2. 

C)  Here  we  have  one  firm  introducing  all  three  products.   The  com- 
putation of  the  optimal  positions  and  prices  proceeds  similar  to  the 
algorithm  described  above. 

Manager  for  product  3,  given  z1  and  z_,  computes  that  combinations 

*      *  3   3 

of  z^  and  p~,  as  functions  of  z.  and  z„,  that  optimizes   ROI^-  with 

synergy  from  products  1  and  2  included.   Then,  the  manager  for  product 


-17- 

*      *  3    2 

2  computes  z„  and  p„ ,  as  a  function  of  z..  ,  that  maximizes   ROI..„_ 

including  synergy  benefits  from  product  1.   Finally,  the  optimal  posi- 

*      * 

tion  and  price  of  product  1,  z..  and  p  ,  is  computed,  which  in  turn 

gives  z9(z  ),  z_(z  ,  z  (z  ))  and  the  Nash  price  equilibrium. 

The  logical  question  as  to  which  of  these  market  structures  will 
obtain  depends  on  the  total  profits  that  the  firm  with  multiple  prod- 
ucts obtains.   Consider  the  firm  that  enters  the  first  product;  it 

will  enter  a  second  product  if  and  only  if 

3   *1    ,    3   *2  3   *1       3   *3 

3™T1  ,    r              12            12          i            f           &13         b13  n 

ROI     <    [ j — j — J      or   [ j — j — J 

F   +  F(l-d12(z1,z2))  F   +  F(l-d13(z1,z3)) 

3    12 
i.e.,  the  combined  return  on  investment  ROI.^  with  both  products, 

whether  the  product  2  is  entered  second  or  third,  is  greater  than  that 

of  having  a  single  product,  in  a  three  product  market. 

Similarly,  it  will  enter  a  third  product  if  and  only  if 

t    *  i  1*9  3*3 

Js        +    s        +    s 

3DnT12     .    r 5123  5123  5123 i 

ROI    <  I  -      -  ^      j  -      J 

F  +  F(l-dl2(z  ,z2))  +  F(l-d123(z1,z2,z3)) 

3   123 
i.e.,  the  combined  return  on  investment   ROI  __  with  all  three  prod- 

3   12 
ucts  is  greater  than  ROI  ~.   Why  does  it  not  enter  a  fourth  product? 

A      i  o  'j  /  O      TOT 

Possibly  because  ROI  9_,  is  lesser  than  ROI  9_. 

Why  does  it  choose  to  enter  only  two  products?   Possibly  because 

3  12    3   13  3   123 

ROI  ?  or  RoI-,3  is  larger  than  ROI  ~  .   Why  does  a  second  firm  enter 

3    3 
when  Firm  1  has  products  1  and  2?   Possibly  because  its  ROI-  is 

greater  than  1.   In  a  similar  fashion,  why  does  a  second  firm  not 

enter  when  Firm  1  has  products  1,  2  and  3  in  the  market?   Possibly 


-18- 

4   U 
because  ROI ,  is  less  than  1,  i.e.,  the  firm  is  losing  monev  or  it 

does  not  meet  its  ROI  objective. 

One  can  envision  many  such  multiproduct  situations  and  the 

questions  as  to  product  entry  strategy  can  be  analyzed  in  a  fashion 

similar  to  that  above.   One  can  answer  strategic  questions  as  to: 

a)  How  many  new  entries? 

b)  When  to  enter  them? 

c)  When  to  allow  competition  in  (and  possibly  flank'  them)? 
Clearly,  we  could  easily  substitute  profit  maximization  as  the  firm's 
objective,  rather  than  ROI  optimization,  and  the  preceding  analyses 
carries  over  to  this  case  also. 

Discussion  and  Conclusion 


We  have  shown,  in  this  paper,  how  multi-product  market  structures 
could  be  modelled  and  also  the  methodology  to  compute  equilibrium 
positioning  and  pricing  strategies.   We  have  also  shown  how  the  incor- 
poration of  synergy  could  easily  sway  the  decision  of  how  many  prod- 
ucts (and  their  corresponding  positions,  prices  and  entry  point)  that 
a  firm  could  have  in  a  given  market.   For  a  given  market,  we  can  com- 
pute the  maximum  number  of  products,  positions  and  prices,  that  would 
be  optimal  for  the  first,  second,  etc.  firms.   We  can  thus  normatively 
understand  product  market  structure  evolution.   The  calculation  of 
equilibria  is  a  hard  problem  and  currently  partial  enumeration  simula- 
tion methodology  or  grid-search  non-linear  optimization  methods  are 
suggested  for  its  solution. 

