An increasing number of information product vendors adopt a subscription-based business model and offer a menu of options with different subscription lengths for the same information product. This study adopts a horizontal differentiation model, wherein subscription options are differentiated only in the renewal lengths to make a comparison between the single- and two-option menus. The former offers one option only, whereas the latter offers both the short- and long-length options. Analytical results show that the basic value of the product and the unit misfit cost, which measures consumers’ disutility per unit distance between the actual and ideal subscription lengths, are critical factors in determining the optimal design of the subscription menu. The two-option menu dominates the single-option menu when the basic value and the unit misfit cost exceed certain thresholds. The impact of consumer churn rate on the design of the subscription menu is further examined. The two-option menu is more likely to be the dominant choice as the consumer churn rate increases. Moreover, the effect of the increase in the consumer churn rate on the pricing decision depends on the unit misfit cost. Given a higher consumer churn rate, only if the unit misfit cost is sufficiently low, vendors should improve the price for the short-length option and the price discount level for the long-length option; otherwise, the optimal pricing decision remains unchanged. After endogenizing the length of the long-length option, we discuss how the optimal number of periods of the long-length option varies with the product value, consumers’ cognitive cost, and unit misfit cost. The optimality of the multiple-option menu with more than two options is also explored.

越来越多的信息产品供应商采用基于订阅的商业模式，并为同一信息产品提供具有不同订阅长度的选项菜单。本研究采用横向差异化模型，其中订阅选项仅在续订长度上进行区分，以对单选项菜单和双选项菜单进行比较。前者仅提供一个选项，而后者提供短长度和长长度选项。分析结果表明，产品的基本价值和单位错配成本（衡量消费者在实际和理想订阅长度之间的单位距离的负效用）是确定订阅菜单优化设计的关键因素。当基本值和单位失配成本超过一定的阈值时，二选项菜单优于单选项菜单。进一步研究了消费者流失率对订阅菜单设计的影响。随着消费者流失率的增加，双选项菜单更有可能成为主要选择。此外，消费者流失率的增加对定价决策的影响取决于单位失配成本。鉴于较高的消费者流失率，只有当单位失配成本足够低时，供应商才应提高短线期权的价格和长线期权的价格折扣水平；否则，最优定价决策保持不变。在将长期期权的长度内生化后，我们讨论了长期期权的最佳周期数如何随产品价值、消费者的认知成本和单位错配成本而变化。还探讨了具有两个以上选项的多选项菜单的最优性。