Many durable goods firms use price promotion strategies and advertising simultaneously to impact consumer preferences among vertically differentiated product offerings. In this research, we use a large secondary dataset of automotive purchases (N = 323,959) to investigate how advertising spending differentially moderates the positive impact of both customer- and retailer-directed price incentives on consumers’ premium level of purchase for vertically differentiated products. We find that higher advertising spending magnifies the positive impact of customer-directed price incentives on consumers’ preference for more premium purchases. In contrast, higher advertising spending attenuates the positive impact of retailer-directed price incentives on consumers’ preference for more premium purchases. Our work is distinct from previous research, which has almost exclusively focused on the CPG industry and the effects of advertising and price promotions on general demand metrics—instead of consumers’ preferences for premium products. Our work has important implications for practitioners and consumer welfare.

许多耐用品公司同时使用价格促销策略和广告来影响消费者对垂直差异化产品的偏好。在这项研究中，我们使用了一个大型的汽车购买二级数据集（N = 323,959) 调查广告支出如何不同地缓和客户和零售商导向的价格激励对消费者购买垂直差异化产品的溢价水平的积极影响。我们发现，较高的广告支出放大了以客户为导向的价格激励对消费者购买更多优质商品的偏好的积极影响。相比之下，较高的广告支出削弱了零售商导向的价格激励对消费者偏好购买更多优质商品的积极影响。我们的工作与之前的研究不同，后者几乎只关注 CPG 行业以及广告和价格促销对一般需求指标的影响，而不是消费者对优质产品的偏好。