Behavior Based Price Personalization Under Vertical Product Dfferentiation

Abstract

We study price personalization in a two period duopoly with vertically differentiated products. In the second period a firm knows the purchase history of all customers, as in the standard Behavior Based Price Discrimination models. However in the second period it also has detailed personal information on its own customers, enabling it to quote personalized prices. The analysis reveals that there exists a natural market (nm) for each firm, defined as the set of customers that cannot be poached by the rival in period two. Since in equilibrium all contestable consumers belong to the largest nm, poaching will only be one way. The firm with the largest nm, has highest profits, but not necessarily the largest market share. All consumers gain from price personalization..Profits are lower than under uniform pricing. Quality choice is well defined for the low quality and a quality dfferential arises, though the exact choice for the high quality depends upon the cost specification.