| Consider a two echelon supply chain consisting of a large manufacturer, a small manufacturer and a retailer. We discuss the topic on manufacturers’ product positioning, the retailer’s information leakage and product pricing strategy based on the asymmetry of consumer preference information. Firstly, we study the optimal pricing decision of the two products under nine positioning combinations. Then, we discuss the two equilibrium positioning strategies of the two products and the condition for the retailer to disclose consumer preference information, and analyze the influence of the specific preference consumer group size on the above decisions. The results show that large manufacturer take advantage of the first mover to always target large consumers. If the retailer does not disclose information, the small manufacturer adopt the principle of differentiated positioning, that is, locate the small consumption; and if the retailer leaks information, only when the number of large consumers is far higher than the number of small consumers, the small manufacturer choose to imitate positioning, that is, locate the large consumers, otherwise the small manufacturer adopt differentiated positioning. In addition, if the number of differences between the two scale consumers is not large, the manufacturer positioning a certain type of consumers (i. e., providing customized products that are completely consistent with the consumer preferences) is superior to positioning the two types of consumers (i. e., providing mass products that are partially consistent with the preferences of the two types of consumers). |