There  are  numerous  avenues  open  to  extend  this  basic  model.   The 
assumptions  of  Cobb-Douglas  consumer  preference  function  could  be 


-19- 


relaxed  to  allow  uncertainty  and  information  asymmetries,  thus 
requiring  search  strategies  by  consumers  and  the  important  effects  of 
information  advertising.   The  allocation  of  synergy  benefits  to  the 
succeeding  products  and  the  modelling  of  intra-firm  competition  can  be 
made  more  sophisticated  by  evolving  synergy  benefit  allocation  schemes 
that  will  allow  independent  product  manager  locally  optimizing  leading 
to  firm  optimization  over  all  its  products.   Another  extension  could 
be  to  relax  the  assumption  of  perfect  foresight  with  some  sort  of 
myopic  behavior,  or  even  conjectural  variations,  on  the  part  of  firms 
to  estimate  competitive  reaction.   The  development  of  efficient 
algorithms  that  aid  in  computing  the  equilibrium  strategies  will  cer- 
tainly aid  in  building  more  complex,  and  realistic,  models  of  consumer 
preferences  and  producer  objectives. 


-20- 

Footnotes 

The  reason  for  not  assuming  Nash  behavior  in  both  price  and  loca- 
tion is  due  to  the  possibility  of  nonexistence  of  the  equilibrium 
(Eaton  and  Lipsey,  1976).   Also,  given  technological  constraints  on 
product  design,  foresight  is  easier  to  understand  for  product  posi- 
tions.  This  allows  a  natural  assumption  of  Stackelberg  type  leader- 
ship for  positions. 

2 
While  this  assumption  is  debatable,  our  reasoning  is  as  follows: 

If  these  products  are  going  to  be  introduced  sequentially,  then  the 

second  product  is  entered  after  the  first  one  has  been  in  for  some 

time.   The  product  manager  of  the  second  product  is  faced  with 

managing  a  riskier  product,  than  the  first  one,  and  could  be  given 

additional  motivation  in  the  form  of  a  lower  cost  structure.   This 

would  be  a  truer  evaluation  of  his  performance  since  he  is  to  be 

judged  on  incremental  contribution  and  thus  also  incremental  cost.   It 

would  also  provide  him  with  a  wider  range  of  pricing  policies  to 

choose  from. 


D/217 


-21- 
List  of  References 


Abell,  D.  F.,  and  Hammond,  J.  S.  (1979),  Strategic  Market  Planning. 
Englewood  Cliffs,  N.J.:   Prentice-Hall,  Inc. 

Anderson,  P.  F.  (1983),  "Marketing,  Strategic  Planning  and  the  Theory 
of  the  Firm,"  Journal  of  Marketing,  46  (Spring),  15-26. 

Albers,  S.,  and  Brockoff,  K.  (1979),  "A  Comparison  of  Two  Approaches  to 
the  Optimal  Positioning  of  a  New  Product  in  an  Attribute  Space," 
Zeitschrift  fur  Operations  Research,  23  (June),  127-142. 

Eaton,  B.  C. ,  and  Lipsey,  R.  G.  (1976),  "The  Non-Uniqueness  of  Equili- 
brium in  the  Loschian  Location  Model,"  American  Economic  Review, 
Vol.  66,  pp.  77-93. 

Firth,  M.  (1978),  "Synergism  in  Mergers:   Some  British  Results," 
Journal  of  Finance,  33  (May),  pp.  670-672. 

Franks,  J.  R. ,  Broyles,  J.  E.,  and  Hecht,  M.  J.  (1977),  "An  Industry 
Study  of  the  Profitability  of  Mergers  in  the  United  Kingdom," 
Journal  of  Finance,  32  (December),  pp.  1513-1525. 

Green,  P.  E. ,  and  V.  Srinivasan  (1978),  "Conjoint  Analysis  in  Consumer 
Research:   Issues  and  Outlook,"  Journal  of  Consumer  Research,  5 
(September),  103-123. 

Haugen,  R.  A.,  and  Langetieg,  T.  C.  (1975),  "An  Empirical  Test  for 

Synergism  in  Merger,"  Journal  of  Finance,  30  (June),  pp.  1003-1114. 

Hauser,  J.  R. ,  and  Shugan,  S.  M.  (1984),  "Defensive  Marketing  Strategies, 
Marketing  Science,  Vol.  2,  No.  4  (Fall),  319-360. 

