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Dynamic relationships with customers: High-variety strategies

  • Marketing in the 21st Century
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Abstract

A proposal is made that one way to compete effectively in the 21st century is to meet customers’ needs over time better than the competition by offering a high-variety product line. More variety in a product line can make it more likely that each consumer finds exactly the option he or she desires (customization strategy). In addition, more variety in a product line can allow each consumer to enjoy a diversity of options over time (variety-seeking strategy). Other issues such as profitability, cost considerations, how much variety to offer and where in the delivery chain to offer it, and when does too much variety cause confusion or overload are also discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA

    Barbara E. Kahn

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  1. Barbara E. Kahn
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Barbara E. Kahn is a professor of marketing at The Wharton School. She received a B.A. in English literature at the University of Rochester, and an M.B.A. in marketing and statistics and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in marketing from Columbia University. Professor Kahn has over two dozen publications. These include journal articles in marketing, consumer research, retailing, and statistics. She has also recently publishedGrocery Revolution: The New Focus on the Consumer (Addison-Wesley, 1997) with Leigh McAlister. Professor Kahn is on the editorial board ofJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, andMarketing Letters, and on the policy board ofJournal of Consumer Research. She has consulted with various services, telecommunications, and consumer package goods companies. She was also the Hakuhodo Advertising Agency Visiting Scholar at University of Tokyo, summer 1993, and a Visiting Academic at University of Sydney, July through December 1996.

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Kahn, B.E. Dynamic relationships with customers: High-variety strategies. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 26, 45–53 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070398261005

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