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Demarketing as a differentiation strategy

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Abstract

Demarketing discourages consumers from buying. This paper shows that demarketing can be a profitable alternative when differentiation through product improvements is not cost effective. The impact of differentiating demarketing on profit, market share, consumers, and total welfare is investigated.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Management, North Carolina State University, 27695-7229, Raleigh, North Carolina

    Eitan Gerstner & James Hess

  2. University of Haifa, Israel

    Eitan Gerstner

  3. John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1133, 63130-4899, St. Louis, MO

    James Hess

  4. Sloan School of Management, MIT, 50 Memorial Drive, 02139, Cambridge, MA

    Wujin Chu

  5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

    Wujin Chu

Authors
  1. Eitan Gerstner
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  2. James Hess
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  3. Wujin Chu
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Additional information

This research began while Hess was visiting MIT's Sloan School of Management and was finished while visiting University of Haifa; he thanks both for their support.

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Gerstner, E., Hess, J. & Chu, W. Demarketing as a differentiation strategy. Marketing Letters 4, 49–57 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00994187

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00994187

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