Henderson,  B.  (1979),  Henderson  on  Corporate  Strategy,  Abt.  Books, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

Hofer,  C.  W. ,  and  Schendel,  D.  (1978),  Strategy  Formulation:   Analytical 
Concepts ,  West  Publishing  Co.,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Hotelling,  H.  (1929),  "Stability  in  Competition,"  Economic  Journal,  39 
(March),  41-57. 

Karnani,  A.  (1982),  "Equilibrium  Market  Share — A  Measure  of  Competitive 
Strength,"  Strategic  Management  Journal,  Vol.  3,  pp.  43-51. 

Kotler,  P.  (1984),  Marketing  Management,  Englewood  Cliffs,  N J :   Prentice 
Hall. 

Kumar,  K.  R. ,  and  Thomas,  H.  (1983),  "A  Game  Theoretic  Rationale  for 

Henderson's  Rule  of  Three  and  Four,"  Working  Paper  No.  1004,  College 
of  Commerce  and  Business  Administration,  University  of  Illinois 
(May). 


-7">- 


Lancaster,  K.  J.  (1975),  "Socially  Optimal  Product  Differentiation," 
American  Economic  Review,  65  (September),  567-585. 

Lane,  W.  J.  (1980),  "Product  Differentiation  in  a  Market  with  Endogenous 
Sequential  Entry,"  Bell  Journal  of  Economics,  11  (1),  (Spring), 
237-260. 

Leland,  H.  E.  (1974),  "Quality  Choice  and  Competition,"  Working  Paper 
No.  29  (Finance),  Graduate  School  of  Business  Administration, 
University  of  California,  Berkeley  (December). 

Mahajan,  V.,  and  Wind,  Y.  (1984),  "Business  Synergy  and  Profitability," 
Working  Paper  No.  83-803,  Edwin  L.  Cox  School  of  Business,  Southern 
Methodist  University. 

May,  J.  H. ,  Shocker,  A.  D.  and  Sudharshan,  D.  (1983),  "A  Simulation 
Comparison  of  Methods  for  New  Product  Locations,"  Working  Paper 
No.  932,  Bureau  of  Economic  and  Business  Research,  University  of 
Illinois,  Champaign  (February). 

Mueller,  D.  C.  (1977),,  "The  Effects  of  Conglomerate  Mergers:   A  Survey 

of  the  Empirical  Evidence,"  Journal  of  Banking  and  Finance  (December), 
pp.  315-347. 

Naert,  P.,  and  Lefland,  P.  (1978),  Building  Implementable  Marketing 
Models,  Boston:   Martinus  Nijhoff  Social  Sciences  Division. 

Schmenner,  R.  W.  (1983),  "Every  Factory  has  a  Life  Cycle,"  Harvard 
Business  Review,  March-April,  pp.  121-129. 

Shocker,  A.  D. ,  and  Srinivasan,  V.  (1974),  "A  Consumer-Based  Methodology 
for  the  Identification  of  New  Product  Ideas,"  Management  Science, 
20  (February),  921-937. 

Shocker,  A.  D. ,  and  Srinivasan,  V.  (1979),  "Multi-Attribute  Approaches 
to  Product-Concept  Evaluation  and  Generation:  A  Critical  Review," 
Journal  of  Marketing  Research,  16  (May),  159-180. 

Skinner,  W.  (1974),  "The  Focused  Factory,"  Harvard  Business  Review, 
May-June,  p.  113. 

Spence,  A.  M.  (1976),  "Product  Selection,  Fixed  Costs  and  Monopolistic 
Competition,"  Review  of  Economic  Studies,  43  (June),  217-253. 

Sudharshan,  D.  (1982),  On  Optimal  New  Product  Concept  Generation:   A 

Comparison  of  Methods.   Unpublished  Doctoral  Dissertation,  Graduate 
School  of  Business,  University  of  Pittsburgh. 

Urban,  G.  L. ,  and  Hauser,  J.  R.  (1980),  Design  and  Marketing  of  New 
Products ,  Englewood  Cliffs,  NJ:   Prentice  Hall. 

Zufryden,  F.  (1979),  "A  Conjoint  Measurement-Based  Approach  for  Optimal 
New  Product  Design  and  Market  Segmentation,"  in  A.  D.  Shocker,  ed. , 
Analytic  Approaches  to  Product  and  Marketing  Planning,  Cambridge, 
MA:   Marketing  Science  Institute,  100-114. 


HECKMAN 

BINDERY  INC. 

JUN95